Clanging from the Severn to the Tyne

[sovay]

Rabbit, rabbit!

I see we have achieved April Fool's Day Blizzard II: The You've Got to Be Kidding Me. When I went to bed, it was just a lot of sleety rain and slushy ice that I shoveled off the front steps in the hope that it wouldn't freeze into a solid glassy layer overnight. By the time I woke up, it was snow. Lots and lots of wet and sticking snow that I am going to shovel off the front steps—and the front walk, and the driveway, and wherever else my mother needs—as soon as I can stomach it. The pussy willow and the forsythia are flowering bewilderedly in the back yard. There is a robin hopping around the broken conifer branches with a sort of reality-defying cheer. Whee.

In the meantime I dreamed about an outdoor production of a Shakespeare play that doesn't exist (with boatloads of numinous greenwood, so I'm sorry—doesn't it feel like Shakespeare should have written a play about Robin Hood, with fairies?) and winged cats going into space (which someone must have written and published in the '80's), neither of which derives obviously from watching Dan Duryea in Cy Endfield's The Underworld Story (1950), re-reading Gypsy Rose Lee's The G-String Murders (1941), and reading half of Lee's Mother Finds a Body (1942) before bed.

We who are about to shovel salute you. This is ridiculous.

Comments

[thistleingrey]

That is ridiculous (the weather). Here it's too warm, but that's more logical; you're a bit far south for late snow, even by last year's standards. (Another friend lives in midstate NY, where it snowed close to May Day last year, IIRC. Or perhaps it was the year prior. Recent enough to part of the madness, anyway.) Sorry, robins and happy blooms! :/

[davidgillon]

I did once see snow in June while growing up, but apparently I grew up in the snowiest place in England (didn't find that stat out until a few months ago).

Here it was a lovely sunny day (with April showers later) and the cherry trees are blossoming. OTOH a couple of hundred miles north (i.e. snowiest place in England), my mother reported snow last week and snow at Easter isn't actually too unusual.

[sovay]

I did once see snow in June while growing up, but apparently I grew up in the snowiest place in England (didn't find that stat out until a few months ago).

Congratulations? (Where is that?)

[davidgillon]

Weardale in County Durham. The stat is from the weather-station in a little village called Copley, which is a few minutes drive from my home town of Bishop Auckland. Snow in June was exceptional, but if you go up onto the moors at the head of the Dale you could often find a drift or two in sheltered nooks year round.

[sovay]

Snow in June was exceptional, but if you go up onto the moors at the head of the Dale you could often find a drift or two in sheltered nooks year round.

That's pretty neat, actually.

[thistleingrey]

Ah! Makes sense that the snowiest place in England would be in County Durham, but I admit I'd never thought about it before your comments. Thank you!

The cherry trees where I am have dropped dead blooms, and a few have fruit--but the blooms came mid-January. Most of the flowers survived the night-time frosts we've had between then and late March.

[sovay]

you're a bit far south for late snow, even by last year's standards.

It has snowed this late—and on this date—before, but that doesn't mean I think it's a good idea!

(Another friend lives in midstate NY, where it snowed close to May Day last year, IIRC. Or perhaps it was the year prior. Recent enough to part of the madness, anyway.)

Yikes.

Sorry, robins and happy blooms!

The crocuses have definitely had it.

[movingfinger]

[Sucks teeth] I vividly remember the May 1977, storm which left enough to ski on, eight inches or thereabouts, and I did for about a mile, the snow lumpily dripping from clusters of young green leaves. It did not last long, of course...

[sovay]

I vividly remember the May 1977, storm which left enough to ski on, eight inches or thereabouts, and I did for about a mile, the snow lumpily dripping from clusters of young green leaves.

Nice!

I think my personal favorite weather-timing story (that I lived through) was the year the Fourth of July fireworks over Casco Bay were preempted by a spectacular thunder-and-lightning storm. We stayed up and watched it and it was absolutely just as good.

[kore]

Did you know Five Came Back is now a doc?? http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/five-came-back-traces-transformation-artist-instru-253076

[sovay]

Did you know Five Came Back is now a doc??

Yes! I first heard about it a few days ago. I'll need to set time aside to watch it, but I'd like to do so. The book set me on the path to appreciating William Wyler properly.

[edit] Obviously, if you get to it before me, please provide a report!

[davidgillon]

Stay warm in that snow! Though I suppose the shovelling will guarantee that.

In the meantime I dreamed about an outdoor production of a Shakespeare play that doesn't exist (with boatloads of numinous greenwood, so I'm sorry—doesn't it feel like Shakespeare should have written a play about Robin Hood, with fairies?)

