Last of the Summer Wine

easily hibernate during the winter months, but "she who must be obeyed" insists on going to Scotland over Christmas and New Year in the snow. Mind you once you get naked in the snow it soon wakes you up!

Being snuggled up cosy indoors, walks in the bracing (cold!) winds which blow all the crap out of your head, kicking up the leaves on the ground, not overheating when the dog comes under the duvet in the early hours, dark evenings, dark mornings where you have an excuse for staying in bed (you don't have to get up until it's light!) but feel thoroughly virtuous if you do roll out and get an early walk in. And as for snowy days - I could sit for hours at the window watching snow fall, it's one of THE most beautiful sights on the planet.

What's not to love about it! Bring it on......

I have been to the Cairngorms on a skiing holiday when Aviemore first became popular as a ski resort. It was brilliant fun.

Scotland is beautiful at any time of year, and the Scottish people make it extra special, as they are such friendly welcoming people. I've yet to go to Scotland and not enjoy myself.

I too love to watch the snow falling. It is somehow hypnotic, but I would prefer it if snow could miss the roads, somehow. That, or change my transport for skis and sledge. I have always fancied a go at dog sledding  :)

What a great idea :)  I get totally bored with the sunshine holidays, as it is too hot to do anything really fun except go in the water (and I am accident prone in water so I avoid it!)

Look at this:

http://www.wildernessadventure.co.uk/

Wow .. that's for me :)

Dogs & snow - fab! And the dogs are soooooo cute :)

But we definitely need the snow on the roads or I can't be properly snowed in! You've got horses haven't you? Attach a sled to one and you're sorted! Their long legs will make it through the snow and you'll have great fun.....

I forgot to add snowball fights with the dog to my list of things I love about winter. She doesn't throw them back but is good at dodging (or I'm crap at throwing).

Another thing - if it wasn't dark so early in winter I wouldn't get the full effect of my Christmas fairy lights - twinkle therapy :)

Add sparklers to my list too :)

Turkey and stuffing sarnies.

Mince pies.

The smell of turkey roasting in the oven.

Val Doonican (it brings back memories!)

As a Scot, I can tell you that you're comments are much appreciated!

As a typical Leo, I of course enjoy the sun - but at any time of the year. As you say, it is hard to beat the snow-covered Highlands of Scotland on a cloudless day  (yes, we do get a lot of them up here over winter!). I've been known to walk around in a T-shirt at -10 deg C because the reflected sun is so warm!

And it makes mountain climbing and walking so much more interesting!

So yes, warm summer days I enjoy, but I don't wish my life away waiting for them.

The ground going hard with the frost instead of mushy and muddy.

American footy season!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Christmas Radio Times - even if there's nothing worth watching these days.

I bet I can get 101 things I love about winter without straining my brain cells! Maybe even 1001. It's putting me in a really good mood thinking about winter. Now all I need is for the weather forecast to say heavy snow in the South of England and I'm dancing in the streets!

I always find it funny when in Autumn I'm wearing jumpers in weather that, come Spring, would have me excitedly risking just shirt sleeves or a t-shirt. A lot of it is a matter of perception, I suppose.

I'm a fan of both hot and cold but I can't stand the inbetween times - I'd much rather know that I can go about in shorts or bundle up with as many layers as will fit than debate whether I'll be too hot in a jacket or freeze without one.

And then there's the rain...

I don't have one .. I just have the gas powered 'pretend' log fire, but I love the cosy atmosphere of family gathered around the fire at Christmas. Have to watch the moggies when they play with the Xmas wrapping paper though :(

I love the way the new snow crunches when you walk on it. I don't have horses anymore, but my old mare used to love the snow, and would go tearing around at high speed, bucking and broncing, when let out of the stable (suitably rugged up, of course!). She often fell when racing around the corners, but just got up, shook herself off, and started again!

'Last of the Summer Wine' country is superb in winter  :)

There is no such thing as bad weather ....... just the wrong clothes.

Ah the joy of bits of wet shredded wrapping paper after pooch has opened her presents! I guess there is one thing about winter I don't enjoy - the hours spent wrapping her presents only to see them shredded in minutes. But then the look on her face and the waggy tail...... If only I could get the cats that interested....

