Sunday 5 February 2012

Snowy London

I probably won't be posting that much in the next few days but thought I'd share (for those of you who don't live here) that London's had its first snow of the year, not exactly unexpected but not tremendously well prepared for either. There's the usual utter amazement at Heathrow, for instance,  which has resulted in cancelled flights because of the "unusual" weather conditions of snow in February. There is also the inadequate gritting of roads (although at least they'd made some effort on the motorways)

Driving back home into London last night we found many of the roads on our route were entirely ungritted, and cars were sliding all over the place. We had to go very slowly with the wipers whirring and the automatic braking juddering, just hoping that no passing bus would slide gracefully into our path.  I sure was glad that T was driving and not me.

I took a whole load of photos out of the window with my iPhone as we crawled along. I thought the results looked more like paintings than photos.  Some of them were really abstract.  The messy,blurred, fleeting look of them reminds me of how it felt on the trip, with the scene outside the car windows changing,  snow melting all over the windscreen, a slight feeling of anxiety because of the awful conditions, and everything looking so different from normal times.

Anyway here are some of them. Don't expect pin sharp precision, okay?  And for those of you who know London, I've put where each picture was taken.

First,  this blurred shape was a  woman standing alone by the old red-brick Victorian public building in the square in ACTON, London W3. She was phoning someone, I hope  she was arranging to be picked up!


He we were heading off the Westway (which is always, for some reason, un-lit) at PADDINGTON, London W2.    Paddington Green is on the left, a bit of 18th century London stranded next to a busy road, you might be able to see the ghost of an old white church there. .



Here we are in ST. JOHN'S WOOD,  London W8. with the bus going slowly along (thank goodness)


I forget exactly where this coned off shot was taken, but it was also near Paddington, the ttraffic cones  sort of flashed in the car lights as you passed but I couldn't catch that impression.



And here is the tube station at  MAIDA VALE,  London W9, its greenish fluorescent lights looking almost welcoming - well, at least it was shelter from the heavily falling snow. No pedestrians in sight.just the belisha beacon with its striped black and white pole and orange light flashing on and off in a lonely way.... . .


Here's a quieter Edwin Hopper moment as we slowed down to turn a corner at SWISS COTTAGE, London NW3. This lady looked to me as if she has been shopping - surely not?


Finally, we arrived  home, and glad to see it!  We also found a parking space behind a snowed in car. You can't see me in the wing mirror. 
.

The clock on the dashboard says the time, 22.26.  This short trip has taken us three hours. 


Outside in the garden, it seemed as if fairytales might happen, but the windows and doors were tight shut against them...,



Ooh! scary!!



I see that I have 199 followers - how exciting! I wonder who will be No. 200?

67 comments:

  1. A stressful journey that produced some wonderful shots. Absolutely love that capture of the road where the bus is also moving. These hazy pictures in the snow do look like art that an old master from another era would paint. Glad you arrived safe and sound. I recall one February when we had a surprise snowfall in BC. The weather was clear and we were going to a Valentine’s party. By the time the event was over no one could move because a fresh foot of snow had fallen. Luckily for the hostess, the snow went almost as quickly as it came. :)

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  2. Ah snow, I love it especially when it happens on a week-day and cancels school. We've not had any snow here this year except for a dusting that happen on the week-end. What a waste of a good snow....
    Love how your clock gives the hour in military time (that's what we call it here).

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  3. I am so glad you made it home safely, Jenny! The buses would really make me nervous too.

    I like all of the photos but I especially love the first one. It really does look like a wonderful painting! Stay safe!

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  4. I wonder if I am 200, I just started following you. I love your "reads."

    Your snow pics depict the reality of what it feels like inside a car, terrified someone might slip the wrong way. I am happy you are safe to your destination.

    Thank you once again for visiting me.

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  5. Yay Lynne! No 200! I should give you a free ticket to something - well if you ever come to London let me know!
    Mamma,what is your first name? feels a bit strange calling you Mamma :)
    never heard of military time, so that is something new! I think most people now seem to use it, although I prefer AM and PM.
    aka Penelope, I think that a foot of snow might not be too bad an idea for a Valentines party, at least you'd know everyone had come with their loved one so wuoldn't be stuck with a load of annoying strangers!

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  6. Your photos are exactly how it looks traveling through snow. I always feel as if I'm in my own little safe world as we move along through it.

