Lots and lots of snowflakes.
You may enlarge the photographs below of our back yard (British, garden) and see for yourself.
Our blogger friend Yorkshire Pudding in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England reported today that England has had absolutely no snow this year and it is most 'unwinterly' (a meteorological term he invented for the occasion) to say the least. Well, until today, neither has Georgia, which is why I am positively giddy about being able to post about it to all of you in the wider world.
As luck would have it, it also has been snowing in our front yard today. Here's the view earlier this morning from our front door. You are looking at -- mirabile dictu -- our neighbor's house across the street.
Speaking of Beatrice Lillie, Lady Peel, she was a personage of another era. Here is a photograph of her taken, as it happens, on my seventh birthday (March 18, 1948) by the world-famous photographer Yousuf Karsh, a survivor of the Armenian genocide earlier in the twentieth century. According to what I read, over 20 photos by Karsh appeared on the cover of Life magazine, itself another relic of a bygone era.
Beatrice Lillie, friend of Noel Coward and Cole Porter, is indeed an artifact from days gone by. She was, according to something I read a long time ago, "a comic actress and satirist who parodied the flowery performing style of even earlier decades when arias, declamations, recitations, and poetry readings were all the rage". If she looks the slightest bit familiar to you, maybe you remember seeing her in the role of the villainous Mrs. Meers, laundress and white slaver, in the 1967 technicolor movie Thoroughly Modern Millie, the version that starred Julie Andrews.
I think I remember hearing Bea Lillie perform “I brought my harp to the party, but nobody asked me to play; the others were jolly and hearty, but I wasn’t feeling so gay” way back in the dark ages, but I couldn’t find it on Youtube. (I couldn’t find Helen Hayes reciting “The White Magnolia” either, but that has nothing to do with this post.) So if you have been dying to hear Beatrice Lillie perform, here she is doing -- and this will bring this post full circle -- “There Are Fairies at the Bottom of our Garden” (2:32) on an old 78-rpm vinyl recording.
I know this post will irritate Yorkshire Pudding for several reasons, but it simply can't be helped.
It is still snowing, four hours later, and here's a picture of our patio table to prove it:
Cheerio, ta-ta for now, and other phrases people like Noel Coward, Cole Porter, and Beatrice Lillie were always saying.
I am so jealous of the moisture contained in your snow. Cooler temperatures would be more than welcome too.
ReplyDeleteThere are no fairies in our garden either (top, bottom or middle). In season there are some naked ladies though (which some know as amaryllis).
Elephant's Child (Sue), I was glad to read that rain had put out one-third of the wildfires in your country. I will pray for more rain.
DeleteThere have never been naked ladies in our garden because Mrs. Rwp is very modest and the neighbors don't RSVP to my invitations.
Until this morning while some of Australia had received welcome rain (and some too much) we had not. As I type I rejoice in the sound and scent of rain, and hope that the fire nearest us is well on its way to being extinguished.
DeleteSue, do not rejoice so much that your neighbors see naked ladies in your garden.
DeleteThat's a beautiful snow! Isn't it a bit unusual to have snow in Georgia? Of course these days the weather is so strange everywhere. We've had a lot of snows this year but most of them have only been in the 2-4 inch range. We've only needed the snow blower twice.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, it is unusual to have snow in Georgia. We have four definite seasons but some years we get no snow at all. I think it was in the winter of 2011-12 that we had five separate snowfalls, some kind of local record, and one of them occurred on Christmas Day. I also remember living in Nebraska with 30 degrees below zero temperatures (Fahrenheit) and icicles reached from the eaves to the ground. Also Dutchess County, New York, when the snow was at least three feet deep and made drifts that covered our front door from top to bottom. I do not long for those days at all.
DeleteYou are certainly getting a lot of snow. Beatice Lillie was a joy to watch. She had a fantastic speaking voice.
ReplyDeleteEmma, three inches total is what we received. Just a smidgen compared to northwest Iowa. I may have to bring out Beatrice Lillie doing "March to the Beat of the Drum" again just to irritate Yorkshire Pudding further.
DeleteGreat Britain is an island and we have a temperate maritime climate influenced by the warm Gulf Streat so it is more usual not to have snow than have it. This winter has been pretty average for us over. The snow in your pictures looks just enough to be attractive and not too much of a problem.
ReplyDeleteRachel Phillips, I forgot about the Gulf Stream, which does make a difference. Our snow is already gone.
DeleteLove the pictures! The snow is beautiful, but I'm sure it caused a lot of problems.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't had snow, but lots of rain with flooding. Crazy weather.
Kathy, lots of wrecks were reported on the roads. Our problem here is ice more than snow.
DeleteWOT! No comment from YP? You don't hear mirabile dictu very much these days possibly it's no longer wonderful to relate.
ReplyDeleteGraham, I don't comment on YP's blog nearly as much as I used to. Maybe that has something to do with his absence here, since according to Newton for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A blog at rest tends to remain at rest, and all that.
DeleteMind you I go through very busy periods, particularly if I'm away, when I may read and not comment (or may not read if truth be told). One problem is that it's easy to read on my phone but exceptionally hard to comment because of the need to sign in each time.
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