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General => The Shed => Topic started by: tim on February 26, 2004, 12:49:47

Title: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: tim on February 26, 2004, 12:49:47
No comment!! = Tim
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: aquilegia on February 26, 2004, 12:58:49
brrrrrrr.
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: busy_lizzie on February 26, 2004, 13:40:23
Our soil is frozen and the ponds are solid ice - bit of a false dawn here too in W/Bay  :) busy_lizzie
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: john_miller on February 26, 2004, 14:09:29
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.
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Hugh_Jones on February 26, 2004, 20:34:46
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.
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Ceri on February 26, 2004, 21:02:00
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?
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: tim on February 26, 2004, 21:21:47
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??

Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Garden Manager on February 26, 2004, 22:54:33
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
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Ceri on February 26, 2004, 22:57:33
just looked out the window - we'll be sledging to school again tomorrow
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Hugh_Jones on February 27, 2004, 00:17:07
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.
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: SueT on February 27, 2004, 00:22:37
I lived in Hartlepool then, we were walking on several inches of ice for months........it was soooooooooo cold! :(
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: john_miller on February 27, 2004, 00:56:58
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.
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Hugh_Jones on February 27, 2004, 01:10:11
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?
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: john_miller on February 27, 2004, 02:54:59
 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?
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: tim on February 27, 2004, 10:29:17
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
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Hugh_Jones on February 27, 2004, 18:17:13
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
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Muddy_Boots on February 27, 2004, 19:05:03
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.
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: RSJK on February 27, 2004, 19:07:14
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.   ;)
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: tim on February 27, 2004, 19:19:38
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
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Muddy_Boots on February 27, 2004, 19:37:08
Worcestershire, Tim, another old stamping ground for me  ;D
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: tim on February 27, 2004, 22:27:22
Don't forget that the Sauce is not vegetarian?? = Tim
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Muddy_Boots on February 27, 2004, 22:50:31
At the risk of offending peeps, Tim, I iz true carnivore.  With farming family for background, bit difficult not to be! ;D
Title: Re: Minus 8 - and you say Spring is here??
Post by: Carol on February 27, 2004, 23:25:58
I am thinking of more recent times and it is this date 27 February 2001.  We woke up to find our house completely enclosed in snow and ice, we could not see out our windows and the snow was  right up our front door.  A blizzard was still blowing outside and as it turns out my village was one of many in this district completely cut off from the outside world.  Thousands of folk in the area were without electricity including us but we were reconnected 3 hrs later.  I walked to the village shops in the blizzard and made sure Mother was OK, she was OK and had electricity, but no phone line.  The snow continued all day and the only news as to what was happening was the local radio station who kept everyone up to date.  Although my village is on a main road from Edinburgh to Newcastle there was no movement and quite eerie.  We walked out of the village in the afternoon,down the main A. road and saw the fantastic snow drifts.  15ft high at least.  We had relatives at our house for food as they had no electricity and generally everyone mucked in.  It was great the community spirit and neighbours helped each other out.  My brother in law has a desert landrover and he was used by our Dr. to attend a patient out at a farm.  Brother in law also delivered food to a Nursing Home using his land rover.  This went on for 3 days at least and gradually the council managed to re open the main route and other roads,  although the local farmers had already cleared the snow in the middle of the village.  I will never forget 3 yrs ago, it was such an adventure and we were lucky having the electricity.  What I enjoyed was the friendliness of everyone, we were one big happy family in our village.  

I also remember the Winter of 1962/63.  The snow started Christmas Eve '62 and went on well into March.  I was young then but I do remember it well.
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