posted December 10, 2008 06:55 AM            

One year my Grandad bought me a camera. I took it out around the town and took dramatic pictures of the snowdrifts, and the snow lying on the craters on the slag heap (the coal mine was in disuse at this time).

When I got home I realised I had been holding the camera the wrong way around and none of them came out. Dunce.

Many years later I was studying at a certain Higher Education establishment. It was winter, and being somewhere northwards in England, there was snow on the ground. No big deal if you are used to seeing it most Januarys. But seemingly out of nowhere, came about every African student in the place, and there were a few. I had to take a couple of pictures whilst I was on my way to my class. I shared digs with a Tanzanian and a Kenyan that time, which was fun.

posted December 10, 2008 01:33 PM            

Zero temps outside, you say??
Pshaw.
I understand your gales blowing down from the North Sea -- but the ones coming funneling down thru Canada from the Arctic rival yours anyday!!

posted December 25, 2008 06:36 PM            

Snowzilla rises again in Anchorage
By MARY PEMBERTON • Associated Press • December 24, 2008

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A giant snowman named Snowzilla has mysteriously appeared again this year — despite the city’s cease-and-desist order.

Someone again built the giant snowman in Billy Powers’ front yard in an east Anchorage neighborhood. Snowzilla reappeared before dawn Tuesday.

Powers isn’t taking credit. When questioned Tuesday afternoon, he insisted Snowzilla just somehow happened, again.

For the last three years, Snowzilla — to the delight of some and the chagrin of others — has been a very large feature in Powers’ yard. In 2005, Snowzilla rose 16 feet. He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

This year, Snowzilla is estimated to be 25 feet tall. He’s wearing a black stovepipe hat and scarf.

“Have you seen him?” Powers asked when reached by telephone at his home, the sound of excited children in the background. “He’s handsome.”

Snowzilla has consistently risen outside Powers’ modest home. His children — he is the father of seven — collected snow from neighbors’ yards to make the snowman big enough. Each year, Snowzilla got a bit bigger.

Not everybody in the neighborhood liked all the cars and visitors who came to see him.

City officials this year deemed Snowzilla a public nuisance and safety hazard. A cease-and-desist order was issued. The city tacked a public notice on Powers’ door.

City officials said the structure increased traffic to the point of endangerment and that the snowman itself was unsafe.

The mayor’s office on Tuesday issued a statement defending its move against Snowzilla.

“This property owner has repeatedly ignored city attempts to find ways to accommodate his desire to build a giant snowman without affecting the quiet, residential quality of the neighborhood,” said the statement from Mayor Mark Begich’s office. “This is a neighborhood of small homes on small lots connected by small streets. It can’t support the volume of traffic and revelers that are interested in Snowzilla.”

The mayor’s office says Powers appears to run a large junk and salvage operation from his home. He has violated land use codes for 13 years, the city said. He owes the city more than $100,000 in fines and other assessments.

Powers said it is the city that has been difficult, not him. “I have tried to jump through every goofy hoop they have sent to me. I have never been confrontational and it goes on and on and on and it is so goofy,” he said. “Some of it is unfounded, some is just outrageous.”

posted December 25, 2008 07:23 PM            

The calm after the storm, and the beginning of this year's snowtunnel --

The resident King of the Frontyard Bush, about to hop into the window birdfeeder --

posted December 25, 2008 09:25 PM            

The photo of the bird is really quite an amazing shot - I see photography talent there!

posted December 25, 2008 09:45 PM            

I wish I were in your warm climate right now.....

posted December 25, 2008 10:04 PM              

quote:

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He had a corncob pipe and a carrot nose and two eyes made out of beer bottles.

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posted December 26, 2008 12:04 PM            

December`s 1st addition to the fall accumulation

MN Z, you owe me a seasonal pic

juni

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What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~

posted December 26, 2008 02:40 PM            

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What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world is immortal"~