And It's Goodbye From Him!!

The time has come to hang up the blogging boots, well on this blog anyway. We just haven't got the time anymore to keep three blogs on the go so we're going back down to one, our first love - Snowbabies!.

Thanks to everyone who has left a comment or linked to me over the last nine months, I've added all your links to Snowbabies so I don't miss any of your posts.

Time to get the drinks in, mines a pint!

Paul (Yorkshire Snowman)

If I Had A Brain Cell!

Not me, the pillock at Barnsley Council or Yorkshire Water or both that decided not to fix a problem with water leaking from cracks in the main road in to town. Preferring instead to leave it for two whole weeks so they could have the road up on one of the busiest days of the year. Whoever it was, I hope they're stuck in the traffic that is now backing up to the motorway!

What, No Camera!

I've not had my camera with me for the last few days with the chances of snow disappearing now until next winter, however today I wish I'd had it with me.

The tiny village I drive through every morning looked beautiful today with the sun shining and the roads lined with daffodils in full bloom. Further down the road I had to stop to wait for Mrs Mallard to make her way very slowly across the road, mumbling to herself, "I bet you wish you'd got your camera with you!"

Crash Nitro Kart

We bought a couple of new Playstation games over the weekend, Debbie picked Sonic Mega Collection, all the old Sonic games for Mega Drive and Game Gear on one fun packed disc. I picked Crash Nitro Kart, which is Mario Kart but better...hopefully.

I've only managed three laps up to date and on the easy setting found that I had to keep breaking to let the others catch up so I could shoot them. I got a bit carried away then and tried the hard setting, as the lights turned green they all pissed off and left me on the start line!

Thanks For Linking!

A big thank you to Toasted Crumpet for linking to me

And It's Goodnight From Him

No, I'm not going anywhere, not without a struggle anyway! The title of this post is just one of the memorable catch phrases from the classic TV show The Two Ronnies.

Ronnie Corbett and Ronnie Barker are back on our screens tonight with The Two Ronnies Sketchbook on BBC1 at 9pm and I for one am really looking forward to some top quality Friday night entertainment.

In my personal opinion, the best sketch they ever did was the fantastic play on words in the hardware shop, with poor old Corbett being given the run around by Barker asking for, amongst other things, fork handles (four candles) and the look on Corbetts face by the end is a picture.

Yorkshire Snowman (aka Phantom Raspberry Blower Of Old London Town)

Google News

I've found a cool new feature on Google News today, you can now customize the front page with standard topics like Sport or Entertainment just like many other sites have been offering for some time.

The really cool bit though is that you can also add any subject of your choice, for instance, I'm keeping tabs on the latest news on the new Star Wars movie Revenge Of The Sith. All you have to do is add a custom section and enter the search string "Star Wars" and it works like a peach, gathering together all the latest inter-galactic news.

I think the force is strong with this one!

Amarillo

I've just been out and bought the new hit single, Is This The Way To Amarillo, sung by crooner Tony Christie and lip synched by comedian Peter Kay. All in aid of Comic Relief. Bring on the club mix!

Star Wars III - Revenge Of The Sith

The latest trailer for Star Wars III - Revenge Of The Sith was made available to the general public yesterday on Starwars.com. I've only had chance to watch it once but it's looks good and I can't wait to see the transformation of Anakin to Darth Vader in May. Who knows, we might even find out if Darth Sidious is in fact Emperor Palpatine.

I think this will be the movie of 2005, it's the one everyone's been waiting for, just to find out just how Anakin gets seduced by the dark side of the force. It wouldn't have taken much doing, he was a cantankerous little bugger in Episode II.

Looking Goofy

Thanks to Gemmak and Kerry for linking to the photo below, we had a great night on Friday, helping to raise more than ever before for Comic Relief!

The picture would have been even worse had it been taken today because this morning I've managed to extract a tooth while munching on a ham buttie, well, a crown anyway. It's not the first time I've had trouble with this tooth, last time it popped out was while munching on a sausage and egg McMuffin.

It's marvellous, I stay clear of things that are likely to cause a problem and get caught out by an innocent looking soft white loaf! Anyway, I've got an emergency appointment at the dentist tomorrow to hopefully have it put back in again.


Update: I've just realized what time my dentist appointment is at tomorrow.......Tooth Hurty!

Honk! Honk!

It's time to get those red hooters out, it's Red Nose Day! Wear your nose with pride and support Comic Relief!

