Weather.... late 2009

[angie]

Hi Roma

Yes its real frosty out there but like you say its nicer than having all that rain that we had  Nice to hear that the ponies are ok, it must be terrifying for them, when I had my ponies I always went out two or three times to reassure them that everything was ok . Now I only have a dog ( golden retriever) but he is getting old and his hearing is gone so the fireworks don't bother him anymore,but saying all this when I open a bag of sweeties he hears that.
Hope your bulbs have dried out now.
Angie

[Anthony Darby]

The owners of the riding stables above Bridge of Allan (4 miles away) actually had a firework party (on Thursday night) whilst a colleague of mine's two daughters (P7 and S3) were having riding lessons. Needless the say the horses reacted and dumped both children onto the turf. They do say common sense is the least common sense. The angry father took his wrath out on some halfwit who had deigned to park in one of the only passing places on the road down from the farm into Bridge of Allan. The fact that five cars on each side couldn't get past left the numpty totally unmoved ("it doesn't say you can't park here?"). My colleague (after suggesting what kind of idiot he was) offered to fetch the farmer's forklift truck to shift the offending car. The owner then soon moved it.

[Ragged Robin]

No fireworks sold here except on August 1st Swiss National Day and then the display in Martigny is unbelievable up at the castle.  Meanwhile since the full moon on Wednesday which lit up the sky we have had cold, freezing, wet, cloudy awful weather and gets dark at 4pm.  Nothing growing anymore 

[angie]

Anthony
You always get one
Angie

Robin
I know how you are feeling we have had weeks of wet weather and it gets you down , but thankfully you come on this forum and not only do you see nice plants but also you meet nice people, maybe the sun will be out tomorrow for you.
Angie

[Ragged Robin]

You are so right, Angie, the Forum is a great source of inspiration and it's great to see what everyone else is growing - so this is the time when those in the SH can really cheer us up with a feeling of sunshine    However, I have to say, I get great pleasure from knowing that your seedlings are so well looked after in your greenhouse as well and the promise of what is to come next year is also good to look forward to 

[cohan]

I notice the Forum is still on British Summer Time.  Get's confusing when I see someone has posted a message an hour ahead of where my computer is.

Roma, we discussed this point the other weekend when the clocks changed... it seems we all have to set the forum clock individually to our own time zone in our profile page.....I have done yours for you now.

i tried having mine set to my own time for a while, but found it more useful to know what time it is for most of you folks (i.e. britain/europe) when i am posting, then i have an idea if replies are expected soon or not; often i'm posting when most of you in europe should be safely tucked in bed, encounter some of the southerners then... ..i already know what time it is here, anyway


weather here has been interesting--after the early cold snap in oct which froze the leaves on the trees (note--the leaves should have been already down at that time, they were still on because of late heat in aug/sept!) the leaves have been gradually drifting down, and november has been showing some very nice days--more sun and some higher temps than oct! we were over 10C several recent days, when our normal high now would be 1C!

[Roma]

Thanks Maggi.  I do remember reading about the time change but it hadn't registered that I had to do something about it myself and now I would have  no idea where to find the original post.

[Maggi Young]

Nae probs, Roma!

It has been bright and rather pleasant here in Aberdeen today,which I said was about time..... which made Ian lecture me on my complaints about the amount of rain we have had lately
He maintains there have been quite a few decent days.... but I just get overwhelmed with the wet dark days. 
I saw reports of further flooding in the New South Wales area of Australia the other day.... so the other side of the world is getting too much water ,too. Not funny when one thinks of the damage caused by floods and the likes of Paul who is pleading for rain.....

[Lesley Cox]

A sort of Guy Fawkes version of road rage Anthony?

Here we had ONLY (as if it were OK for such a thing to happen) one house burn down on that night but a spark from a public display fell into the 40 min supply of fireworks in the North Island and ignited the lot at once and that caught scrub which burnt out a spit of land. Public were safe across a river but the organizers had to run for their lives.

[Paul T]

Maggi,

The mid north coast of New South Wales (Coffs Harbour region) have been flooded 5 times this year so far.  Parts of the region had 500mm of rain in 48 hours this week (nearly 400mm of that was in 24 hours), more than we get in a year nowadays, in fact well more compared to some recent years.  Our long term average I think is 550 or 600mm a year I think, but we're having well less than that the last few years.  

Forecast of between 29 and 31'C each day this week, no signs of rain.  Not good!! 

[Ragged Robin]

Sorry to hear you have such a desperate rain situation, Paul.  Do you have restrictions on watering, imagine you do?

[angie]

Paul T
Lovely weather for you to have . Do you get hose pipe bans over there or do you have any other means of water. We just take water for granted and are able to hose our plants as much as we want. We had beautiful blue sky yesterday but because of that the temperature dropped to -3 last night so we have a frosty start again today. I don't mind the frost as we usually get a lovely sunny day much better than a grey gloomy day.
Keep posting your lovely pictures and maybe some of your garden over there, it keeps our spirits up seeing what you have in flower.
Thanks Angie

[Paul T]

We have permanent water restrictions here.  We can only use hoses every second day between certain hours.  No sprinklers permitted at all (but dripper systems are allowed).  I do have a couple of small tanks which I use for spot watering as needed.  We're actually in not that bad a position right now..... we have slightly more water in our dams than at any time in the last 12 months, so that "should" mean we won't go to the next stage of water restrictions this summer.  Fingers crossed.  If we do, that is no use of fresh mains water for watering gardens, which would be catastrophic in our climate.  We try to recycle all we can in the house to offset my water usage in the garden as well.  You learn to live with it all, if you want to garden. 

[angie]

Hi Paul
I too would watch how I use my water at home my plants would have to come first, coffee and washing dishes would be way down my list. Seriously though it must be a worry. I shall keep my fingers crossed that you don't get anymore restrictions.
Angie

[Roma]

Not exactly weather, but related.

We had snow on 28th October 2008 yet the following pictures were taken on November 1st.  Admittedly the Cruickshank Garden is only a mile from the sea and they probably didn't get as much snow as I did further inland.

The second group of pictures of the same trees was taken on November 7th this year.  The wind and rain we have had this year has brought the leaves down more quickly.


 Sorbus sargentiana
 Tilia henryana
 Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii'
 Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii'
 Sorbus sargentiana
 Tilia henryana
 Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii'
 Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii'