THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

Yes, I have seen some winter weather in this out-of-the-way place. I have seen the snow gathered in drifts of fifteen, eighteen, twenty feet in thickness; I have seen it gathering, piling itself up in fantastic wreaths, sometimes busy only in accumulating substance and solidity, like a yeoman of the elder days, and gathering at the rate of six feet or seven feet in thickness in from twelve hours to twenty-four.

Atkinson/Parish

For the next nine days we worked by day, looking after our guests, and by night we ate and drank like kings, feasting on all the finest food from the specials menu – steaks, pies, roasts – washed down with an ale or five. After all, if we didn’t eat the food, it would go off, as would much of the ale. We stoked the fires until they roared louder than the wind outside and had a party every night. We drank, laughed, watched movies and played Monopoly before staggering drunk up to bed in whichever guestroom took our fancy.

Bell, Joe, The Guardian