מַשִׁיב הָרוּחַ וּמוֹרִיד הַשָּׁלֶג

[lethargic_man]

London's largely been missing out on the fun and games with the snow, but yesterday three inches fell between the Torah service and the end of mussaf. I made a snowman afterwards, and took some photos at night. I wanted daylight photos too, but when I went to take them today, I found the snowman lurching over at a strange angle, and half of its head missing.

At first I thought somebody had tried to destroy it (as happened to curious_reader's snowman the winter before last), and failed. I did have some kids come up yesterday and say "...and when you've finished, we try and destroy it, right?" I also, later, saw from my window at least two people take photographs, one child have to be restrained by his father from attacking it, and another child throw a snowball at it (talk about attacking a defenceless victim!).

When I tried to repair it, though, I found the snow had turned all powdery and wouldn't stick together to form a giant snowball; and when I tried to press further snow onto the head, the head fell apart further. So it looks like maybe it was natural damage after all. (I'm not used to snow turning powdery like this; what normally happens here is that snow partially melts, and then refreezes, so ends up percolated with gritty ice.) The tilt to the snowman, however, I'm at a loss to explain.

Here's some photos from last night, and after I'd done what repairs I could:

     

[ETA: Just checked out the window, and the head's fallen off altogether. Looks like I photographed it at the right time! (Plus, it's forecast to thaw on Tuesday and rain on Tuesday evening, though not until after a -6° low tonight.)]

Comments

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Looks seriously relaxed in the 2nd pic l-)

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

YM, 'looks drunk'

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Note to self: don't go drinking the meltwater afterwards! :o)

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

Right - a religious Jewish snow man and a not so religious one :-)

[curious-reader.livejournal.com]

What did you use for the mouth and eyes? It looks scary. It even shines in the night picture.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Tin foil.

Very impressive!

[bluepork.livejournal.com]

Someone on First Avenue had also built a remarkable 10ft snowman, (with sculptured trousers!) and the next day, it too was leaning over. I had a conversation about it with a passing pensioner (who was also leaning over at a somewhat precarious angle on the ice) and we concluded that the sun had melted it on one side, causing it to tip.