Blizzard conditions today and books

Well that is a bit of an exaggeration but the wind is swirling the snow around the back garden and we have what looks like a lunar landscape in the making. There was more snow last night - though not very much - and it has been snowing today in short bursts. I managed to walk to the post office earlier but I would probably need to get out my wellies and dust them off if I wanted to venture out now. Next door's new dog will be starting to think that the world is always white as he has hardly known anything different.

I am currently reading Natasha Walters' The New Feminism. It was published in 1999 and actually presents a very much more relaxed attitude to many things which are a big issues now. For example she talks about surveys showing women are not bothered about what people think about their appearance - clothes, weight, hair etc. This is certainly not the case now with girls as young as 5 worried about their weight! Are we going backwards over such issues?

The author has some interesting things to say about the way working life is organised on the basis that the breadwinner is cut off from their domestic life on the assumption that someone will be at home to take care of it. If domestic responsibilities were more evenly spread between men and women then working arrangements would need to be more flexible. I've worked with men who have had to leave work at particular times to pick up children and no one bats an eyelid.

Flexibility and getting rid of the long hours culture are probably two of the keys to the problem. With ever changing technology more and more work can be done wherever it is convenient to do it. There is video and telephone conferencing for communication. I can't help feeling that much of the business travel undertaken these days says more about people's love of status and being seen to be important than about the necessity for a face to face meeting. When I was doing a job which involved travelling to apparently essential meetings I used to get fed up of the waste of time and effort some of my journeys were. Yes I liked the travelling but that didn't stop me feeling some it was a waste.

Are we the only area with very little snow?

We do seem to be the one bit of the country with only a very light covering. I know some schools in Lincolnshire are closed but I think it's mainly the ones in the north of the county on the Wolds. Here - below sea level - we have a light covering which is gradually melting because of bright sunshine and clear blue skies. When I look at the weather map it looks as though there's a narrow band across the country which is escaping the worst of it - and we're in it. Not that I'm complaining.

I hope everyone reading this is well and safe and hasn't had any nasty experiences out and about.

Will this snow ever go?

Right it was beautiful when it first fell but that was last week, now it's overstayed its welcome. We've lost very little of ours apart from off the roof and other places where the sun's been on it. Then each night there's been a bit more to replace what was lost during the day. Still I can't change the weather and it still does look pretty when the sun's out as it is now. I am glad I'm not having to traipse out and get the bus every morning but I would like to go out and everywhere is so icy round here that I haven't done so as I don't want to risk breaking my arm again.

Perhaps I'm getting old as I'm concerned about things like that - but having done it once I've no wish to do it again - it was painful. In fact I'd rather go through my hysterectomy again than break anything - it hurt a lot less than my arm did.

Talking of getting old - I'm finding I'm far more claustrophobic than I was even 10 years ago and I'm wondering whether it's something which gets worse with age - anyone had the same experience? Enclosed spaces never used to worry me at all but now they really make me panicky to the extent I'd almost rather walk up several flights of stairs than get in a lift. Very odd.

Where has spring gone and books

I did think after such a pleasant day yesterday - apart from the cold start - that spring just might be in the air but today it's cold and blowy and wet. Come back spring, all is forgiven.

I finished reading M R Hall's The Coroner - a tense crime story, featuring as might be expected, the work of a coroner. I found it interesting as it features corruption in various places and it has a good old dig at the idea of privately run prisons. I think the only aspect for which I would criticise it is that Jenny - the Coroner of the title - had some anxiety problems which she found difficult to deal with and was constantly popping pills. I wasn't wholly convinced by this and was unsurprised to read - after I'd finished it - that the author is male and I don't think he's wholly got inside this female character.

It didn't spoil the book for me as the plot was excellent and the other characters convincing. It is made clear in the story that there is something in Jenny's past which caused her mental problems but what exactly is not revealed. I'm assuming there will be others in the series and hopefully all will become clear. I would still recommend the book especially for its different background from the usual.

I'm currently reading The Music Room by William Fiennes, an interesting memoir of his childhood growing up in a moated castle somewhere near Warwickshire. His portrait of his brother who suffered from a severe form of epilepsy and how it affected the whole family is poignant but accepting. Memoir is interspersed with excursions into various theories of the mechanics of epilepsy. The writing is of excellent quality with evocative descriptions of the countryside, his home and the various flora and fauna. Worth reading.

Cold weather

We have had a tragedy locally which made it to the national news I believe. A lady was killed in her car which got stuck on a level crossing as a train approached. Most of our country level crossings have those automatic barriers which come down less than a minute before the train is due. Unfortunately - as I understand it - her car got shunted onto the crossing by a van behind which hadn't realised she'd stopped. Because of the weather - icy roads - she couldn't manage to get herself or her car off the track in time. This must have been horrific for those who witnessed it and were unable to help as well of course for the lady's family.

Apart from events like this - why does the country grind to a halt in a bit of cold weather? I can never understand this. Round here we seem to be functioning reasonably well in a general sort of way - partly because we've got ice and not snow I think.

No book news today as I'm still in the process of reading Barchester Towers and a sort of cookery memoir by Daisy Garnett called Cooking Lessons. I'm not too sure about this as I'm finding it a shade patronising and also many of the recipes belong to other cookery writers - which she has acknowledged. Lists of ingerdients in other recipes seem incredibly long to me as well. She doesn't seem to take into account the fact that cookery is not an exact science and you only find out what you like by experimenting. More of this when I've finished it. The 4 letter words spoil it as well for me.