perhaps this should be titled hopefully remembering the beast from the east. i write this, look you see, at the end of day two of what was projected to be three days of it battering us. but who knows, perhaps i fall in the midst of the ravages of it and this is all some sort of bizarre epitaph, or maybe it continues on.
i think the best thing about the term "the beast from the east", used as it was as long ago as last month, was that everyone was sick and tired of everyone using the phrase before any snow actually hit. we got countless warnings of it, but then again we are kind of immune to them now. every year, and without fail, certain newspapers predict "the worst winter for x years". inevitable, then, that the one year they could have got it right they didn't predict it.
oh. good. great. i see some of the pictures i am adding here are ones what blogger and google have, in their infinite wisdom, rotated to a less traditional or classical correct rotation. no matter, if it is all sideways for you, perhaps this first selfie of moi for this post will look even better.
no, i do not for one minute think that those who lived - if indeed we did survive - through this "beast of the east" business will thank me for the reminder of it. but, hey. i have friends and family around the world who think that all this snow stuff simply must be totes marvellous. so, for them, here it is.
whereas i respect that you are distracted by how handsome i am, for the most part at least, some of you may have observed some strange ways to the sky. on the one side it's a dark and formidable grey, yet the other appears to have a clear, clean (ish), crisp (hello, Faye) blue to it.
that would be the strange dynamics of these snow storms. well, not strange i suppose - i recall, fondly from when i was inside - how in Jozi the beautiful blue sky went black and grey in an instant for thunderstorms. how it works is the sky snaps blue and you think "oh, safe to go out now, lovely", so you go out and then about half an hour later the grey rolls in and twats you one with more snow.
above is the morning of day one of this "beast from the east" weather conditions. with thanks to a local farmer, contracted by those in power on a local basis, the road got cleared of snow for a bit. i was able to get out and drive for a bit, but had to give up after a handful of hours when the snow returned.
the pattern so far - and this is now me writing on the occasion of the morning of the third day of this - has been snow, lots of snow, blizzards from the winds, clearing up a bit, more snow. on this third day, however, we have not had that "clearing up a bit" element as such as yet. indeed, as point of fact, the soothsayers and the fortune tellers who are the "met office", have declared that part of the world in which i live as being under a "red alert"; something i have not experienced since the threat of nuclear war prevailed through the mid 80s.
in respect of the above, i am sure that "met office" lot are lamenting their early use of the term "weather bomb" a couple of years ago. back then they decided to press the red button on the ultimate term for describing weather when we had just a bit of fanny snow and some gaylord rain. they have nowhere to escalate the term to now, and so don't have a wonderful or scary thing to call what we have.
oh, good, another sideways picture. well, at the least the above appears to have been rotated in a most decidedly anticlockwise way as i try to do all of this for the benefit of your reading.
strangely yes, i am sort of doing this in a quasi chronological way. mostly. above is morning two of these weather conditions brought by "the beast from the east". that's down in the village, to where i was dispensed to get the essentials in - cigarettes, bread, cigarettes, milk and some cigarettes.
i concede, yield perhaps, that the above does all look picturesque, lovely and that. however, in respect of my earlier description of how this storm and these blizzards come to and fro, the video below was taken just a few minutes - no more time than it took to buy cigarettes, bread, cigarettes, milk and some cigarettes - prior to the image above.
would you be wondering if the above conditions are fun and interesting to be out in? no, actually the answer is f*** no, should you be inclined to excuse vulgarities.
yes, indeed i have tried driving in this. i must hasten to add, though, that the above were from my endeavours in walking. taking a stroll to see how the roads were seemed prudent before driving. in respect of driving adventures, most of the main, or major, roads have been cleared. the side streets where people live have, alas, not. so you can sort of get in the area of somewhere you want to be, but not actually where you need to be as such.
after driving on day one and day two of this whole "beast from the east" thing i elected to take the safety advice, "level red" and what have you, and refrain from venturing out in any sort of automobile here on day three.
the above is the garden, way back on day one of this jolly weather adventure. in real life the white of the snow looked so much brighter than how my phone what has a camera welded to it captures, but no matter. of interest, i suppose, is the footprints. these were left, i believe, by a cat.
