Walking In The Air? That Would Be Nice. Just Be Prepared for the Snow.

Hello all. Well, as my far-seeing and knowledgeable colleague Mr Dick Roberts noticed in his blog yesterday, the weather has finally turned its face to the cold. Although some people don’t think much of this turn of events, moaning annually about icicles on their hands and frost on their windscreens, I think it is about time we got ourselves together just in case the white peril is lurking ready to freeze our pipes and encourage our Dads to release the toboggans from the garage ceiling.

I’d say we might need a bit of snow. I know it causes misery to many but after the flooding disasters in the North recently, I just hope the rain stops for a bit and gives people a chance to get ready for the cold.

Dick makes the point that when the snow comes (or rather ‘if’, ‘cos you never know) you need to be prepared, and he’s right. It’s no good waiting until it snows to go and buy your anti-snow goodies. You won’t be able to get to the shops. So go for it now. Invest in some some ice melt, a salt & grit spreader, like this £79.00 Agri-Fab model, perhaps an electric snow blower, like this simple Stiga model (also a staggering £79.00 including FREE delivery) whatever it takes. In fact, what about this innovative and handy manual snow plough which is from Einhell and very good value at £25.00 and well worth a look.

However, just to cap this practical advice with something slightly more frivolous (which as you know is where I live) Here are my top five favourite snowmen.

The Snowman (From Raymond Briggs’ ‘The Snowman’) Now one of our favourite Christmas stories, it is a book, a film, a hit record, a cuddly toy, probably a tea towel and some slippers, and a regular seasonal show. The film starts with the recently late and very much lamented David Bowie as the grown up who’s snowman came to life when he was a boy. Enough said! The show is now a Christmas staple in London, where a ballet dancer in a huge fluffy suit sweats off about two and a half stone a night flying around the stage of the Bloomsbury Theatre. This Snowman is friendly and sweet, but (spoiler) does end up as a puddle at the end, wringing tears from just about everybody.
Frosty the Snowman (from the song Frosty the Snowman.) Another Snowman who mysteriously comes to life, presumably causing more puddles (and not of tears) from terrified children. They find an old silk hat (loads of those knocking about in downtown Detroit are there?) and when they put it on his head, this Snowman dances, sings and seems spookily aware of his own mortality when he says words to the effect of ‘The sun is shining so let’s play before I melt’. This song has been covered by many artists, including The Beach Boys, Bing Crosby, Michael ‘Christmas’ Buble and the Jackson 5.
Olaf (From Frozen) Funny? Tick. Magical? Tick. A Bit Dumb? Tick. Annoying? Tick. Yes, it’s another comedy sidekick from an animated children’s movie. Olaf’s goofy snowman is a nice counterpoint to the rest of the film which is pretty dark until the inevitable happy ending. Olaf doesn’t get to sing ‘Let it go’, although millions of children dressed as him will no doubt have done so this Christmas.
Jack Frost’s Snowman (from Jack Frost) Michael Keaton is a rubbish father who dies and comes back as his child’s snowman and learns in the process what his family and son really need from a parent. Wow. If only Social Services had thought of that. I guess it beats dressing as Batman. Another scary re-animation of ice crystals that ends with blubbing. Honestly!
The Abominable Snowman (AKA The Yeti, from Various Books, TV and Films).
Abominable… and in need of some grooming!

The kind of creature that exists mainly in late night programmes on Discovery or the Sci-Fi channel with titleslike ‘Footprints in The Snow – In Search of the Abominable Snowman’ where bug-eyed fanatics who have spent too long on the internet or watching X-Files, try to convince us this giant ape-like mo0nster is running around the Himalayas scaring climbers. Most entertaining appearance for me is in an episode of Scooby Doo called ‘Yeti Spaghetti’. where I believe the Abominable Creature turns out, as usual, to be a bloke in a suit cursing the ‘interfering kids’ for spoiling his fraudulent scheme.