Jaws

This Is London reported yesterday that authorities in the North East think they have a rogue shark problem, possibly a Shortfin Mako. Now I do like watching programs about sharks and I didn't think Mako was in the 'friendly' category, a little search through Google threw up this handy piece of advice:

Warning: Although there are few reported attacks on humans, this shark is regarded as dangerous. Hooked makos have been known to attack boats.

It's funny, we're probably more likely to be struck by lightning than ever be attacked by a shark, but a warning about a possible thunderstorm doesn't come close to the effect a warning about sharks has on most people.

We're on holiday in a couple of months on the East Coast but no shark story will disrupt our holiday, we've never been one's for swimming in the sea, nothing to do with what might be lurking in there, it's just too bloody cold!

Beer Less Fattening Than Wine?

I was quite surprised to find after reading this BBC news story that beer is actually less fattening than wine and even has less calories than fruit juice! Apparently it's the lifestyle that accompanies the beer that causes the eight months pregnant look on fellas propping up the bar down the local.

I think with this revelation, I need to go back into beer production. I've not done any home brew for years, I only stopped because there wasn't enough room for a couple of barrels and so had to bottle everything instead which was real pain. Hopefully we'll be moving soon, to a bigger house with plenty of room for a beer factory, I can almost smell those hops!

What No Lap Dancing?

After a few weeks of trying to wear the mouse button out on Blog Explosion, I've given up before I develop RSI.

Anyway, now I can actually see who is coming here for a peak rather than look at rows and rows of thirty second refers from the same place. There's nothing unusual in my referrers list, however, I've checked our site Snowbabies and we're apparently attracting folks looking for Lap Dancing In Llandudno.

We did go to Llandudno once but I don't recall any lap dancing going on and I'm sure I would have remembered.

Creamy Heads

Red Nose Day is almost upon us and we're looking forward to a great night in on Friday, although we are having some new carpet laid that evening. I'm sure the fitters will be impressed with me sporting a red nose and keeping one eye on them, the other on the telly while necking a pint or two. We've been watching Comic Relief Does Fame Academy over the last week and while the first show was a bit hard on the ears with not a lot in tune, they're all getting better every day, even Nick Knowles.

My favourite, not surprisingly is Adrian Edmundson, who like me, is quite partial to a drink or three and regardless of his singing ability gets tops marks from me for falling arse over tit off the back of the sofa the other night and never let go of his drink. They all seem to be drinking bottles or cocktails in there which I don't mind myself but my fish like drinking technique tends to cause wobbly leg syndrome too early in the night.

I prefer a nice cold pint of bitter, recently it's been Boddingtons, the cream of Manchester. It really is creamy that stuff, if you don't rinse your glass, after about fours cans, you end up with half a pint of creamy head and you can almost hear someone saying "Do you want a flake in that luv?".

What's The Meta With Google?

When we first set up our blogs I read up a bit on search engines and how they pick your web site and ended up adding three meta tags as suggested for title, description and keywords. Sure enough all three blogs started appearing in Google search results. A while ago we changed the templates and didn't bother putting the tags in as looking at other blogs, it didn't seem to be necessary any more.

In the last few weeks we noticed a lack of hits from Google and found that one of the sites had gone from about 5th on the list to about page fifty-seven, I mean, my blog entries might not be the best but thery're not that bad surely!

So in an effort to fix things I put the tags back in again and now we're getting hits again. However, the results from Google don't show the title or description and I've noticed others missing this information too. If I view the page information through Firefox, the title and description are picked up correctly so they must be working and both Yahoo and MSN show the title and description.

Has anyone else had this problem?
Does anyone know if the tags need to be there or not?
Has Google just started missing things out, become dyslexic and having it's name changed to Ogleog?

Cairngorm In Full Swing

It looks like everyone's having a great time up on Cairngorm Mountain today after all the extra snow yesterday.

Picture source: cairngormmountain.com

Snow Makes The Headlines

Shivering UK Braves Icy Weather

Headline news last night and this morning from the BBC, but you've got to laugh at the council admitting they we're caught out! Everyone following the weather on the net knew it was coming well in advance ..lol..

I'm not council bashing though, they get a hard enough time in winter with scathing remarks from commuters about the state of the roads. It's not the councils fault, grit really needs spreading on top of snow and by the time there is a covering on the road, a handful of clueless people have brought the whole place to a standstill before the gritters can do anything about it.

