Waiting For The Snow

Red weather warning here in South Wales. Certainly looks interesting later this afternoon.

"Working" from home and kids are off school but it's so ridiculously cold out there with the wind (minus 13°C!) that they both came in after less than half an hour.

Imago - well heath rather than park really.

My office window overlooks the entrance to the Malaysian embassy and it was pretty clear that a group of people going there yesterday had never experienced proper snow before, the excitement and joy was quite touching even as I was desperately hoping for this shit to melt by the weekend.

Oh, there was a redwing in my garden an hour ago!

First customer was a great tit, btw - only it and the starling have had the courage to feast as yet. A number of goldfinches have been watching on warily

It was supposed to snow this morning here but it hasn't, so the snow from Tuesday/Wednesday has started melting and it treacherously icy outside. All the trains were fucked this morning anyway though so I'm working from home today, although that's not particularly notable since I work from home 3 days a week anyway. I was supposed to go in to the office today though.

There's supposed to be like 12 hours of straight snow/showers tomorrow and I did have plans to go out on the piss in London on Saturday and looks like that's probably not happening.

The goldfinches moved in as one! What a charm

We've got a pair of magpies living round here somewhere and they were both in my back garden this morning.

We have a bird feeder attached to the fence but birds round here are picky bastards and they never touch it.

a standalone birdfeeder seems to be just the ticket! it's been a very busy lunchtime

keep listing 'em imago

does UK redwing ~= US redwing blackbird?

no they're different species. uk redwing is mostly a winter visitor from scandinavia and looks p much like swainson's thrush but with red armpits.

and a dashing supercilium

rw blackbird is a madeleine for me. I hear that weird trill and I am back in minnesota sitting on the dock of our crappy little summer cabin

just had a grey wagtail on the flat roof outside, also long-tailed tit and goldcrest in the last couple of days

all of those are joys

in my household, goldcrests are known as 'goldfats' because they are a bit piggy (despite being the UK's smallest bird) and it's always wonderful to see them when out and about (which is pretty much every time we're in a rural location - they get everywhere)

i love small birds that are fatties

imago if you ever make nyc i will introduce you to my friend steve (who is in my iphone contacts as Steve Likes Birds to distinguish him from the other steves) and also introduce you to my excellent pet starling Merlin (whose current favorite phrase is 'western kisses').

and now we've just had a treecreeper! srsly there are shitloads of birds here at the moment

Left work early yesterday, can't get to work today, doubt I'll get to work tomorrow, nils frahm show cancelled too. Lines of people in the local shop stocking up on booze, me included. This event has not been good for my abstinence

Lots of blackbirds

Been hearing woodpeckers more lately. More power to the lads.

western kisses! I would be most honoured

all time best merlin utterance was probably 'merry christmas my kenyans' (never repeated, oddly) or 'sorry about the snake universe' (still in heavy rotation)

poll

also, pix

will arrange

ha jon is this yr bud?

https://twitter.com/mybirdsaid

:D

yes

my wife was running that account

fell behind but there's good stuff on there

favourites so far are 'I'm hosting a talk show' and 'Goodnight Mr Asshole'

haha i forgot both of those

this is quite surreal.
got dark synthwave stuff on the soundsystem thats very john carpenter-esque (VHS Glitch).
its getting dark, but the snow and blizzard conditions/whiteout i am watching out of the back window amongst the trees etc is really quite something.
basically, this is becoming The Shining.

I just spent an hour looking out the window listening to Spaceman 3 and thinking the back garden's starting to look very Overlooky.

It's snowing here now and at the moment is not forecast to stop until around lunchtime on Sunday.

different soundtrack, same vibe by sounds of it.

i am very corny but on heavy snowfall days while walking I like to listen to Grieg's Op. 54 set of solo piano Lyric Pieces, esp the echt-wintery final piece Klokkeklang

I know when a major storm is coming people rush to supermarkets to stock up on food but if you don't want to get pregnant, make sure your night table is stocked with condoms.

— Dr. Ruth Westheimer (@AskDrRuth) March 1, 2018

My wife is unlikely to be wearing anything​ less than six layers of clothing until it thaws. I'm good.

After baffling about it for a day, our local woodpigeon has shown some ability to problem-solve: by standing athwart the water tray it can access the seed dispenser, and is going heartily to town. The goldfinches, previously a shimmer of revelry, have retreated nervously to the trees.

What our plump friend doesn't know is that the evil socialist government is going to curtail its free enterprise and move the water tray about three inches lower

keep remembering 'sorry about the snake universe' and lolling to myself

anybody see that "winter of '63" doc on BBC4 last night? that brought the realness

Is that the ‘winter 1963, felt like the world would freeze’ reference in Life In A Northern Town?

presumably, altho it looks like the southwest took the worst of it

I just came to work because I love snow, tbh.

If I could work from home when the temperature was above zero and just come in when it’s like this, I’d be perfectly happy.

I am now stranded in London with no way to get home as punishment for my over-enthusiasm.

hoist with your own blizzard

(｀∀´)

Been getting off lightly here. Didn't snow at all yesterday despite forecasts, and today was supposed to be non-stop snow for 12 hours 10am-10pm and it's barely snowed at all so far. Trains are still all fucked up of course.

yeah the snow's in disappointing retreat here but the wind is making up for it

only had a paltry one hour off work this week. so horrible outside though, run to work this morning was like crossing the tundra, old snow now frozen into fields of ice and the cows looking so absolutely pissed off with it all

The combination of wind and freezing rain looks like it's snapped the external water pipe of our neighbour, and it pours out over into my yard whenever they use their water.

So taking out the garbage is sorta russian roulette for me right now.

It is rain-snowing in nyc

The company is paying for a hotel so i'm back to being charmed by the winter wonderland again.

a taxi to Kent would only set them back, what, eighty quid?

I guess I don't know taxi fares tbh