Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??

[tim]

No comment!! = Tim

[tim]

[aquilegia]

brrrrrrr.

[busy_lizzie]

Our soil is frozen and the ponds are solid ice - bit of a false dawn here too in W/Bay  :) busy_lizzie

[john_miller]

Very close to ten days after the -23C morning here that I mentioned last week, Tim! We are at a balmy -14C today so there is still more coming, if not as severe.

[Hugh_Jones]

Tim, I`m surprised at you!.  Have you forgotten February 1954 already?  What we`ve got now is kids` stuff, and compared with 1947/8 it`s positively tropical.

[Ceri]

My back garden is confusing me with all this cold - water that's collected on the play-frame canopy is frozen solid, it is so cold it hurts my ears, but last year's little gem lettuces that I'd forgotten to harvest are completely untouched by frost (as is the washing on the line - which should be like cardboard)  what's that all about then?

[tim]

Hugh - '47/48 I was commanding a base in Scotland and we were supply-dropping to the SHEEP!. Do I remember it??
And I was also wooing my wife, at the time - who was staying in her Aunt's 'castle' on the airfield boundary!!
 And, after our marriage, we moved into a converted wooden lecture hut. Luxury!

And, for good measure, I converted the few spare acres of land into producing veg for the 'chaps'. And. as I've said before. used the fire tender to do the watering.

And (was it) '61/'62, down here? We couldn't open our front door. Yes - we've 'done it' - but northern Russia in '41 was a damned sight colder!! = Tim

Oh, and John? Who decided to live there??

[Garden Manager]

Been cold here too. Not as low as - 8 but several nights of -3 and cold by day is bad enough.  

Slightly warmer today but it Has been snowing on and off all afternoon.  A case of 'dodge the showers'. Snow ones rather than rain ones  ;D

Just looked out and it is doing it again.  :o

[Ceri]

just looked out the window - we'll be sledging to school again tomorrow

[Hugh_Jones]

Yes Tim, I remember `61/62 as well (although I`ll swear Feb `54 was colder) - the next door farm lost it`s water supply to the milking sheds because the water pipes froze solid at a depth of 12inches below ground surface, and milk from the evening milking and put out for early morning collection had frozen in the churns by morning.

[SueT]

I lived in Hartlepool then, we were walking on several inches of ice for months........it was soooooooooo cold! :(

[john_miller]

But Tim, I only signed up for the summers- honest!

What I meant was that with our low temperatures presently you may get more yet. No complaints- at least here we can count on summer being summer, not the lottery of the British climate.

[Hugh_Jones]

Cheer up, John.  I`ve just had an email from my cousin living near Halifax (Nova Scotia), who says they have just had 36 inches of snow in 48 hours and have been marooned for 2 days.

How can anyone reasonably complain about a mild english winter after that?

[john_miller]

 When I found out Syracuse, N.Y. (less than 200 miles away) beat it's own snowfall record in January, they got 200 cm, I have been very happy, Hugh. We got about 100cm in December and nothing since, my sort of winter. Best of all, no substantial ice storms either (touches wood).
  The nearest I have been to Halifax is Augusta, Maine. This is a serious question, Hugh, but how do people live up there? I get the impression summers there are reliably cool and wet, am I wrong?

[tim]

Hugh - strange - can't recall it. Was commuting between Rickmansworth & the MoD - and seemed to get there?

John - yes, I always quote you on the 10 day shift.

A little anecdote - may I? = "Height of Hospitality".

When on the N. Atlantic CAM Ship run in '42, we docked in Halifax. Several days to unload china clay and reload with grain. Kept ones hand in flying from Dartmouth, but needed home comforts. Was befriended by a delightful girl in Eaton's store. Balmy June nights on the beach - BBQs - massive automobile.

On our last night, invited to supper with her family. There met her boy-friend who had lent us his car for the period. If that's not hospitality, what is!! Maybe it's their warm hearts that keep the chill out?

Oh, and all drinks at the Club were subsidised by the locals! = Tim

[Hugh_Jones]

tim, Feb`54 produced very little snow, so it wouldn`t hamper your aerial activities., but for a full fortnight the temperature remained well below freezing, the ground was like iron, and I spent all my spare time at the sawbench to feed the big stove in the house.

It was quickly followed by a `flu epidemic which laid me up for a week, which is why I particularly remember it - first time I`d ever had `flu!

John, I asked my cousin more or less the same question recently, she having spent at least part of her youth in places like the West Indies and Ceylon (sorry Sri Lanka). She said that her husband`s job had taken there, and that by the time he retired they had become so used to it they couldn`t be bothered to move.
However, I gather that the summers are very similar to those in the Western Highlands, or The Isles, and the Health Service is certainly better than in Blair`s Paradise

[Muddy_Boots]

Not sure where u were in '54 John but down here in SEast, Faversham to be precise had floods and then huge freeze up, compounded by snow.  Loads of sheep and cattle died thur drowning and couldn't be dealt with until the thaw which, in turn brought it's own problems.

I wasn't here then but so many peeps I know remember it, has stuck in my mind and the photos were awesome.  Next big snow and freeze was in '83/4.

[RSJK]

Hugh , l seem to remember the winter of 63 being a bad one. lt started to freeze on Boxing Day and was below freezing every day until the end of March.  My father as some photos of them working in the fields getting parsnips, they were having to hit big frozen clogs of soil to break them up to get the snips out.  l will try to get the photos scanned so l can put them in the gallery for everyone to see.   ;)

[tim]

Yes, Richard - that was the one that hit us here. We had to take a sledge 2m down to the village to get supplies. The road up to the airfield was closed with drifts.

And Hugh - 1954 - now I remember - I had left the MoD & was doing a refresher course at RAF Pershore. Everything froze solid - except the hot water , which was STEAM - but I never miss a bath - so I (block your ears!) used to collect fire buckets, solid ice ,and full of cigarette butts, to cool things down, & thus got my bath - yuck!! = Tim

[Muddy_Boots]

Worcestershire, Tim, another old stamping ground for me  ;D