I think part of the driving test should include a trip to a skid pan with artificial snow so people can learn how to drive confidently and safely in snow. Obviously, I'd be booking me and my little car in for a session every week ..lol..

Snowing Darn Sarth

The fun and games have started today with snow in the south, it looks like Kent is bearing the brunt of todays snow and the situation doesn't look like changing anytime soon with most people down there heading home early.

A weather warning has been issued for us here in Yorkshire but as yet all we've seen here is a moderate shower of snow pellets, although Debbie has called me from Sheffield and says it's snowing really heavy there.

Will I be driving home through a couple of inches of snow later or just the puddles we have at the moment?

Best Season For Years

I've not posted any web cam images for while with us having plenty of snow pictures of our own but while we're waiting for the next possible snow event due tomorrow and Thursday, here's a snapshot of the conditions on Cairngorm Mountain in Scotland where they seem to be having the best skiing season for years. It's probably down to our visit to the top of the mountain back in December which heralded the start of the season for Cairngorm ..lol..

Picture source : cairngormmountain.com

Ice & Snow

Ice and snow clinging to the Holme Moss transmitter.

Chilly Holme Moss

We had a trip up to Holme Moss in the Pennines on Sunday, it was the busiest I've ever seen it up there with hundreds of people sledging and a few trying to paraglide off the side of the hill but with not much success due to the surprising lack of wind up there.

Ice Lolly Van! 

How many frozen cars was that! 

Frosty or What! 

Incredible Melting Snow

Despite all the snow that fell overnight on Wednesday, through Thursday, the snow that fell all through the day didn't settle anywhere, not even on existing snow. I've never known anything like it before, usually snow will settle here at +2c or even +3c but yesterday it was having none of it even at 0c.

We still had the most amount of snow lying that we've had for 10 years so I can't really complain too much! While the cold weather is allegedly still going to be with us for a few days yet, the snow we had is quickly melting away and any showers we get today are likely to be sleet or rain.

Top Banana!

Overnight and through this morning (it's still falling) we've had the most snow I've seen for many a year! Only an idiot like me would take the scenic route into work instead of the main road on a day like today!

Get Your Sledges Ready!

All through yesterday we had snow followed by sunshine and anything that fell soon melted away. This morning we've had almost non stop snow since 6am and while it's stopped at the moment, it's staying cloudy so the inch of snow we have so far today isn't melting. The forecast is for more showers through today then for more persistent snow overnight and into tomorrow. It's certainly going to be a very interesting night with lots of lamppost watching and hoping that we're snowed in tomorrow morning!

Slip Sliding Away

My little car getting to grips with almost and inch of snow ..lol..

Here Comes The Snow

After all the watching and waiting over the last few days, we finally got a decent fall of snow over night :-)

Just A Few Flakes

We had a few flakes of snow over the weekend but it never really got going and even last night when I was expecting a decent amount of snow all we got was a couple of short showers.

Today we've had quite a few reasonable snow showers, however, not a single flake is settling. Here comes another snow shower as I type but I can't see it settling unless we get flakes the size of footballs. What we could do with is a few showers through the afternoon and then about a foot overnight so we can't get to work in the morning ..lol..

I would have taken a photo this morning of one of the heavier flurries but some idiot forgot to put his memory card back in his camera! Never mind, it's in now and I'm ready to spin round and snap away should anything else fall out of the sky.

Stripping Off In The Bathroom

It’s been a hard week so far, finishing off the kitchen was a pinch of salt compared with striping the bathroom. I’ve not been able to use the steamer because the walls have been skimmed and it fetches off the plaster.

So I’ve been there with a sponge and a scraper doing an inch at a time and now every muscle in my body is aching. I’m definitely not in very good shape and I’m glad I don’t do stripping for a living, I’m certainly no Chippendale that’s for sure ..lol..

It’s not escaped my attention that the weather forecast is going for cold weather this weekend. I’ve seen it all before too many times this winter and it’s come to nothing so even though the charts are looking good and the weather forum is buzzing, I’m expecting nothing and if we do get any snow it will be a bonus.

Valentines Day

Just a flying visit today, I'm off work this week, not strictly a holiday, more like one weeks hard labour finishing off the decorating.

It's been a manic first morning trying to sort out the kitchen with three cats jumping on everything, Lucy mostly jumping on me and our new puppy Lollypop wanting to be picked up every two seconds!

