More snow pictures from a reader

Latest reader's snow pictures

W Fowler sent in the two pictures below.

He says: "Snowy pictures from Pentredwr...and.main road past Britannia to Llangollen this afternoon.

Afternoon update from Diane Slater ...

It is going to take ages to clear all this snow. Everybody saying it is the worst since 1963. Good job folks look after their neighbours . We have been feeding the birds constantly . So many local people cannot get out at all . Apparently there are loads of trees down by the old YHA , real shame .



Reader Diane Slater has been in touch to say: "Here are a few photos I took this morning.

"The car covered in snow is ours next to our cottage on the Geraint.

"There is a photo of our dog Bramble walking home along a trench we dug yesterday.

"The fallen trees are across the road going up the Geraint. No chance of getting passed there until the Council remove them!"

Other readers can send their snow pictures to llanblogger@gmail.com




* The buried car.

* Bramble walks home.

 * The fallen trees.

 

Elihu Yale talk at museum becomes snow victim

Hanes-Llangollen-History regrets that the talk on Elihu Yale by Gareth Williams at the Llangollen Museum on Monday evening has had to be cancelled due to the weather.

This will now take place in April (date to be confirmed).

Gill Thomas of the history group said: "We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Eisteddfod goes back to black

* Selwyn Evans, Treasurer of Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod.

Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod has staged a dramatic reversal of fortune - by making a profit for the first time in five years and providing a £1.5 million boost to the local economy.

While other festivals have struggled, the world-renowned event defied the recession and bad weather to record a profit of £22,668 after a number of difficult years.

Meanwhile, advance sales for this year's International Eisteddfod are already breaking previous records.

Last year’s event attracted 36,000 people and with an average daily visitor spend of £42 that adds up to a massive £1.5 million cash injection to the local economy.

The result has been welcomed by Eisteddfod treasurer Selwyn Evans who said: “This is very encouraging after a number of difficult years and the fact that it was achieved against the odds is also significant.

“Not only did we manage it in the worst economic downturn in our 67-year history we also did it in a very wet week in the middle of the wettest summer on record.

“That did affect daytime ground admissions in particular but we managed to more than maintain our concert attendance figures.

“That was down to the extremely hard work of the staff, one only of whom was full time, and our dedicated army of volunteers and helpers.

“Our aim now is to improve on this result in 2013 and continue improving in subsequent years and to do that every line of income and expenditure will continue to be carefully monitored in order to achieve our aim.

“But what we will also do is continue to back our Musical Director and his plans for the future and to maintain the standards of our superlative concert lineup and the wonderful atmosphere that the Eisteddfod always creates on the field and in the town.”

This year’s Eisteddfod starts on Tuesday, July 9, and runs until Sunday, July 14, when a concert by keyboard king Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra will be the climax to six days of music and dance and competitions.

Also in a star-studded line-up are a Strictly Cuban evening featuring Strictly Come Dancing stars James and Ola Jordan and the music of Havana’s Buena Vista Social Club.

Concerts include a performance of Verdi’s Requiem on the 200^th anniversary of the composer’s birth and performances from harpist Claire Jones, tenor Noah Stewart, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie as well as Only Men Aloud on the Choir of the World competition night, Saturday, July 13.

Advance sales for this year’s concerts are going very well and Selwyn Evans added: “In just four weeks we have sold £170,000 worth of tickets and are more than halfway to our target for the year.

“The Jools Holland concert is already over half sold and there is also lots of demand for the other events, especially Strictly Latin and Only Men Aloud.

“That’s very poitive and we’re really pleased with the results after a few very tough years.

“To have turned it round the way we have is a wonderful achievement.”

The 67^th Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod kicks off on Tuesday, July 9, with International Children’s Day including interactive performances from the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the colourful procession of the competitors to the Royal International Pavilion, led by Eisteddfod President Terry Waite, CBE, the former Archbishop’s Special Envoy and a long-time supporter.

The evening concerts start with Tuesday night’s Carnival of Nations featuring four of Wales’s finest male voice choirs, the Rhos Orpheus, Cor Godre’r Aran, Cor y Brythoniaid and the chart topping Fron Choir, performing on the 60^th anniversary of the historic visit of Germany’s Obernkirchen Choir. They will be joined by the St Melodians Steel Band, from Trinidad and international competitors.

Wednesday night will feature An Evening with Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie who will be joined by the rising American tenor Noah Stewart and harpist Claire Jones, former official harpist to HRH the Prince of Wales, along with the Eisteddfod Orchestra and the Santo Tomas Choir from the Philippines, twice Choir of the World winners.

Thursday will be Strictly Cuban, a celebration of Latin dance rhythms with James and Ola Jordan and the Buena Vista Social Club while Friday will be VERDI 200, a performance of Verdi’s Requiem by to mark the 200^th anniversary of the composer’s birth with Claire Rutter, Mirouslava Yordanova , Gwyn Hughes Jones, Jonathan Lemalu and accompanied by the Eisteddfod Orchestra conducted by Andrew Greenwood.

Saturday is Choir of the World which this year will also feature Only Men Aloud, Last Choir Standing TV winners while for the first time dance will be teamed with choral music on Saturday night as the Eisteddfod’s top two dance troupes dance off for the new Dance Champions 2013 Trophy.

