Grannymar

Friend (F): Did you not go out tobogganing?

Me (M): LOL! I went ice skating instead. Snow is for young people, I was out for 30 mins today and an hour on 29th Dec.

(F): You won’t break any records with that!

(M): I don’t want to break anything.

(F): I Don’t blame you.

(M): I stood at the front door several times in the last week and my chest felt it was in a vice, it was not good I can tell you.

(F): Did you go out in the car today?

(M): A friend drove me. It is still very icy here.

(F): A toyboy????

(M): Not this time.

(F): Aaaw!

(M): My little neighbour has a bad chest infection and her water pipes are frozen. I took her down a large jug of water.

(F): Did you hear we’re facing water shortages here in Dublin?

(M): Nothing surprises me any more.

(F): Due to silly people running taps to stop pipes freezing plus breaks in water pipes!

(M): My sister has frozen water pipes – it is outside the house somewhere.

(F): Water pressure has been reduced around Dublin to conserve supply.

(M): Our water pressure is always reduced automatically in the winter months.

(F): We’ve lost internet connection here tonight.

(M): Remember how life was when we were young?

(F): I grew up in old house with no central heating only open fires.

(M): We have become so attached to the internet and central heating, how did we manage years ago? RTE 1 Television [only one station] - from 6pm to midnight or a radio the size of a wardrobe.  No mobile phones or computers, sitting round an open fire with our fronts scorched and our backs frozen! Shins covered in abc’s.  If you went out to get more coal, someone stole your warm seat!

(F): I remember it well. We had stone hot jars too for bedtime, jaysus, it makes me feel ancient! We had to put them in beds to stop them (beds) getting damp.

(M): Yeah, those days were awful. Frost on the inside of the windows, you got dressed to get into bed and then undressed and dressed again under the bedclothes in the morning! Oh! I remember not wanting to sit on the loo seat because it was so cold!

(F): ROFLOL!

(M): Stop laughing, it was no joke.

(F): You are telling me!  I still perch on one cheek sometimes ‘cos of the cold!

(M): I became a dab hand at sitting on my knickers.

(F): I dare you put that in a blog post.

(M): I will too! In the morning.

The moral of the story is never dare me to do something!

From my kitchen window I can see for twenty miles. Well on Wednesday last it was more like two miles. The clouds were low and the mist was down so far that I lost the view of the Windmills, the Colin, the Ballyboley Hills and indeed anything beyond the town. There are days when I get to see the end of the garden and that is all. Now on the other hand there are mornings that are bright clear and crisp and you feel that you can see forever. Those are the mornings I most enjoy, especially if it is a Sunday. On Sundays the world seems to stop, no traffic, and there is not a sound outside. I love being outside early on those mornings.

In early autumn I love to wake and find a ribbon of mist over the river, yet see the hills beyond it and in the foreground shrubs and bushes with layers of cobwebs twinkling in the early sunshine.

In winter we sometimes have frost that is so heavy, you would think it was a fall of snow. This frost can last for days on end. We live below the snowline so any falls of snow never last very long. The snow we get is not of the greeting card variety it is usually wet snow that quickly changes to slush.

Last year we had a very mild winter, despite the forecast of doom telling us otherwise. We had high summer in March and April that was followed by biblical rain – forty days and forty nights! In fact I think the Good Lord was going for the Guinness Book of Records this year with all the rain we had in Ireland and the UK.

In the last few years we have seen major climatic extremes all over the world. Now is it that with modern technology we are more aware of what is happening as it happens, or is it Global Warming as the powers that be want us to believe, or is it the Good Lord in his dotage (well He is about 2000 years old) playing games with us? After all he made the world, so he can change it whatever way he likes!

Yesterday morning I was checking out The Other side of Sixty and her post lead me to Icecap where I read a most interesting article.

I think you will find it a very interesting post on Global Warming!