Wednesday 3 December 2014

Advent calendar 3 - Frost...


The first real frost of winter settled upon us overnight, covering the cars in a white rime and freezing the sap in the flowers that have so valiantly struggled on past autumn. Well, it had to come didn’t it, the cold snap; it wouldn’t be winter without a touch of frost.

I volunteered to scrape the wife’s windscreen and I was surprised just how thick the film of ice was. Of course I neglected to wear gloves and by the time I’d finished scraping my hands were freezing and my fingers felt like icicles as I scratched the word 'Frost' in the white stuff.

Icicles, now there’s a thing. As a child I loved looking at the icicles that hung from the guttering above my bedroom window. They sparkled like diamonds in the cold white moonlight. Of course I wasn’t so keen on the ice that formed on the inside of the windows overnight, but those icicles were a little bit of magic in a world where I needed as much magic as I could get.

My bedroom was at the corner of the house and my bed backed onto an outside wall. On bitter cold nights I would put my hand on the wallpaper and feel the cold permeating in from the outside through the brick and plaster. No central heating then, no heating upstairs at all.

Those childhood icicles were magnificent, often growing to over two feet in length and I was always sad when the inevitable thaw came as they slowly dripped away to nothing. It was worth the artic atmosphere of my bedroom just to let those massive icicles form, which they surely wouldn’t have done if there had been heating upstairs. Every cloud has a silver lining they say, even if it is made of ice.

11 comments:

  1. Cloe Fyne on FB
    Ah I like this one

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bernadette Doyle on FB
    I remember ice on the inside of the window after Jack Frost had visited during the night. Was dead pleased when we got central heating.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sharon Taylor on FB
    we knocked down one of our icicles and kept it in the freezer for ages because we were so impressed with its size, also had the ice on the inside of the bedroom window, I spun my bed round to have the headboard end in the middle of the room to stay warmer!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kevin Parrott in FB
    Frost flowers inside the windows, I remember them well.
    Kevin Parrott's photo.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Andrew Height
    The only ice we had was on the Windows. No fridge, no freezer. Ice at home still feels like a luxury item. 'Do you want ice?' 'Ooooh, yes please!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sharon Taylor on FB
    the Ice Man cometh - a quote from Betty Boop - I kid you not

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew Height
      Great cartoon Sharon. I love Betty Boop.

      Delete
    2. Sharon Taylor
      me too, especially the ice man ;O)

      Delete
  7. Lindsey Messenger on FB
    Oh yes I remember frost on the inside of windows .... Always looked so pretty. Can't imaging it now as I sit he in my warm cosy home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Andrew Height
      I wonder if it still happens

      Andrew Height
      I once had a few icicles hanging from my window on the inside Lindsey. I think it was in 1963?

      Delete