Weather winter 2010/2011

[Paddy Tobin]

Re birds and weather: one of the effects of the cold snap here is that jack snipe come into the garden where they have access to a wet area which is not frozen. They can startle you as they only fly when you are almost upon them.

Also, of late I have seen water rail here, a bird not commonly seen in this area.

Graham, it is the time of year for that Irish comment - "There's a great stretch coming in the evenings."

Paddy

[ashley]

"There's a great stretch coming in the evenings."

My father-in-law rarely waits more than a week or 10 days before announcing that

Great to see a water rail Paddy.  Here lapwings and curlews are roosting on the frozen river.  It will be interesting to see whether foxes begin to venture out.

[Paddy Tobin]

Ashley,

Mary won the race to be first to say it this year - around 5p.m. today.

Foxes seem to move so much slower in this weather. I meet one on the road most evenings and it simply ambles along before the car before leaving the road at is ease. Another regularly stands outside looking in at us in our living room.

It's -5.5C here at the moment, another cold night but, at least, we haven't had any snow all this week.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

Every year on the shortest day,the late, great, Kath Dryden said to us  "it'll all be better from now"  and on the longest  day she'd say "it's all downhill from here"   
 How we miss her. 

[Bev Olson]

Ashley,

Mary won the race to be first to say it this year - around 5p.m. today.

Foxes seem to move so much slower in this weather. I meet one on the road most evenings and it simply ambles along before the car before leaving the road at is ease. Another regularly stands outside looking in at us in our living room.

It's -5.5C here at the moment, another cold night but, at least, we haven't had any snow all this week.

Paddy

Paddy is it correct that the Foxes like everything else will be very hungry,needing more fuel to keep their metabolism going.
Is it begging?
When we lived in Lewisham London in a big house where we had a bedsit, there was a huge Woodland garden attached and nobody used it. Except me.
I would wake up after falling asleep from reading in the long grass to find a couple of foxes sitting watching me -they were young ones.
Their scruffy looking mother would watch us cooking sausages on the BBQ at a close but safe distance.
Not like dogs. Didn't want to relate to us at all.

We have no native mammals in NZ except for bats.

I was thinking about Mark's otter sighting. The otter would be finding food scarce too perhaps.

[alan jones]

It is 3pm in the alpine house: the temperature is -6F, up from -12 at 8.30 am.  The sun has gone down, and I am closing the vents, until sunrise, before spreading fleece over  plants in the raised bed.  The clay pots are held in the frozen, stone hard plunge like      rivets.  The Drabas look a sorry sight, with the recently handsome cushions of mollisima  and ossetica, to name just two, fading to brown, their rosettes curled tight.   Androsace cyclindrica x hirtella and A. pyrenaica still look in their pristine prime, as does Raoulia x petrimia ‘Margaret Pringle’, a five inch cushion of silvery white.  This is the second, prolonged period of freezing weather in the last eight weeks, and I wonder how long these plants, even those looking in good health, can take it. Extreme dehydration, I believe, will prove the most likely cause of death…if the temperature does not rise soon.   They came through last winter, surviving temperatures as low as minus 12F; but this period is exceptional by historical standards. I have no worries about the cushions in the screes and troughs outside---they are by their nature tough, and protected by snow. 

[Paddy Tobin]

Good Morning Alan,

I see this is your first posting to the forum. Good to have you with us. A warm welcome in these cold days. Hope you enjoy your visits here and I'm sure other members will look forward to your posts.

Best wishes, Paddy

[annew]

Hi Alan, and welcome. I liked your poetic description of your alpine house, I could just picture it. Actually, I don't need to - I could go and peer through the glass at mine, since the door is frozen shut, but it's nice to know others are in the same boat. I hope and suspect your cushions will fare better than my bulbs, they are well adapted to dessication at this time of year.

[Maggi Young]

Hello Alan! Good to hear from you  

 Your eloquent description of the suspended life in your alpine house will, I know,  strike a chord with many of us.  
I think your fear about dehydration being the main danger to the plants is well founded  and this is not something that is easily remedied in this weather.
This winter may be one where an awful lot of us are left resorting to that ancient gardening method...... crossed fingers!

[mark smyth]

It was so hot today I went doin the toin (N Irish accent - say like coin) in polo shirt and jeans.

-4 all day. Warmest day since ...?

[mark smyth]

Of course I was joking about going out in polo shirt and jeans ..... but sounding boring ....

The record for coldest night in N Ireland since records began has been broken again. It was -18.7 over night in County Tyrone and -15 all day

[Hoy]

Here December 2010 seems to be the coldest in 110 years in South Norway! -5C lower than normal.

[cohan]

we are supposed to warm up, but they change the forecast every time i look--they can't decide when and how much it will get warmer--now friday will still be cold- high -14C (but that's just normal to us now, no big deal...) saturday just below freezing (-3C sounds very warm!) and sunday +1C then slowly down again...
we'll see what we actually get....
still, no -30 or -40 for december (-35 or colder in nov though) so we count ourselves lucky 

[ichristie]

Hi all our computer has been out of action for a few days problems with snow on the power lines. We have recorded minus 12c two nights and minus 14c very bright sun daytime but so cold the snow will last till May anyway a few pictures,  cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[mark smyth]

+5 in the garden and we have a good thaw but it could be a while before compacted snow melts.

Got in to the green house today. Primula leaves are blacked, some Cyclamen are in a bad way, as expected all C. persicum from the garden centre are dead and all autumn Scillas are limp and blackened  

More snow due today and late next week

The green house yesterday - on the louvres was solid ice