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  7. I've been staring goggle-eyed at news photos of the snow in Europe. Here in Japan we've been experiencing record low temperatures and heavy snowfalls, too. (Not in Tokyo, though.)

    The unfocused photos give us a much better idea of what the journey must have been like. Glad you made it home safely. Stay warm!

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  8. Oh, I'm so envious that you got some snow, Jenny! We here in the States have gotten very little this winter. I'm such a winter lover, therefore enjoy snow.

    GREAT shots! I actually like the blurriness.

    " I thought the results looked more like paintings than photos."

    You're right...that's exactly what they look like to me too. I especially like the one of the wing mirror. How COOL!

    I've been to Europe, however, never to London. One day I MUST get there because I hear such wonderful things about it.

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  9. Your horrendous journey resulted in some terrific pictures. I particularly liked the one of the bus at St John's Wood, and the other one at Maida Vale. We had snow. Not as bad but bad enough. Our gritting services, and others, seemed to be ahead of the game this year. Probably because they'd had to wait for snow to happen. I don't relish the icy conditions that are predicted.

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  10. Your way of description and showing these photos make me feel free from something tight.It's dinamic and fun to read and see yours. It must be cold outside. Keep warm and have a nice week.

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  11. Yes, some of those are spectacular photographs (the bus in St Johns Wood one is particularly so). For some reason the iPhone does a better job on this kind of shot than a normal camera. One of those occasions where - as far as settings and programmes are concerned - less is more.

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  12. I grew up in Minnesota and have lived in Wisconsin and now North Dakota. There's nothing like a blizzard or a bad snowstorm to get people out shopping up here. I swear it's a defiance against the weather. I mean I can see it if it's not wanting to be snowed in without that extra trip to the grocery store or just plain old claustrophobia but I worked at a mall and people came just to shop...almost triumphantly. I suppose you have to be a stubborn, hardy sort to live up here, eh? LOL!

    Great pics! Quite a familiar sight to me. Just different buildings. ;) I hate those trips that take quadruple the time because of bad roads. Glad you got home safe and sound!! :):)

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  13. i never liked driving in the snow. i do however like looking at the snow....especially when it starts, when there is a fresh pretty white blanket of snow!!

    the flower in my header is a water lily. i took the shot this past summer and as soon as i saw the picture, i knew where it was going!!

    i am 201 and very happy to be here!!

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  14. Very atmospheric photographs, I like the way the water on the window distorts the pictures.As a pedestrian in London that evening - it's not so bad, though the unpredicatble cars are a bit scarey! Then in the provinces it seemed like everyone went out to make a snowperson...

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  15. I feel as if I were right there in the car with you! Feeling a bit anxious right along with you too. I'm glad you arrived home safely.

    And I love the "art" you captured!

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  16. Fascinating pictures. There's always a sense of unreality when driving in snowy conditions - and the desire to be safely home.
    Congratulations on your 200 x

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  17. Heh I love how you said the snow was "not exactly unexpected" but Heathrow was not exactly well-prepared either. Lived in Glasgow for four years and it was the same story every year - roads got closed, trains got cancelled, all irritating at the time but such fondly-remembered eccentricities now! Spent about six months in London as well though I missed the really wintry months. God I miss that city. Great blog!

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  18. Wonderful photos. I have driven in snowy weather like that and could feel the anxiety in your photos.
    Home always feels so good after a drive like that.
    Glad you made it home safe.

    cheers, parsnip

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  19. There is a definite "impressionist" quality to your pictures. Good to see the one of Maida Vale -- my sister-in-law lived not far away for many years and it's one part of London I'm actually familiar with! Glad you are now home safe and warm!

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  20. Love the pics, Jenny, especially that first one.

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  21. Great photos - a really different take on London in the snow. I really like the photo of St John's Wood - many moons ago I lived in an hotel there while working on relief staff for what was then Midland Bank. Glad it wasn't me doing that drive though.

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  22. Thank you for the pics Jenny, I was living in London during the last snowfall & coming back to the midlands for a visit took 11 hours in a car (2 hours trip!) so glad to see it's not so insanely bad this year, still I know public transport down there will still show the effects of it lol thanks for sharing

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  23. very beautiful travelogue which is notable with its simplicity and natural style...

    the pictures have the quality of paintings...

    the snow is not familiar for people from our region in india and is exciting for me...

    thanks for sharing and waiting for more like this...