my concerns in this weather are for those living creatures of our world that do not have the options we do. yes, quite, "nature finds a way" and all that, but i do like to try and help it all along. with this in mind, i've tried to spread some food around for the birds who frequent our garden. i suppose attracting the birds to our garden for food might just provide the cat with some nourishment, too.
anyway, me on a bit of a pause as i was driving around. this next picture is indeed a selfie thing, and me out there on day one of all of this snow business. yes, i do have an expression on my face that is partially squinting in the brightness of the sun bouncing off of the snow, but mostly a confused and bewildered look, wondering if the device was working.
once again, then, you can see that beautiful, clear, crisp (hello, Faye) blue sky what we get at times like this. i do love the shade. obviously without the snow, but still - one of the reasons i love Mad Max 2 so much, other than the awesome plot, the ace action and Wez's trousers, is the lovely blue sky captured in it.
i am running out of inspiration about what else i might write here to entertain those of you who like reading instead of just gandering at the pictures. to stave this off, another image of the footprints, or if you like paw prints, in the snow in our garden.
and, for good measure, some video out of the garden. this was an attempt by me, or if you like moi, to be sure, to film both the foot / paw prints and indeed some more snow falling.
my understanding would be that all devices and platforms, within reason, can now play back the video i add here from time to time. splendid; for a while it was only those who elected to visit here via a regular PC or one of them laptop things what could see it.
something interesting that happens is that the trees get a coating of snow. what makes this interesting is that birds are nesting in them trees. every now and then, then, you get a whole load of snow being shaken off of a tree for no apparent reason, except for the fact that some birds are within the branches and the leaves. the birds are presumably moving around or mucking about.
yeah, that's a partial glimpse of one of my fingers, or perhaps a thumb, in the bottom corner. sorry, i could not be bothered to edit it before adding here. i was certainly not going to go out and try to take the picture again, if that is what you were wondering.
every now and then i get a good idea for this blog. most recently in terms of this is the below, where i said, i did, "ooh, let me take a picture at an angle, it will come out ace". i shall leave it to you to determine or otherwise ascertain if it is indeed ace.
indeed, the above was taken on day two of all this weather, as i strolled to the village to get some provisions.
should the above look like it was taken in one of them clear, not quite snowing moments, well it was. but the video below was taken shortly after the above, and shows what happens when the snow comes down.
at least i think it does. it is totally a video of trees in snow, but i do not recall if it was actually snowing when i recorded. i am sure you can work that out if you watch it.
going back on an earlier comment, no of course it is not just birds having a mess around what causes snow to fall from trees. now that i think on, yes, the wind pushing the trees around helps dislodge it and knock it off too.
i am pretty sure this next image is a selfie on day one of all of this, but it may very well also be "day zero". to be honest i just don't recall.
there are quite a few images of me around or near churches on this blog, so i thought that one of me in the vicinity of a mosque may well bring some balance. yes, perhaps, if i am ever anywhere near a synagogue i shall take a similar image, if it seems safe and appropriate to do so.
another sideways upload, then. cheers, blogger and google. but they do let me do all of this for free, or if you like gratis, i suppose.
well, whichever way as which you look at the above, that was the morning of day three of all of this. at around 6:30am in the morning, if you wish to know the specifics. it was as i looked at the above that i thought, to be sure, yes, let me take this "level red" warning about not driving, threat to life, etc quite seriously.
do i feel like a bit of a fanny for not driving in this snow? yes. guilty, also. feel bad not going off and out to verk. in practical terms, however, risking going out in all of this today could well lead to me being incapacitated for some time. worse, i may inadvertently harm others by being out doing something or other which could so easily wait for another day.
some more video for you above, then. this is, once more, the morning of day three. just a fair bit later than the last image; as i recall circa 9:25am in the morning.
whilst i made the above video, it was not actually for me, or for this blog. no. my (considerably) better half had an expressed wish to have some video to send to her Mum, but had no wish to be outside in it. as is custom for a gentleman, i offered, then. it was an opportunity, after all, to go and have a cigarette to celebrate some successful filming.
so on that note, yes, there's a last selfie, featuring me smoking one of the cigarettes which i deemed essential to go off and purchase. quite kindly someone said that i am channelling Han Solo out of Star Wars on Hoth in that coat. the kind compliment payer clearly has a somewhat hazy recollection of how the Han looked, but appreciated.
phew. that's all of that done, then. hopefully this has been of some interest to some of you. well, at least one or two would be nice.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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