Not sure if having to stand the Chrimbo tree back up repeatedly when enthusiastic little ones have knocked it over and tossed the baubles down the stairs is a good thing or not but summer lacks all of this.

Henry - is the rain you mention the spring showers, the summer downpours, the autumn drizzle or the winter trying to be snow?! :)

This is another item on my wish list.

Has anyone seen them in real life? Are they worth the trip? They look magical on film.

And they are spectacular, believe me.

I once saw them as far south as Berwick-upon-Tweed, though they didn't have the amazing colours and curtain effect that you see from the likes of northern Norway - now that is a cold and dark place during winter, but stunning.

A fellow dog-walker has & like BKD said they were amazing. Worth a trip apparently....

I have never been to Scotland for the New Year ... but I can imagine the celebrations there would be brilliant!

Can you recommend anywhere in particular .. or do you spend it with family?

We always close our office between Christmas & the New Year ... so a trip for the New Year is a possibility :)

Christmas is good, but that is the last day of fall - after that winter starts and it is all downhill, and I don't mean skiing, makes you feel bi-polar, one minute Christmas parties, the next the mother flipping SA deadline - followed by the beastly month of February, which has an extra miserable mother flipping day next year (jeez, why we can't have the extra one in June I don't know), and then, just when things are starting to look up as spring approaches they rob a mother flipping hour off you!

The soccer form book goes out the window in the Premiership as the pitches turn to mudder flipping (see what I did there? :o) ) mires and the beautiful game turns ugly until spring. Ah spring, made me think of home and a little poem we have back in the Bronx. 

Der spring is sprung
Der grass is riz
I wonder where dem boidies is?

Der little boids is on der wing,
Ain't dat absoid?
Der little wings is on de boid!

 Sorry, I digressed:

 - and, you have to wait for the weekend to the mother flipping sun! Not forgetting that sting in the tail if you've had a good year, as Mr Chancellor takes his dues just as your are starting to rein in the yuletide debt, and if that's not enough you get foreign terrorists with dodgy accents   trying to blow the mother flipping building up or unpatriotic military punks trying to crash the mother flipping plane when all you want to do is get cozy with the wife, yippee-ki-yay indeed!

Don't know - can't remember any ;)

We always spend it with friends, usually in a rented cottage in the middle of nowhere (but within strking distance of a pub, of course)

I did Edinburgh once - incredible atmosphere (helped by fulfilling a lifelong dream in seeing Debbie Harry in the flesh, supporting Scissor Sisters, underneath the Castle Fireworks. Something special)

And the autumn sun is much more mellow and calming than summer - that's just hot and sweaty.

I've never been to Scotland but would love to go. I've done Ireland - again the people were friendly, the countryside very pleasant (not up to Scotland I'd guess) and the weather was bracing. And I did Wales - wet and miserable. Not a fond childhood memory. But if I win the lottery I might buy a nice little island way up in the Hebrides and become a proper hermit. Now that would be heaven :)

Well you obviously haven't read the above posts that have listed a veritable number of excellent features. Plus I forgot advent calendars - an excuse to eat chocolate first thing in the morning every day for a month :)  I guess it depends whether you have an optimistic outlook to life or not. I'd rather look on the bright side and take delight in a rainy day (summer or winter). Had you thought of putting your heating on? I've found that works well to prevent freezing to death. And you must have Sky because the only adverts I get Christmas Day are telling me that I can go and join the masses buying sofas and carpet at great deals on Boxing Day. Maybe you should hibernate all winter and just come back out in spring?

I'm not a doom & gloom merchant myself. You can find the 'bad' in anything and everything if you want to.

Flash ... Yorkshire is worth a visit. You can even visit Holmfirth where the filming of 'Last of the Summer Wine took place. Most Yorkshire folk are very friendly and welcoming, and we have some glorious countryside :)

ps. Sadly, Nora Batty is no longer with us, but I do a very good impression :)

If you prefer to be miserable, then who am I to argue with you?

I am going to have a ball   :)

snowball?!!!

I love the fall, as I said it goes out with a bang that is Christmas, and spring, because it means winter is over at last.

