It may only be a third of the way through October, but going by the temperature when I got in my car this morning: 2 oC, it is about time we ran our annual snow book competition.
The usual criteria applies: the date when a layer of snow settles on the ground outside our unit in Hawes. The local farmers around my way, (which is always a few degrees colder than Hawes on account of being in the back end of nowhere and higher up), say that it is going to be a long, hard, cold winter until March 2014. It does feel like we skipped Autumn and have gone straight from summer to winter.
Please e-mail Iona at ionahill@gmail.com to add your entry. The prize will be a luscious pot of our new mystery cheese. In the past three years, snow started here, outside our unit at Hawes as follows:
6th December 2012 – Duncan the Builder from the Ribblehead was the winner
5th November 2011 – Lydia was the winner
18th November 2010 – first snow but no snow book
2013
3rd November: Andrew, Ribblesdale Cheese. (We want to know what Andrew knows. His entry is very unnerving as Andrew also farms and this makes me think he knows something!)
5th November: my friend Sue
6th November: Debbie, commercial cheese making alumni
7th November: Una
7th November: Geoff, commercial cheese making class alumni, whose wife Chris opted for a little later
9th November: Jean at Wensleydale Dairy
11th November: Ross, one of our customers, who says, ‘I’ve been reading your blog and I would like to add an entry to the snow book please. I think it will be the 11th November. I think this because it’s my 21st birthday then so it will be a special day’.
12th November: Karen from my local, The Station Inn
13th November: Christina, Turophile from Slough
15th November: Gordon, delivery driver for a customer of ours
16th November: Kate, for the first layer of snow in Hawes. (A very speedy reply – first off the block!)
16th November: Jason, my electrician who (like me) fears for a long and hard, snowy winter
16th November: Stu, our goat milk organiser and it happens to be his birthday too!
18th November: Roger, our cow milk provider
19th November: Alan, Transport Manager for one of our customers
21st November: my friend Nicola, fund manager in the US
22nd November: Pearl at Barclays, Hawes, because it is the 50th anniversary of JFKs death
28th November: Chris, commercial cheese making class alumni
28th November: Jo, landlady at my local, the Station Inn, aka The Ribblehead
29th November: Nigel, resident of Hardraw
2nd December: Steve, our Parcelforce man
6th December: Robert, one of our goat milk delivery drivers
11th December: Lou, Jason the electrician’s wife – and also because it is her birthday – congrats in advance, Lou!
13th December: Carol at Wensleydale Dairy
14th December: David at High Blean B&B Askrigg
14th December: Adrian, secretary at Nantiwch Show: I predict that 14th December is the date we have pencilled in to come back to our favourite part of the country !!
15th December: Stu, Ribblesdale Cheese
16th December: Simon, Weardale Willie, also a cheese making alumni whose daughter’s birthday is also 16th December
17th December: Iona, Ribblesdale Cheese, (mine is purely wishful thinking, wanting the snow to arrive at the last possible moment because I am dreading the drive to and from work)
18th December: Dave, Teeside Logistics/APC
18th December: Richard, cheese making alumni from Swaledale. He says, ‘last year, I have photos of the goats trying to eat the chicken food in an inch of snow on October 22nd. However this year I predict it will start like a proper winter, on about and run through to March.
20th December: my friend Jan the rather splendid photographer
21st December: Greg@ Brytec
28th December: Pat, owner of the tea van at the Ribblehead junction who thinks it is going to be a mild winter
7th Jan 2014: Peter G
Comments 9
Greg@ Brytec 21 st December
Sent from my iPhone
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Author
Thanks, Greg!
Geoff predicts November7th. I think it will be a little later and go for 28th November.
Chris
Author
Hello Chris and Geoff
Many thanks for your entry into the annual snow competition.
Hope all is well with you both, the goats and cheese making.
With best wishes
Iona
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6th Nov for snow. Love the cheese painting! Debbie Baker
Author
Thank you, Debbie, me too! I will add you to the snow book.
With best wishes
Iona
Hi Iona,
………….December 16th!
Nicely wedged between your and Stu’s guesses! Plus it’s Molly’s birthday!
Cheers, Simon