I thought, gee, maybe this is what winter is like in England. I ran into a woman at the dump who came from England and put this to her. She said no way. We were in the middle of an icy time (all that hovering around the freezing point tends to do that) and she said they didn't have ice like this. Lots of mud, though.
I guess tonight I'll sleep with just a light blanket on. It's cooler in the living-room, where my winter bed is, but still will be warmer than normal. I mean, it's usually 40 or 50 in the main house, and around 60 in the kitchen. It's my time to wear my sweaters and socks. And, damn, it's weird to be outside, have a brisk wind...and it feels pleasant. NOT IN JANUARY/FEBRUARY IN EASTERN CANADA. Happened occasionally in my home town of Calgary, when we'd get a Chinook, and a little break in the Arctic conditions. But not here...
My friend who does dog-racing hasn't been able to do much training - ice and rain are not ideal ... especially when it was alternating with a day of 20 below and with a wind that WASn't pleasant. Actually, the first race of the season was cancelled. If things get back to something like normal in February, they'll try again. He was due to go to another race this weekend. But with the current NIGHT TIME temperature NEARLY 40, I don't imagine there will be any racing tomorrow.
Snow on top of rain on top of snow on top of rain...
I was figuring that this was an obvious manifestation of climate change/global warming. But the weather people seem unperturbed. The explanation I heard was something about "Arctic circulation" that was being held up north by a stronger and more northerly-than-usual jet stream. Any minute now it could weaken and let Arctic air come south. Which makes it sound like Just One Of Those Things, no relationship to climate change. But it's been like that for several winters now. When I first moved here, BEFORE I moved here, decades ago, there was never a winter like this. In January and February we had a couple of solid weeks of 20-30 below. And snow up to HERE. Rain? That was something that happened in spring and fall...
Though of course some years back there was a winter rain that caused a great ice-storm that brought down hydro for weeks and made the roads impassable...and there were deaths...
Meanwhile, this year in Eastern Europe hundreds of people have frozen to death...
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What is so special about your dump that it attracts foreigners? And how does one strike up a conversation with a stranger at the dump? I mean, it would be highly unlikely you were both looking for the same thing, right? Are dumps the hot place to meet people in Canada?
It's just all so puzzling to me.
This has been the warmest winter for a long time, it was in the 70s here earlier this week. Global warming is just a myth, sure, that's why there's armadillos in Nebraska these days...
In February!!!
EEK!!
Wait, what? :D
I had an odd sensation yesterday when standing in the shade here in California was really cold and moving into the sun on the other side of the street was really HOT. Very intense.
My family in Alaska has more snow than ever this winter. It is just piling up. Yet here in California it is Springtime already. Very odd.
Larry - upside. Except (plonking here) I keep the heater pretty well steady. It doesn't seem to have a thermostat. So when it's cold outside, it's cool in the house, and when it's warmish outside it's hot in the house. Which amounts to No Savings.
Marytkelly - I thought all Americans thought it was freezing up here alla time. Only in winter. When 40 IS warm.
Yeah yeah, Julie. But it's gonna keep getting warmer. We're frogs in the pot. Pleasant now, but we're be parboiled soon.
You too, Michelle.
Jan - Yeah, that Arctic circulation thing behing held back seems to be just on our continent. You guys in Europe are really getting it this year.
Brazen - I have to admit to the beauty. (Plus the no-outside work: bonus!)
Margaret - Actually we have people from *away* come and inspect our dump. Not usually from as far as England tho. (She's an ex-pat.) We have a Very Special Dump - there's a free-store here, where people leave off clothes, household goods, books, whatever, and other people come and get 'em. Locals drag house-guests to the dump and make converts out of them. It's like Value Village, only the prices don't keep getting jacked up.
Nanate - We shamelessly scrounge for free stuff at the dump. (It used to be more fun before it was official.)
V.Corso - yikes. Are the canals all frozen? (We have a canal in Ottawa that we count on having freeze over for a winter carnival. It almost didn't happen this year.)
Tink - Eek indeed. And pre-Ebay I did used to sell stuff I found at the dump. (The free store sort of puts a crimp in that.)
Zanelle - oh, right, Alaska, or parts of it anyway, have had a snow dump like it's the end of the world. 20 feet or something, and sending in ice-breakers with food and fuel...
Green - we have a snow-cover at least, tho nothing that has required me to contemplate usage of a shovel. So plants are covered... Tree-buds tho ... could be some damage.
Gerald - now, now. That's just habit.
aka - my week's forecast has 8 below Celsius for Tuesday, otherwise hovering around freezing. Above freezing for Thursday with, yes, rain.
(When I was "back east" for a funeral in Oxford, OH, it was well above freezing with no snow on the ground, in late January. It was weird.)
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice."
~R.Frost~
♥
Abrawang - I've noticed some changes in the vegetation around here - a kind of purple wildflower that appeared tentatively a few years ago and which is now widespread. And a change in the kind of plants we can cultivate in our gardens now...
We did have deaths here in Europe - the temperatures plummeted last week, after being extremely mild for the season. I hope no one else will suffer.....
Maureen - the maple-sugar people have put out their buckets - a month early.