Can't escape the house!

four feet?!!! never seen so much snow.

have you ever had that much before? good thing you have a cellar full of goodies!!

wow! that should keep those soft city-dwellers compaining about a couple of inches of snow (I don't include GoYers, of course! none of us is soft!!)

We kind of knew it was on it's way. There have been really bad winters before, but before our time. It's been cold and a bit miserable being cooped up, and a bit inconvenient, but it doesn't last for ever, and when you look back on it, it's been quite exciting! We have LOADS of salt ready to spread on the road, but it froze solid and we couldn't get it out of the bags!!!

I really do feel sorry for you Gattina, so much snow,

nods, and when you're cooped up for prolonged periods, and no TV signals getting through, and sometimes even internet interruptions, I should imagine that "cabin fever" would be a mild term for it!

It might be time to get the paints out? or pencil and paper at least - not for "proper" art, but to give you something to do, capture moments more than a camera can, because artists can capture more than just the look.

Not a lot of compensation while it's going on, but you do know that it will end eventually.

Never heard of it being cold enough to freeze salt!

Well, we'd had it for a year, and it was a tad damp.......

Poor you! Keep safe and warm Gattina. X

ah, right. maybe it can be warmed up enough to be useful? lol of course, by the time it thaws naturally, so will the snow and you won't need it

Hopefully, Gattina, the snow will melt as rapidly, as it did here in two days. Land is so much soaked, that there are still lot of small lakes in fields with water waiting to get permission to enter her majesty Earth :)
Today was a fine warm weather (plus 4 degrees of Celsius) and our bird colony enjoyed it - deducing from their jabber and splashing sounds. So wishing you soon spring arrival :)

prob with sudden thaws is that waterways can't cope with the sudden increase in run-off; once the ground is saturated there's nowhere else for excess water to go, and people downstream can get wet feet without any warning.

Exactly, if there are no collectors and channels as we have in Carpathian mountains.

I am surprised to still see all that,Gattina..I thought it would have gone by now.. that is some snowfall !

my word Gattina - sorry to see all this :(

I think Europe's getting the Canadian winter by mistake this year... Hope you have good snow shovels!We haven't had to use ours once yet...

Congratulation, Elke. In Slovakia we have very strong shovels. They don´t take just snow from roads, but also road asphalt.

It's a good job you are such a mild tempered, sweet natured thing Gattina....Trapped in the house with another person 24/7 could be stressfull otherwise.

I was watching something about "extreme freezes" yesterday and it said about the Gulf Stream and if it gets shut down or diverted southwards northern Europe would start having northern-Canada/Alaska temperatures. can't help wondering if ...

Beautiful on my screen, troublesome to you Gattina. You may have to move down to the valley one day. Unless you are going to miss the clean fresh air.

Ciao , Gattina , thinking of you !

Are the trees ok with that much snow on them, Gattina? I mean, no chance of branches breaking off under the load?

And your car's under there somewhere??!

Oh Bless you all! A lot of it HAS melted (this picture was taken on Tuesday, and temperatures have risen a lot since then), Yes, we get broken branches, Fran, but fig tree branches are quite strong, so not on these trees. Costas, surprisingly enough down in the valley, and in fact down on the plains, which are pretty much at sea level, it's every bit as bad as up here, plus it's colder, 'cos it's damp!
Pimpernel - well, what can I say? LOL! You know me Sooooo well! If I weren't such a pussycat, the whole structure of life as we know it in this house could well fall apart.
We have broken one snow shovel and are wearing out the metal edge of the other, so we shall have to make a trip to the ironmonger next week.
A couple of years ago, the river down in the valley - the River Reno, burst it's banks in several places and took out a few bridges - it was very scary, and that was after a normal winter snowfall - it just melted rather too fast.
Bad news is that we are due another heavy snowfall sometime from tomorrow onwards - let's hope it isn't as bad as this last one. Good news is that the temperatures are set to rise again quite rapidly afterwards.
Well, I must go and beautify myself - we are going up the mountain to the pizzeria this evening - the first meal out we've had in about 7 months! (We've checked the car is still working)

Glad it thawed out for you :) Keep cosy"

lol taht sounds like a very good make of car to have, if it's still alive after being buried for days??

It's a very elderly, scruffy, bashed about and worked-into-the-ground Ford Focus diesel, and really we should have a tiny 4x4 petrol driven Fiat - the farmers' car, but we are very fond of her. She didn't start for quite a while - the diesel was frozen, and we just had to put up with it until the temperature got back up to around zero.... I had 'phoned the garage and pretty much before I got into the explanation of what the problem was, he interrupted me, and told us not to try starting the engine until the weather got warmer, or we'd drain the battery. (I told you my Italian was improving, didn't I?)

lol your Italian must be very good indeed if you were able to understand chat that technical!

is there any advantage re petrol-diesel in very cold weather?

it's a pity that the melt is going to be "wasted", that it can't be caught in tanks or something, it'd come in handy during the dry season (*s* envisioning huge underground storage tanks built into the mountain!)

