There's a good line or two in an essay by Rob Cowen in the Spring anthology I've been reading. "Everything is brimming with possibility," he says. "Everything is pointing forward to what is to come. And isn't that the way with spring? It feels sweeter even than the highest summer day because it arrives while winter still holds the earth. Like the birdsong washing over Britain in the pre-dawn, spring emerges from the dark."
He's right, of course, and the 'dark' has just descended again with the arrival of heavy snow over much of Britain, principally at the moment the central belt of Scotland where everything is closing early and flights and trains have been cancelled. If the video is anything to go by, they seemed to cope better in the olden days ...
What a fascinating document! I am convinced that we were made of sterner stuff in those days... Thank you for showing it to us.
Posted by: kathleen | 28 February 2018 at 06:04 PM
I love those old BFI films. They show some on Talking Pictures TV, which is now my favourite channel. It was easier to keep steam trains running, of course.
As for the olden days, my sister and I can bore for England on 'we lived through the winter of 1962/3 and never had a day off school'.
Posted by: Callmemadam | 28 February 2018 at 06:56 PM
You're welcome, Kathleen. I do admire the 'let's just get on with it' attitude which people seemed to have then.
Posted by: Cornflower | 28 February 2018 at 07:09 PM
I remember deep snow in London in December 1962. The milkman couldn't deliver with his electric cart (had been by horse-drawn cart in the 50s) so we had to walk to the local dairy to get milk. Since it was bitterly cold, we put newspapers in our boots to supposedly help insulate our feet...not that it did. Winter definitely held the earth then.
Posted by: Mary | 28 February 2018 at 07:16 PM
Unthinkable nowadays!
Posted by: Cornflower | 28 February 2018 at 07:19 PM
Your poor toes!
Posted by: Cornflower | 28 February 2018 at 07:32 PM
I remember my Mother telling me that in the winter of 46/47 she climbed out of the bedroom window to hang my nappies on the line because the snow was so deep. Our milk was delivered by horse and cart and it came in metal churns and was measured into our own jugs. Can you imagine that happening now?
We never had days off from school because of snow, we all walked there every day come rain or shine. People generally did physically harder jobs than seem to be extant today.
I have enjoyed watching the snow today and it has only just stopped but would like it to be gone by tomorrow.
Posted by: Toffeeapple | 01 March 2018 at 08:54 PM
Yes, a different time and different standards, it seems.
Edinburgh has been a virtual ghost town today: no buses and trains running, the airport closed, schools and businesses shut. It will be good to get back to normal.
Posted by: Cornflower | 01 March 2018 at 09:16 PM