My beautiful Wife has left me a lovely valentines message today :-)

I'm going to be busy this afternoon making sure everything is ready for when she comes home from work, I know she loves surprises and I'm pretty sure she'll be very surprised :-)

Have a great Valentines Day sweetheart; can’t wait to see you this evening ;-)


Love Paul

Happy Ending

It looks like being a cold weekend, I've no idea if it will snow or not and even I did, I wouldn't say because that always seems to jinx it!

Instead, I've been reading the news for a change and found a lovely story with a happy ending. A Labrador puppy fell off the cliffs at Flamborough head and after an extensive search was given up for dead until he was found safe and well five days later :-)

Red Nose Day!

After the shock of Zippy's death on Monday, we're slowly getting back on our feet and remembering the good times we had with Zippy from him perching on our shoulder for the first time to him saying his first word, 'hello'.

It's hard to think of anything else at times like this but while in the local shop last night, we picked up some crisps sporting the Comic Relief logo, advertising the next Red Nose Day so I've been to have a look at the web site to find that this years theme is Big Hair & Beyond and will be on Friday 11 March 2005.

For anyone who hasn't heard of Red Nose Day before, it's a fun charity event run every two years, the highlight of which is an evenings madness on BBC1 with comedians and celebrities coming together to help raise money for many different causes all over the world. To find out more and get involved, check out the web site.

We always buy a red nose but last time we couldn't get hold any for the cars. This year I think we'll be buying direct from the Red Nose Shop so we get both our red noses with bonkers hair doo's and two car hair freshener's. It's also traditional to get blind drunk on the night, have a roaring good laugh and donate some more hard cash over the phone.

Ornithological Question

We saw this duck at Worsborough yesterday and I'm not a hundred percent sure what it is. I think it might be a hybrid, produced by a very shorted sighted Mr Duck jumping on the wrong Mrs Duck.

Understanding Begins At Forty

Watching the news this morning, a story came on telling us that when men reach the age of 40, they start understanding women more. Now at 35, I would have thought that I might be starting to pick up on things that previously went over my head, but alas no, like most other men under 40, I still have no idea whatsoever what makes women tick.

So, unless this 'knowledge' just appears in your head on the morning of your 40th birthday, I fear there may be no hope for me.

Reflections

I think this is going to be my new pet subject for taking pictures of, reflections of anything in the water. It reminds me of going fishing when I was younger, watching the float and it's reflection bobbing in the water, waiting for it to disappear.

Life Is A Roller-coaster

It is if you follow the winter weather like me!

One minute it looked like being cold and snowy all next week and then it looked like being cold, dry and then warmer and now it's all up in the air again. For instance, the Yahoo weather forecast for Saturday has gone from snow to rain and now back to sleet in the space of three days.

I should really limit myself to looking at the charts for the next three days but because they are available for the next two weeks, I just can't help taking a peek.

Thanks For Linking!

A big thank you to Dreaming-Neko for linking to me

Lapwings

The Lapwings at Old Moor, soaring into the sky every few minutes when they're spooked by something.

The New Old Moor

We visited Old Moor for the first time in a couple years and it seems to have more people and more birds since the RSPB took it over. We didn't stop long as we weren't dressed for the job and it was freezing cold, we just called in to change my single subscription to a joint one.

We'll be back again in the coming weeks, wrapped up warm, carrying two cameras, two pairs of binoculars, a tripod, a telescope and a widget to fix the camera or scope to the hide windows.

Back on the weather front, it still looks like being colder from the weekend through next week, I've just got everything crossed now hoping that we do actually see some snow this time.

This sits just outside the visitor centre at Old Moor, I'm not sure what it does yet, I'll have to investigate next time we're down there.

Knock Me Down With A Feather!

I've just read the UK MET Office Monthly Outlook and for the first time that I can remember, they are actually talking about a cold snap! It looks like it could be quite interesting during the first half of February :-)

It's only in the last year or so that they started issuing weather warnings for snow before it had actually started snowing so to publish this so far in advance, they must be pretty confident.

I might even nip out on Sunday and get the Sunday Telegraph to read all about it ;-)

Boring Weather

It's getting gradually warmer here day by day, the harsh frost on Saturday is but a distant memory. However, Paul Hudson did say last night on the local weather that there is a chance that the cold weather will be back at the end of next week.