On Sunday keyboard king Jools Holland will bring the house and the curtain down with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra and a special guest before the traditional firework show finale.

Tickets for this year’s concerts are general sale and are available from the website at www.international-eisteddfod.co.uk

For more information on this year’s event check out the website or go to Facebook at www.facebook.com/llangollen

llanblogger passes page-view milestone

For the first time since its launch eight months ago, llanblogger has today clocked up an incredible 500 page views in a single day.

And the grand total of views since it first went online last June has at the same time just passed through the 52,000 mark.

For a small hometown online news site we believe that's a fantastic achievement and we would like to thank all our readers - old and new - for helping us to pass these are two significant milestones.

Please keep logging on - and contacting us on llanblogger@gmail.com

Breaking weather news

Breaking news from Llangollen Railway ....

 

Due to further snowfall in North Wales especially the Dee Valley, all Train Services (Sunday and onwards) will be SUSPENDED until further notice.

A minimum of 12 hours notice will be given for the resumption of Services.

 

Operations Department

 

 Update on Denbighshire roads

Motorists are being advised that a number of roads in Denbighshire are closed due to the heavy snow that is continuing to affect the region.

The roads currently closed are:

• A5 Corwen to Llangollen (due to overhanging trees and snow) - the road is open from Llangollen towards the Wrexham direction.
• A5104 Closed Corwen to Llandegla
• A542 Horseshoe Pass between Llandegla and Llangollen
• B4501 Llyn Brenig
• B5431 into Llanarmon yn Ial village.

Most minor roads in the county are also closed. Other main routes are open, but motorists are advised to take extra care and only travel if absolutely necessary.

The snow is expected to ease later tonight, but drifting continues to be a risk across the county and ice is expected to be an additional hazard.

Whiteout ... then a blackout for Llan

Late update

We understand that residents in some parts of town only had their power restored at around 6pm today (Saturday). At one point, some residents also temporarily lost their water supply.

 

+ TV signals continued to be disrupted by the snow. On satellite systems they can be caused by snow blocking the receiver dish.

 

Reader pictures ...

Please keep them coming

 

 

 

* Not a pleasant picture this one. It came in from Mrs Mary Rogers, who said: "This was the disaster we woke up to in Pengwern this morning. The weight of snow caused the

carport to rip off wall right on top of my son's Cosworth. PS: the pedestrians on Regent St this morning were myself and my husband out to get a loaf.

 

 

 

* Top of Pengwern from Ged Manley.

 

 

 

* Jude Williams has just sent us this one in captioned "Trench digging on the Geraint".

Thanks Jude!

 

 

 

 

* An almost deserted Castle Street this morning.

Llangollen people awoke this morning (Saturday) to find even more snow … and no power.

And llanblogger is only now able to bring you a report it because the electricity supply to our property near the centre of town was only restored at 1.20pm.

The BBC is reporting on its North East Wales website that 6,000 homes in Llan and the Dee Valley generally were subjected to a power cut because of continuing heavy snow.

The problem in is Llan is believed to have been caused by a break in power lines perhaps caused by a falling tree.

 

(Right top: Whiteout at the station and, below, pedestrians walk in the roadway in Regent Street).   

 

Some residents were reporting that they heard a loud bang from somewhere in the area at around 3am on Saturday accompanied by a blue flash which lit up the entire sky.

The blackout crippled the town centre, with many shops remaining closed because they had no electricity to power lights or computerised tills.

Amongst the few shops which remained open were Gwyn’s the butchers, Gerrards bakery, Lee’s newsagents and the greengrocers opposite.

The chemist shop in Regent Street was also providing a limited service for prescriptions.

Later in the morning the Co-op in Regent Street opened but queues formed outside when a limit was placed on the number of customers allowed in the darkened shop.

Snow, sometimes heavy, continued to fall thoughout the morning. Added to accumulations from the previous day this led to treacherous conditions underfoot.

Many pavements in and around the town centre have disappeared under large banks of snow over a foot deep in places.

A limited volume of traffic along the A5 was reduced to a crawl during the morning as pedestrians took to the carriageway rather than risk negotiating the untreated pavements.

Many people remain blocked into their own driveways with their cars buried under deep snow.   

Electricity companies say repairs to the supply network was being hampered by the conditions and road closures.

Scottish Power said it managed to reconnect a number of properties on Friday which had lost power, only to receive a new batch of faults on Saturday.

Turning much colder overnight, a widespread frost is likely and ice could also cause a few problems.

The A5 west of Llangollen in the direction of Corwen remains closed due to fallen trees and the Horseshoe Pass is closed for the usual safety reasons.

If you have snow or power cut stories or pictures, send them us at llanblogger@gmail.com and we’ll share them with our readers.

Country market falls victim to the snow

Gill Thomas, who is in charge of the weekly Country Market at Llangollen Town Hall, has sent the following message:

"Unfortunately, the Llangollen Country Market could not open this morning as none of our producers were able to get down to the Town Hall.

 

"We will not be open next Friday as it is Good Friday but hope things will be back to normal on the following Friday.

 

"We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to our customers."