Tales of heroics in the snow

I would have loved to get out to see Herbie in the snow today to take some pictures but by all accounts it would have been a two and a half hour drive instead of the usual 35 minutes.

So I consoled myself by taking some snow pictures around home. How about this panorama stitched together from 3 photos taken in the churchyard behind our house. Could be our next year's Christmas card!

The grave in the right foregound ( and a few feet from our garden fence) is that of Major Frederick Jackson who commanded a celebrated polar expedition in 1894-97 and rescued the Norwegion explorer Nansen. A contemporay report for National Geographic in 1896 begins:

On the 17th day of June, 1896, as some of the men of the English Jackson and Harmsworth expedition, in Franz Josef land, were looking out over the ice they discovered a weird figure advancing towards them, with long straggling hair and beard and garments covered with grease and blood stains, who proved to be none other than Dr Fridtjof Nansen, who fifteen months previous had left his ship, the Fram, at 83° 59′ north latitude and 102° 27′ east longitude in order to push on with sleds, boats, and dogs towards the Pole.

So we have a hero buried at the end of our garden. It's a cracking tale and you can read the rest of the report here courtesy of Encarta.

Grace had never seen proper snow before so we took her out to play in it.

Which (as they say) was nice.