The charts seem to have looked much the same all through this week, boring with outbreaks of very boring and not a lot of snow . . . . . unless you live in Ibiza! I'm sure this is how the film "The Day After Tomorrow" starts, with it snowing in places it shouldn't be. I'm not expecting the next ice age in ten days time, but a foot or two of snow would be nice.

On Patrol

The geese patrolling the allotments near the park at the weekend and giving me the 'don't mess with us' look.

Thanks For Linking!

A big thank you to Photographic Wanderings for linking to me

Step Too Far

I've been thinking about what I'm going to write about here when we're out of the snowy season, not that we've had much of a winter so far. I think it's going to be case of less words and more photographs.

I've read my new photography book, looked through countless magazines for hints and tips on taking the perfect picture, the only thing I'm lacking now is inspiration. I've got all the gear ready to go at a seconds notice, camera, spare batteries, rock steady tripod but nothing is jumping out at me and saying "hey, take a photo".

Maybe I need to be looking at the world in an arty sort of way, which is not something that would come easily, I'm one of those people that looks at masterpieces in art galleries and says to everyone, "a three year old could have done better".

What if I got togged out like Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, would that make a difference, probably, but looking like a tit in a overly long jacket stood on the top of a hill might be going a step too far.

No Show For The Snow

I was hoping to get out and about with the camera this weekend, however due to the intake of wine on Saturday night, Sunday's plans for a trip to the coast or elsewhere were scrapped in favour of going out for a quick walk in the park and lazing on the sofa all afternoon.

I spent most of the evening checking the latest radar images and popping outside to see if I could spot any snow falling but it was all to no avail, not a single flake all night. This morning we've had the odd shower of snow grains or soft hail but that was about it. It's still possible that we could see some snow here between now and tomorrow but I'm not holding out much hope.

Jack Frost

Who needs snow when Jack Frost has been out during the night....

Lots of snow about on Cairngorm mountain this morning, could be a caption competition this one - "I can see the pub from 'ere"...

Picture source: cairngormmountain.com 

Cold Weekend Ahead

The charts have been chopping and changing all week, this weekend looks like it's going to be a nightmare to forecast accurately.

Our best bet for snow here in Yorkshire seems to be along the east coast but there is a possibility it might just come further inland early next week. One thing is for sure though, it's going to be very cold, yesterday the temperature first thing in the morning was 9c and this morning it was only 3c, what a difference a day makes!

Digital Photography Step By Step

This is one of the books that Debbie bought me for my birthday, Digital Photography Step By Step, having read through a couple of other similar books before, I can honestly say that this is the best one by far and does exactly what it says on the cover.

It starts with a brief history of photography from right back to the Box Brownie through the early days of digital photography to the present day. Everything from file formats to aperture settings and shutter speeds are explained in a refreshingly easy to understand way allowing even me to get my head round some of the more technical stuff for the first time. There are sections on taking photos of almost everything you can think of from sunsets to household pets. Best of all, there are loads of step by step exercises on using Photoshop to sort out those pictures that don't quite look as good as they could.

All in all, a wonderful book and the best present I could have wished for!

Vanishing Fences

Thank you to everyone for you birthday wishes yesterday :-)

I had a great day and have a lovely curry at Meadowhall before going browsing for a new mobile phone.

I had a go on Photoshop Elements last night and having got my book with step by step guides on common editing tricks I was removing mesh fences from a photograph of a tiger in no time. However, I think it would take me about two hours to remove a whole fence but if we get a magic shot that we want to blow up and frame then it will be well worth the effort.

It's been very windy here since yesterday evening and on the ride into work this morning I had to negotiate a few obstacles in the road like, branches, trees, water carriers and a garden fence. Looking at the weather forecasts this morning, it looks like we might have another taste of winter this weekend, although the likelihood of snow might be confined to the East coast if we get any at all.

Another Year Older

The good news is that it's my birthday today!

The bad news is that I'm 35!

The worse news is that I'm working today and have to buy buns for everyone!

I've loads of great gifts, enough to stand Barnsley Market tomorrow flogging aftershave, or to give it's posh name, odour toilet.

Debbie came to the rescue though, with a cute six pack bear and a couple of photography books which look really cool and idiot proof, so watch out for some award wining photos appearing here soon...... err... maybe not, but there should at least be an improvement and I might even be tempted to take a picture of something other than snow!

It's a convoy across the white dessert ..lol.. 

Looking at the wind turbines from Woodhead Pass today.