Wednesday 19th November 2025, 2.40pm (day 5,200)
Definitely just a dusting — but, nevertheless, today was easily the coldest day of the winter so far. And I guess we must say winter has now arrived, at least, in West Yorkshire.
Bit o’ snow
Being 42
Life, one day at a time
Tag Archives: snow
Futility
Sunday 5th January 2025, 9.45am (day 4,882)
You thought you were leaving Hebden Bridge today? Naaah. Ain’t gonna happen, not at 9.45am, not at any other point either (though there were unsubstantiated rumours that the 13:48 may have run, probably to get some people home — that was it, though). Just as well I gave myself three days to get to Heathrow, huh. Let’s try again tomorrow.
The thaw (too fast)
Saturday 23rd November 2024, 3.00pm (day 4,839)
The last few days have been very cold. Even this morning there was still plenty of snow on the ground. But the temperature rocketed upwards today, to 11º or 12ºC, and it rained quite heavily, thus taking out all the snow and filling all available drainage — including the river and, seen here, the canal — almost to overflowing. Three more hours after this picture was taken and all the remaining snow was gone, as if it had never been.
November morning (or not)
Tuesday 19th November 2024, 1.00pm (day 4,835)
I have marking to do and didn’t really leave the house all day (well, OK, I went to the pub, but it was dark by then). The snow came, and this shot seems to sum up the day well enough.
I entitled this “November morning” before I looked more closely at the time it was taken. But somehow it feels like a morning, so I’m not going to change it.
Skiddaw in cloud
Monday 26th February 2024, 12.30pm (day 4,568)
This shot was actually incidental to the walk I completed today — my penultimate Wainwright walk, unless there is some big change of plan between now and, say, the next month. Skiddaw was nowhere near where I was. But — it looks so good here. All macho and domineering, despite its sheen of snowy white. Would that we could all look so good at a few million years old.
The graveyard on the hill
Tuesday 16th January 2024, 11.25am (day 4,527)
Snow was forecast and duly arrived, though it was hardly a winter apocalypse. It did make the town look good, though. This graveyard sits on the hillside across the valley from my house: it takes a long zoom to pick it out in a photo and, usually it’s all rather brown and unprominent. But I like the way the snow picks out the headstones, like rim-light, almost.
First snow of the winter
Thursday 30th November 2023, 12.10am (day 4,480)
OK, it’s not much, but the first snow of the season fell on Hebden Bridge while I was out in Blackburn last night. It didn’t last, but here it is. A curiosity: one of the few pictures used to represent a day despite being taken before going to bed the night before; in fact in pure calendar terms this is the earliest ever shot in all the 4,480 days so far. Times on here are rounded to the nearest five minutes, but this does take the award from the previous holder, 27th September 2014, by one minute and twelve seconds: the exact timestamp on this shot is 00:08:03.
The Scafells, from Red Screes
Saturday 15th April 2023, 11.15am (day 4,251)
The summit known as Red Screes, with its substantial tarn, sits at 2,541 feet above sea level but is still considerably lower than the Scafells: left to right from the edge of the picture, Scafell, Scafell Pike and Great End. Great Gable pops up to the right. A fine day to be out walking even if the transport arrangements once again…. but what the hell, I expect too much perhaps. Read more on the other blog, if you like.
The Pyrenees
Wednesday 5th April 2023, 1.05pm (day 4,241)
I think that, by law, and certainly by my own moral code, all aeroplane windows should be kept sparkling clean. The one I had to use on our flight home from Barcelona was noticeably grubby, so apologies for the ensuing blemishes on this shot (I know they’re there). Still, the view was good, at least while we were crossing the barrier between Spain and France, that is, the Pyrenees: mountains I have never visited, but they’re on the list. Named, apparently, after a woman who was raped by Hercules, gave birth to a serpent, and was then torn apart by wild animals. These old myths took no prisoners, did they?
View from Terminal 2
Thursday 19th January 2023, 4.20pm (day 4,165)
At the point in time that this photo was taken, I should have been somewhere over the Congo, maybe Zambia. This, however, is definitely not the interior of Africa. Having got up at 4am, by 6am I and a few dozen other people were sitting on a plane at Manchester Airport waiting to depart, only then the powers-that-be decided that due to a few snowflakes falling, nothing could move. Time passed, and by 9am we were all back in Terminal 2, the MAN – AMS leg of my journey wiped from existence. (Other excessive flight delays to have featured on here: Bergen, Nov. 2012; Keflavik, Jul.2019 [still the epitome].)
I finally left the ground about two and a half hours after capturing this shot. I will still make my final destination, and already know that a completely unexpected new country is going to make the blog tomorrow, perhaps that can be seen as a minor compensation. At least I won’t be seeing any more snow for a couple of weeks, that’s guaranteed.
Being 42 