Saturday 17 January 2015

The Gnome in Winter

Call this a winter? Honest, call this a winter? We've had a sprinkling of snow, a few showers, but it aint settled much. Just a covering, no more than icing sugar on a pudding. They reckon it'll be cold tonight, oh yes, it'll freeze, but where's the blooming snow? Up on the 'ills it's different, them's white, them 'ills. In Yorkshire, now, they got proper snow. We 'ad a picture of Lady Sunshine looking like a Snow Queen, snow in 'er 'air, big smile on 'er face. Where LYS and The Lassie live it's proper Dickensianian, they got cobbled streets, I bet that looks good in snow. Lethal, mind, but I bet it looks good.

When I lived in Mytholmroyd we 'ad some right proper winters. I've seen December days when the snow was 'alfway up 'er wellies. 'Er was off down the garden to cut the Christmas 'olly, the kids next door was out in their warm red coats sledging down the garden, you could 'ave put us all on a Christmas card. There weren't no salt left in the shops, everyone 'ad bought it to put on their steps. 'Er and the Lassie was out building snowmen. 'Appy days. 'Er says 'ot chocolate tastes better when you've been frozen stiff before'and. Me and me snail, we don't feel the cold.

I suppose it's easier for them birdies. In Mytholmroyd I used to see their little feet sticking out of snowdrifts, I 'ad to pull 'em out before the cats clocked on. Peck, peck, peck on the iced water, it was a wonder they didn't crumple their beaks. And them ducks at the bottom of garden were 'alf perished with cold when 'er went out to feed 'em.

As its, we've got stuff coming up in this garden already. 'Er went out the other day and found three snowdrops, some little primulas, pulmonaria, and a blocked drain. 'Er poked the drain with a stick and got it sorted, but so far the flowers is doing all right.

4 comments:

JonnyK44 said...

As we are reading through Book 3, I realized something that I never realized before and wanted to know if it's coincidence or if I maybe got an inside look at what makes a writer tick...

Hobb and Yarrow...is that a play on the word Habanero? (I couldn't get the tilda to post over the n).

margaret mcallister said...

I am an ignorant northern peasant, and at the time of writing I hadn't even heard of habanero. Yarrow is a rather boring plant. I don't know where Hobb came from, but maybe it was something to do with hobgoblin. I imagine that any characters called after habanero would be much more exciting and colourful.

JonnyK44 said...

Habanero (Hobb and Yarrow)...it's a seemingly innocent pepper that starts a lot of trouble if you're not paying attention.

Maybe I think too hard.

margaret mcallister said...

All the same, I wish I'd thought of it