Author: wvfurandroot

Never met a tree I didn’t like.

/ wvfurandroot / 4 Comments

I have never met a Christmas tree I didn’t like.  Every year, without fail, I proclaim whichever tree I’m looking at as “the prettiest ever.”  I haven’t gotten my home trees up yet.  It’s a daunting project and I need to wait until I’ve got a fair span of uninterrupted time.  I’m thinking this weekend will prove to be relativelyvoid of extracurricular activities.

I was talking to my mom the other day.  I don’t remember how it came up, but I mentioned that a couple of years ago I saw a purple Christmas tree which would have been perfect for my lavender office. 

In the six years I’ve been at this place of employment, I haven’t gotten around to any sort of holiday decoration.  Since Christmas trees are, hands down, my favorite part of the holiday, this state of affairs is pitiful.

In what can only be termed a Christmas miracle, mom ran across a purple, table-top tree.  While I was wallowing on the couch at home, she marched in, handed me a purple tree and 16 silver balls and then marched out.  Woo Hoo!

I added a silver ribbon, some teeny-tiny ornaments and an old scarf for the skirt.  Voila!  It’s the prettiest tree ever.

Big storm this weekend?

/ wvfurandroot / 4 Comments

Down in this part of the state we usually miss all or most of the winter storms that streak across the nation.  While I will complain bitterly if it turns out to be a cold, snowy winter, the first real storm of the season is always exciting. 

I’m uncommonly fond of Chris Bailey’s blog over at WSAZ.  I’ve been checking in frequently to see if he’s ready to offer an estimate of how much snow, if any, we’re going to get with the storm that is being described as a “monster” by lots of weather folks.  Chris isn’t ready to predict snowfall amounts yet and all the refreshing I do doesn’t seem to be hurrying him along.  Well today I ran across the following cartoon and am now wondering what kind of sense of humor Chris has.  (By the way, this site – XKCD – is most excellent and a new favorite of mine.)

If I was a weather forecaster this is exactly the kind of stuff I would do (at least until I got fired).

A Note From Me to The Guardian Readers

/ wvfurandroot / 4 Comments

Praise Be! The road is drivable.

Um. Pardon me. For reasons I don’t really understand, I read The Guardian especially when y’all are having freakish weather. This is strange because I live across the pond in West Virginia. I’ve only been to the U.K. once and while I fell wildly in love with London, I don’t have any ties to your fair isles.

However, to-wit, and tut tut, I’m fascinated watching y’all carrying on in and carrying on about the snow. This episode has been extra fun because we too are having an early taste of winter. I’m sitting here gazing out the door looking at our first “significant” snow fall of the season – about 3″ maybe 4″ of the fluffy stuff (8-10 cm). It’s about 22 F (-5 or so C) which is cold, but not freakish.

I haven't even gotten fall's leaves raked yet.

Around here, that’s enough snow to have the school kids hoping school will be cancelled for tomorrow. Actually an inch is enough to have them hoping.

In these parts, we do what I call the “Appalachian Snow Panic” – dubbed such because “here” is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. It’s an odd little tradition, but at the forecast of anything more than a dusting, folks gather up the kids, grampa and Great Aunt Gertrude to go to the grocery store. It’s kind of required. They usually wait until the snow is actually falling to do the mad scramble for provisions. This adds not only drama, but the likelihood that snow crazed folks will play bumper cars on the roads.

Anyway. By 6:00 last night there wasn’t a gallon of milk or loaf of bread to be found. Even people with glutin and lactose intolerances join in the snow frenzy of procuring bread and milk. It’s evidently a beloved tradition that we will engage in time and time again between now and March.

Cold and sunny. Snow squalls expected later.

My question, yes I do have one, is, ahem, exactly how much snow did London get? I really can’t make heads or tails of it.

And, for the record, tell those folks whining about how Switzerland and other Nordic climes fare so much better to quiet down and take their hypocritical selves out to a pub or something. Snow removal, melting salt, and “grit” cost a heap of money. Y’all just need to munch on some toast, turn the milk into brandy-laced hot chocolate and cruise online newspapers in some other country. It’s a big bunch of fun.

Toodles, Connie

P.S.  Can anyone explain to my Inner Anglophile how it is that I’ve believed, until last year’s Trafalgar Square snowball fight, that London routinely got buried in snow?