Helen Stephenson's Snow Pictures, February 2009

This page contains clickable images.

London had a significant snowfall at the beginning of February 2009. In fact, most of the UK suffered under unusually heavy snowfalls at that time, but due to the snow arriving from the east rather than the west, London was one of the first places to be affected. I got busy with my camera, and the images on this page were taken in the course of three days - although I could have gone on taking pictures of lying snow for at least a further week!

These pictures were captured using a Pentax K10D digital SLR camera.

If you want to see a larger image of any of these pictures, please click on the picture.

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I am starting this page off with some of my signature night shots, which were taken on the night when it started to snow. About 2" had fallen at the time, and not knowing how much more we would get, I wanted a record of the snow straight away!



 

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I was pleased with the way this picture turned out - once I'd done some drastic things to the white balance in the raw file to compensate for the sodium street lighting!

 



 

This picture looks a bit dark in comparison with the last one...

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...but it portrays the silence of a snowy night after most sensible people were tucked up in bed.

 



 

The back yard presented a different lighting challenge, as the lighting out there was halogen rather than sodium. I shot this picture of the bird feeding area through the kitchen window.

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Remember this picture: this is a huge pot lying on its side with a grass plant inside. You will be seeing more (or less) of this pot a bit later!

 



The next morning was grey and snowy - and there was a lot more snow there! In fact, public transport had ground to a standstill and Xchanging swung their Business Continuity Plan into action and recommended that people work from home.



 

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The cars on the driveway were well covered with snow, and the turret of our local one-time "big house" had its own covering. This is the former Elmstead Grange, which is now incorporated into Babington House School.

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The following day dawned bright, with the grey sky of the previous day having been replaced by blue sky. One of the cars has been dug out, but there's still plenty of snow surrounding it and the others.



 

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Remember that overturned pot with the grass plant that I told you to bear in mind for later? Well, here it is after being covered in nearly a foot of snow! One or two blades of grass are visible, but that's it!

 



One of our agave plants from our "Spikey" family has a liberal coating of snow, as do some neighbouring trees.



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The car park shared by Sainsbury's Locksbottom store and the Princess Royal University Hospital at Farnborough was a right mess. No snow removal happened at all, and it was an interesting place to have to drive in to say the least. All I can say is that I'm glad I've got a limited slip differential and that I know about opposite lock.



 

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Although major roads were cleared, the same could not be said of minor roads. This village street was a place to drive very carefully indeed!

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To finish off, here's the snowman which stood in the village street above for quite a few days. He was looking a little ragged around the edges when I photographed him, so I chose a portrait to highlight his best features. His eyes were broken off pieces of stick, and you can probably make out that his nose is a carrot. He also had sticks for arms.



 

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The snow's all gone now that it's the end of February. We really don't want any more - unless it can choose a time when we have time to build a snowman but don't have to go out anywhere; and that it melts before we do have other things to do!



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Last Revised: 28th February, 2009.