I had to think for a moment before I was certain he didn't. And clearly he should have.

winged cats going into space (which someone must have written and published in the '80's)

I can think of cats in space (Heinlein, The Cat Who Walked Through Walls), but the closest I can think of for winged cats is Mercedes Lackey doing gryphon kittens, and I'm failing completely on both at once. OTOH I'm certain I've seen illustrations somewhere.

[sovay]

Stay warm in that snow! Though I suppose the shovelling will guarantee that.

Thank you! It was indeed aerobic.

I had to think for a moment before I was certain he didn't. And clearly he should have.

Where's that time machine?

I can think of cats in space (Heinlein, The Cat Who Walked Through Walls), but the closest I can think of for winged cats is Mercedes Lackey doing gryphon kittens, and I'm failing completely on both at once.

Ursula K. Le Guin's Catwings are the winged cats I know about; I grew up with the first two books, discovered the second two much more recently. I can't seem to find winged space cats, though, and I'm amazed. Why didn't that happen in the '80's?

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I always wonder why Shakespeare never drew on the Arthurian material; I shall add Robin Hood to that.

I'm sorry your April Fooling is so brutal in its humour: wishing all strength to your shovelling arm!

[sovay]

I always wonder why Shakespeare never drew on the Arthurian material; I shall add Robin Hood to that.

I woke up and thought, why didn't he? The fairies fit very naturally in the dream, too!

I'm sorry your April Fooling is so brutal in its humour: wishing all strength to your shovelling arm!

Thank you! I have done one round and am waiting to see if there needs to be a second . . .

[gwynnega]

I cannot comprehend an April blizzard. It's 76 degrees in LA today. I wish I could bottle it for you.

[sovay]

I cannot comprehend an April blizzard. It's 76 degrees in LA today. I wish I could bottle it for you.

Much appreciated!

(Nice icon. New or I just haven't seen it?

[gwynnega]

I think this Colette icon was my original icon when I first joined LJ.

[drwex]

We get used to it. Happens every 5-6 years here. I usually refer to them as "Passover snows" but this year Passover is late(r) and it bloody well better NOT snow in a couple more weeks. Just sayin'.

[radiantfracture]

Someone ought to rediscover those lost Shakespearean plays.

{rf}

[sovay]

Someone ought to rediscover those lost Shakespearean plays.

Can you volunteer?

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Space Cat, check. Catwings, check. Don't recall any Spacecatwings (which inevitably reminds me of Goodspaceguy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodspaceguy)).

[sovay]

Space Cat, check. Catwings, check.

I grew up with Catwings, but I've never heard of Space Cat. Is it also a book?

Don't recall any Spacecatwings (which inevitably reminds me of Goodspaceguy).

Well, that's a thing.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

1950s sf, slight but very charming (well, I haven't read the Space Cat books in many years, but others who have tell me they hold up pretty well): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/848023.Space_Cat

Ruthven Todd sounds like an interesting guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthven_Todd "He was involved with the surrealists at the time of the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition. During the 1930s, he was friendly with Dylan Thomas, Geoffrey Grigson, Humphrey Jennings, David Gascoyne[3] and Wyndham Lewis, contributing to the Lewis issue of Julian Symons's Twentieth Century Verse.[2] Lewis recruited Todd to keep awake the dozing Ezra Pound, whose portrait Lewis was painting. A character based on Todd was included in Symons' first detective story, The Immaterial Murder Case. Todd's two allegorical novels Over the Mountain and The Lost Traveller both feature protagonists on symbolic journeys; Todd acknowledged the influence of Lewis and Rex Warner on the latter novel.[1] Over the Mountain, a satire on fascism, has its hero travel to a dystopian nation with an oppressive government.[4] During World War II he was a conscientious objector.[2] He moved to America in 1947, where he held a position at a university in Iowa, and ran the Weekend Press during the 1950s."

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

As a person who explicitly identifies as a winged cat, this is relevant to my interests.

[weirdquark]

I thought it was very nice of the northeast to have another blizzard for the 20th anniversary of the one we had in '97, but to be fair, I didn't have to shovel for either of them.

[sovay]

I thought it was very nice of the northeast to have another blizzard for the 20th anniversary of the one we had in '97, but to be fair, I didn't have to shovel for either of them.

I had to shovel for both! Somehow this feels deeply unfair.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

You have the best dreams! I wish I could have seen that Robin Hood play with fairies. Did you know that Ben Jonson left just such a play unfinished at his death?

Nine

[sovay]

Did you know that Ben Jonson left just such a play unfinished at his death?

No! Get him on the line and make him finish it!

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

The first thing Robin Hood does is send Marian out to kill some deer for a feast. I am charm'd already.

[sovay]

The first thing Robin Hood does is send Marian out to kill some deer for a feast.

Sweet.

(I am responding to all outstanding LJ-comments; I don't know why, but it feels like a kind of final necessary tidying-up before I make whatever decisions I'm going to make about this journal.)