Riponians defy elves.

Nice!

Ripon’s weekly market was cancelled on health and safety grounds but half of the stallholders shrugged their shoulders, wrapped up warmly and turned up anyway.

Stamping their feet were Ruth and Peter Olley, solicitors turned whole-hog sausage makers. “It’s cold but we’re up North. We’re hard as nails here,” Mr Olley grinned. “They may have cancelled the market but we’ve got products to sell and customers who want to buy.”

A pity more won't ignore them, but it's because of things like this that some people have decided you're not allowed to clear snow from your own property either.

A pity too, perhaps, that we Rigbys hadn't read that article earlier, it would have saved a bit of hard work. We, and our neighbours, decided to try to clear a narrow pathway along the pavement outside our houses so pedestrians could have a choice - walk on icy snow or walk on a cleared area, it would be up to them.

That's what we did outside Rigby Towers to begin with, but 'our' bit of pavement is now clear because it took a lot less time than we'd expected. To avoid a slick patch of new ice we sprinkled a thin layer of sand and salt - mixing some granular dishwasher salt we'd bought recently with some sand left over from laying paving, that we hadn't got round to spreading on the garden and 'knew it would come in handy'. There are no extra piles of snow in the road because it's all inside several snowmen.

Good news for our council is that we won't be asking for a Council Tax rebate for our hard work.

P.S.
A tip - from past experience salt makes home-made concrete crumble.