It's amazing, Fran, despite long, scorching summers, and months without rain, we have never experienced a hose-pipe ban. Water management here is very good, but you are asked not to run water for anything other than personal use after 8.00a.m. until dusk. There are vigili out in helicopters checking up on you, but it isn't really a hardship. In summer, round about 5.00a.m. is the best time to water anyway - it's cool, there are no biting insects, the water has time to soak into the soil and reach roots before evaporating, you can watch the most incredible sunrise over the mountains and drink the first cup of tea of the day while the morning star hangs over the horizon, and the scents of damp soil and flowers as the world wakes up is incomparable. We do have a well to draw on, but the amount of water we can get from that is not really adequate. In the evenings, round about 9.00 we water tubs and baskets a second time.
You may well be right about huge storage tanks hidden in the depths of the mountain - I have no idea, but we have a big waterbutt to collect the copious amounts of water that come off the roof - great for watering acidophiles.
During most of the year, diesel is the fuel of choice - diesel engines last much longer, and in Italy it is considerably cheaper than petrol, but come the low, low temperatures, diesel freezes, and petrol engines rule the day. You can, if you know what you are doing, use additives, and people have been known to light fires underneath the fuel tanks to thaw diesel out, but you won't catch us being that "brave"! Quite a lot of the farmers round here have two vehicles of one sort or another - one petrol, one diesel, to cover all eventualities.

I've never seen the point of people watering their gardens in the heat of the day when most of it will evaporate before it hits the ground! or soon after, anyway. If mine need doing, I try to do them late afternoon, early evening, so they've got time to absorb as much as they want - I'm rarely up early enough to water in the am!

I've seen programmes of Russian winters, thawing out the engine with a blow-torch - rather them than me! It makes sense to have two vehicles, one of each - if one can afford to run two. But I suppose their trade depends on it, so they have to.

We would water in the evening during hot weather, but the biting, stinging insects that attack every inch of uncovered skin come out then, and we are normally engaged in cooking dinner, eating it, watching t.v. or falling asleep, so a.m. it is. Magical, and the cats come up the garden with us and line up to watch us. We catch up on sleep later in the day, when it's too hot to do much else, and it's nice and cool inside: it's one of the advantages of being retired crumblies.

I suppose I'd get up earlier if I went to bed earlier! I often get up the same day that I go to bed, but rarely go to bed the same day that I get up. Just need to train myself.

Mornings are magical; the world is still asleep, or at least yawning, the air is cleaner, the surroundings quieter, the birds chirpier - the day is new-minted, just for you.

I can understand you not wanting to provide the insects with a picnic while watering plants in the evening! *s* I've never heard a Creationist explain why we "need" gnats and midges.

lol that reminds me of the crossword clue "moveable feast" - I could NOT get "picnic" to fit with the answers already filled in, till it dawned on me that the proper answer was "easter"!

Not long now, Fran!

fingers and everything else crossed, love
\o/ hugs

Wow! I thought we had snow, but nothing like you. As you all know, the snow in October has stopped the snow until today. A one incher, and melting fast. No ice, too warm. We have had a very odd winter for New England. Temps average about 45o, and that is too warm. Anyhow, soon it will start to look like Spring. Your description of the sunrise is beautiful.

it't not over yet ... thought for some time they should rearange the seasons to fit in with what's actually happening outside our windows - winter should be January-April!

After all this snow, (and a lot of it is still around) I finally escaped properly today and went down to Bologna, where there is still a vast amount of snow and ice piled up along the sides of the roads. I noticed, however, as I went back to the station at about 2.00p.m., that the temperature was 24°c, and apparently it has been that warm for three days, now, so you can guess quite how bad it was originally!

Get a grip G...It is one thing to be English in England, where a snowflake can stop a train. It is your duty to shrug off this Italian sleet and crack on!

lol Pim - stiff upper lip cos it's frozen!

;0) Fran

Ok, Ok, I'm cracking, Pim, I'm cracking! I'm doing my poor foreign best, you bully, you!

There, there dear...I have Twinings tea bags..English Breakfast....and Gin.

No bacon or marmalade?

I was hoping G had some ham left...What is the best Breakfast?

Maybe depends on your mood or where you are:

Huge Plate of fresh fruit in London before we saw the marathon
Whisky served with porridge in Belfast
Hot croissant and hot chocolate before skiing

Etc

Toast/beans/ eggs/ sausage/bacon/tomato/ and tea..toast and Marmalade for breakfast pudding...

Pudding?
You are asking sticky toffee what is the best pudding? How many answers am I allowed to give?

and pudding at breakfast?

Never too early for pudding !

I've been known to eat cold suet pudding for breakfast for breakfast. Well, you can't waste these things, you know!
Not sure about gin for breakfast, Pim - it used to be my student tipple (can't stand beer) but I never really cared much for it. There's always bacon on our UK shopping lists, and I make our own marmalade. Once stayed in a hotel just outside Frankfurt, and we counted 14 different types of fruit on our plates for breakfast. Porridge is a great favourite, but it, too has to be brought in the luggage, so it's a treat rather than a regular feature. Best breakfast ever is wandering up the drive early on a hot July morning and eating figs warm, straight off the tree, or a lovely cuppa tea and warm new bread and homemade raspberry jam, sitting under the fig tree outside the front door as the sun starts to get warm, after we've finished watering the garden, or a James Grieve apple straight from the tree. Heaven. Doesn't taste quite the same once the day is under way.
We've just been told we shall be taking delivery of a couple of beehives complete with queens later this year, so I foresee thick, live Greek-type yoghurt with fresh apricots and our own honey. Blimey - getting drooly already! This is NO WAY to diet!

but what a way to live!!!! to eat food straight from the tree and taste the morning on your tongue; own-made jam and marmalade (and bread?) and soon own-made honey ... who needs to diet?!

I shall be so tubby soon, I shall be able to ROLL down the mountain - shan't need a car!

oh, Gattina, bet you aren't! but if you attached a very long piece of elastic to yourself, you could yoyo back up again - that'd save carrying all the shopping all the way back up!

I can just picture it now!