Summer is not far behind winter in the hate stakes, too hot and sticky on this mother flipping island, and at its worst the sun seems to rise before it has even set so you can't get no mother flipping sleep - not least because the mother flipping neighbours think it a good idea to have salmonella parties serving meat that is burnt black on the outside and raw in the middle into the small hours of the mother flipping morning to the loud accompaniment of what appear to be a band of irate gorilla's fighting with a truck load of drums. Not that sleep would be possible because of the sneezing itchy nose and streaming eyes, wheezy chest and scratchy burning throat caused by the mother flipping pollen, the only respite being the odd moment of bloodlust chasing the mother flipping mosquittoes with the hoover - so, you end up working late, pausing regularly to peel the mother flipping paper off your arm and squint to see what was written there as your sweat has smudged it to hell and back and makes it so your pen can't write. You consider driving to your nice air-conditioned office but that is impractical because all the mother flipping roads have been dug up, the ones that haven't been have collapsed thru dodgy foreign stuttering terrorists blowing trains up underneath them and you face a 50 mile diversion to make the 3 mile journey and the price of gas makes that a non starter, and anyway, the mother flipping roads are grid-locked because some punk of an IT geek has hacked in to the internet and started a mother flipping firesale, so even if you got to work all the systems would be down anyway. 

And next year we have all that plus the mother flipping olympics to endure - yippee - ki -mother flipping - yay

I'm now seriously in the mood for a long autumn & winter - I've remembered lots of great things to look forward to and bought a lovely selection of Christmassy films from LL's favourite site earlier so I can savour December properly. And its just occurred to me that I can avoid over-indulging on home-made mince pies by baking them (the first batch anyway) at the start of December and enjoying them throughout the month rather than in large quantities over the space of a few (couple) of days. Baking you see is something that is more enjoyable in colder weather. I am a genius it's true! Oh happy, happy days.......................... 

So did I and had the same experience (and I'm not talking about the weather)

All of Wales or just part?! ;) 

I was at school with a Welsh girl and she was very miserable. I had a Welsh teacher who was jolly but that was probably the experience of teaching me that improved her outlook dramatically!

  Last of the Summer Wine Posted by Lord Lucan PM | on Thu, 13/10/2011 - 11:06  232  26 comments | report print 

Is it just me

Looks like it

We were only taught French at high school!

:) She taught Latin - another dying language yet more useful because of its effect on today's grammar and vocab.

Our French teacher had a strong Irish accent, no wonder I got blank looks in Paris, although that may be more that Texan's aren't good at foreign languages.

... and I can still remember how to ask someone to open the window,

 ... and close the door!  :)

Je suis x ans. Ou est la fenestra s'il vous plait? (I'll have to climb out of it as I can't remember door in french!) Merci beaucoup. Au revoir!

Du bist krank in der kopf!

Only joking Flash ... you are a good 'un! :)

lol ... I'm hopeless at Emglish, too :)

Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JbOa1ssGX8 

Plus these too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnJxafaOGbQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUd1BhokZq4 

yippee-ki-yay 

Have a nice day ya'll,

As Flash said, invaluable in helping with grammar, vocabulary and ........ spelling

hehe ... Flash Gordon eat your heart out ... I'm in grease lightning form tonight and a killer on the keyboard - key speed limits mean nothing to me  :)

Ansteckend ist!

I have the opposite problem! Tiny hands and short fingers so my fingers have to travel further ... and I can't span a full octave on the piano or organ, hence my lack of ability on those musical instruments (that's my excuse anyway!).

You want to get one without a faulty apostrophe key as well.

She'll just be behind them on her sledge wearing a thick woolly jumper making the most of the fresh air and enjoying every minute of winter!

3ft???? I may be small but I'm a bit taller than 3ft!

I'm not a lurker!

I'm far too honest for that! I admit to my faults as well as my virtues and I don't need to hide behind anything :)

EDIT: My first 'proper' car ... I didn't count my Reliant Van as a car!

Scary guys in scary black cloaks and carrying a scythe (well I have read a lot of Terry Pratchett lately!)

And shadows in the dark ... so you are not really sure that what you think you see is what is really there!

And reading horrific crime reports where some nutter has  ............

...... lets change the subject else I will have real nightmares!

Who cares whether I have wrinkled stockings or a Reliant Van (it was off-white by the way), if they bring a little pleasure into somebodies life then the cost was worth it :)

.... and I do think they would bring a smile to most peoples faces ... mine included. After all they used them in two of the most successful comedy series    :)