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  24. I especially love the N°1 and 3 pictures, they really look like modern paintings!
    I still don't understand why, each winter, cities are not ready and seem to be surprised by "snow in winter"!

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  25. The snow was here at 4 as an absolute blizzard and then it was 6C and raining by ten.
    Good pics. I love the one with the bus! It reminded me of a painting I saw in Bath's Victoria Art gallery by Peter Brown, i couldn't find the exact one, but it was something like this one:
    http://www.victoriagal.org.uk/images/large_58-milk-float-and-snowfall-queen-square-20-25.jpg

    But I rather enjoyed the little adventure of scenes the search too me on, so thank you for that.

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  26. Wonderful photos, I especially like the one of the Maida Vale tube station. That's quite a bit of now there on the road. Thanks for braving the wintery conditions and showing us a glimpse of your part of the world.
    Regards, Giselle

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  27. Very good those! I know that area well, but rarely with snow like that.

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  28. Nice! I remember the place in the second pic... drive safely! :-)

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  29. Here also falling snow, but today was a spectacular day of nonstop rain in the mountains we have a lot (which is never enough). Good photos, I love. A greeting.

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  30. These are fantastic, absolutely painterly photos (no Photoshop required)! Well caught.

    - Jenny

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  31. Love your photos, had heard about the London snow on the news, but these make it so much more real. Love if you sent a little bit over to us! Just a little, mind, we had enough of big falls last year!
    congrats on your 199 followers; as I'm already one, no 200 won't be me.

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  32. Thanks for all these great comments. I'll be round at your blogs as soon as I can to continue the conversations, and will try and post here too as soon as I can.

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  33. Jenny, what a handsome boy (your son?)! The white snow in London! It`s beautiful :o) You know, I miss White snow so much. In Russia they clean roads fast and easy with a special salt. We have no ice, but we have a lot of dirt (melted ice) and it`s very dificult to wash it from our outfits.
    Keep warm
    Natasha

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  34. Some of these pictures do look like impressionistic paintings.

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  35. Glad you made it home safely. The immediate thought when seeing your first photo was Edwin Hopper who you referenced in a later shot.

    Cute little fellow there at the end after all the chill.

    Darla

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  36. Sounds troublesome, but the pictures are very pretty indeed.

    Driving in snowy conditions sounds real scary, though.

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  37. Jenny, The photos are wonderful. The movement makes the pictures magical. Congratulations on 199 plus.... Bonnie

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  38. I've had the similar experience like this a few years ago. It started snowing heavily when I was on my way home by car. Without any preparation, I was worried that I would't make it back home in one piece. Then I got an email on my cellphone
    from a friend of mine saying,"Look, how beautiful a snow scape is!" Far from enjoying snow then!

    The innocent happy look on the lovely boy brought me up to a warm reality from
    an unrealistic fairytales world.

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  39. I enjoyed your photos and some do look like paintings as you said . I can see the snow really coming down. I hope the two women in your photos got rides home. Stay warm!

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  40. It's all been said but I have to say, too, that the pictures look so much like a cross between paintings and photographs and I think they are brilliant. I was going to add that I thought the first one was the best but when I looked at the others again I just couldn't decide. Great post, Jenny.

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  41. Indeed these pictures have a painting-like quality to them, very beautiful! We have not had much snow here, but it is bitingly cold with azure skies and plenty of sun during the day.

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  42. Thanks for the fun, albeit harrowing, ride! I know all about the anxiety of driving/riding in snowstorms but this is my first (and probably only) experience of riding through London in the snow. Great pictures, right in the action with special effects supplied by the dab hand of Mother Nature herself.

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  43. These are wonderful, partly precisely because of the lack of sharpness. They convey the atmosphere brilliantly. I am quite bowled over by them.

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  44. I just loved these photo's, they almost look like paintings ... you captured the journey and weather wonderfully.

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  45. I really enjoyed these photos and commentary. Whatsmore, I recognised some of the places from my recent visit. We do not have snow very often, if at all, here where I love in OZ so, at the risk of sounding naive, it was a relevation see the vicissitudes of driving and getting about. Good that you made it home safely.

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  46. It was very pretty yesterday just beofre it melted.

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  47. Such super photos of your snow! Loved #3 with the bus
    Here in NY it's oddly mild.

    So sad what's going on in Egypt.
    Rather doubt we will get there this year.

