H&CVB IN SADDLEWORTH - 8th FEBRUARY and SNAILSDEN - on the 29th

Storm Ciara is roaring around here today so I might as well put yesterday's pics on here to pass the time.

The H&CVB had a lawn meet in Saddleworth - 8th February 2020 

Port and hot sausages and they were both delicious and I confess to probably having had more than my fair share of the sausages.

Puppies with their 'Walker' that will join the pack next season.

More interested in playing.

I think he is getting up off his resting stone.

After storm Ciara, the worst one as far as I am concerned, we are now on the third one Jorge - no it is not a misspelling.  In fact it seems to have been constant rain and wind since the end of September so no doubt 'records were broken' one way or another.

With sodden ground and incessant rain the Rockwood Harriers called it a day for this season some time ago.  Sad.

The H&CVB have persevered but I am not a fan of rain, nor the exposed moors, nor the strong wind.  In the old days if it rained a friend and I used to go swimming instead of beagling.  In those days moors were more the exception than the rule.  

Getting near the season end I went to an H&CVB meet as there was a gap in the weather from morning rain to more later in the evening.

Holme and Colne Valley Beagles meet at Snailsden - 29th February 2020

A young lady should be complimented for having provided fortifying Port and warm sausage rolls. 

So just a very few pics, mostly of stoic Yorkshire men and women kitted out to endure the chilly strong blustery wind. 

Well, that was that really.  I lingered on by No8 shooting butt, beautifully and sturdily constructed and with a nice big block of dressed stone as a useful seating position outside the entrance, while things happened somewhere, unseen in the distance.  Having had my sausage buttie with extra mustard (English of course) from the local deli, I abandoned the H&CVB to the strong blustery cold wind for a mug of soup at home.  

The local forecast was quite good as it became a bit sunny when it said it would and stopped fine for the afternoon in between two weather systems, both as bad.  

The longer range forecasts have been desperate for snow for at least a month or so and are still at it with terrifying predictions, as is their wont, so maybe it will, but otherwise we seem to have missed it. As I write on the same evening I took these pics Jorge seems to have arrived and is thrashing down the valley in horizontal waves of water.

Addendum - 

The Express today 4 March - Much smashing and what not -

UK snow forecast: Long-range chart shows Britain BOMBARDED by snow as Arctic blitz strikes

SNOW is expected to smash into the UK according to the latest long-range weather chart as bitterly cold air continues to grip..

.According to the latest snow risk chart by Netweather, the UK will be smashed by snowfall on Wednesday 11 March.

The charts show the snow appearing to fall to low levels, with high risk in Scotland, Northern Ireland, northern England and northern Wales.

Moving further towards the middle of the month, the snow risk chart predicts the country will be battered once again by the white stuff.

I wait with bated breath. Bound to be right sooner or later although the 'smashing' sounds a bit far fetched.

Update 11 March - In the 4th  March they said - ".According to the latest snow risk chart by Netweather, the UK will be smashed by snowfall on Wednesday 11 March."

Well despite highly trained and qualified meteorologists with the latest predictive computer technology, this so called forecast was a total failure unless some remote bit of the Scottish Highlands was smashed.

There was no snow smashing today!  The temperature was around 9C in the foothills of the Pennines with a sunny morning and showers this afternoon.  Another wrong emotive prediction.