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  48. I do hope that the worst is over as I hate driving in the snow. On the bright side, my daughters have made a snowman and they had a lot of fun. Every cloud has its silver lining, as you say one here...
    NB: I would love to meet you for a coffee. Surely we can find a tube station between paddington and Pimlico. Just saying. Have a lovely week!

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  49. First of all, I’m glad to know your safe return home in that condition, Jenny. It hasn’t snowed yet in my place this year. Last year, I remember having walked home slipping and sliding on the slippery road as all the bus services were stranded due to the blocked road by the slipped cars. Yes, your photos look more like paintings and I like them all, especially the first three images. After the tense driving, how nice to see the winter wonderland and to be welcomed back by such a cute boy! Stay warm.

    Yoko

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  50. What kind of car-clock gives military time? Very neat.

    And very descriptive photos as well; I have to admit: I have never considered snow in London.

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  51. Hello Jenny, I love the blurry photos, so atmospheric! You poor thing, what an awful journey. We have managed to avoid the snow here, which I am quite glad about. It's sad I used to love it when it snowed, but now I've gone all 'grown up' and sensible.
    Many thanks for your visit and kind comments. I hope you do check out Spitalfield's Life out, I think it would be particularly interesting to someone who lives in London.
    Have a great week, and stay cosy! Love Linda x

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  52. Goodness, what can I say that hasn't already been said? I'm glad there's no snow whatever in Belfast, driving in those conditions is no joke.

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  53. Hmmm.... Looks cold out there. If you want a little warm weather visit me:).I do a little bit of traveling myself. I love travel photos. Following you. Hope you find my blog interesting enough to follow too.
    www.thoughtsofpaps.com

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  54. I'm just talking on the phone to a friend from Glasgow who looks at your blog but doesn't blog or comment on them. She was telling me how wonderful she thought your pictures were (and was asking me how on earth you managed to get those effects). Just thought I'd let you know.

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  55. For one, good to know that you made it safely back and able to share those photos with us.

    The blurry photos are wonderful. Matches the atmosphere. I hope the lady in the first photo got her pickup early. I sure don't want to be standing around in cold outside!

    And after going through it, seeing the lovely little face can warm any hearts. :)

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  56. We just had a drive back home and we stopped so I could take the picture of some pink flowering trees – usually they flower in March but our winter has been so mild – no frost yet – that spring flowers are starting. I feel guilty when I see how cold it is in your area and all the snow.

    I read your past post about Cairo. My first cousins live in Heliopolis, Egypt and I visited them three times but I did not see anything exciting about this town – it is just a suburb of Cairo. There are some nice old buildings but they are crumbling for lack of care.

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  57. Despite the touble snow still has its magic!

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  58. Just goes to show that you don't always need 'pin sharp precision' for a photo to be full of emotion and life.
    It's been so muggy here (Geelong - Australia) for the past few months that I've almost forgotten what it is like to be cold.

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  59. Love the photos - especially the Hopperesque one with the shopper ...! I must admit that I grew up and still live in the south US - I've rarely experienced snow. The most we get is MAYBE an ice storm to shut the schools and shops down for a day or two. And even that is a rare occasion. I think we've only had one day of frost this winter. I wouldn't be able to cope with all that snow, I think.

    Happy endings to your journey :)

    xxx

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  60. My two favorite things: London, and Snow :) I'm a new bloger/writer and just added myself to your folowers to support you, maybe you'd like to come follow me? Thanks!

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  61. I am so thrilled to see even more interesting comments -appearing. I will be visiting your blogs soon, when I am back at my own computer. I hope everyone has a great week end.

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  62. Oh you always have the greatest adventures!

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  63. Hi, Jenny :o) Good news for you! You`re the lucky winner in my giveaway! Please, contact me as soon as possible. My e-mail madebynatalia@gmail dot com
    Hugs
    Natasha :o)

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  64. Great post and I love the blurry photos - really gets the point across!
    LOL, love the 'scary' little person in the last photo too - gorgeous!
    Cheers and keep safe in that weather, Susan xx :D)

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  65. Somehow, I missed this posting first time around. These are wonderful! The top one could easily pass for a painting. I could and did spend time in some of these. A beautiful post.

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  66. What wonderful "snow pictures" Jenny. Really atmospheric. It is summer in Australia, but they made me feel cold. Brrr!

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