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Saturday 01 December 2012
Cold and Crisp
After a sprinkling of overnight rain, it was a bit dull first thing on Saturday morning. The clouds soon disappeared to leave a cold, sunny day with a bitter wind.
We were out and about around York on Saturday and there’s still plenty of evidence about of the recent wet weather.
It wasn’t always possible to follow the route selected by our sat nav. I certainly wouldn’t fancy trying to drive through a puddle that size. Along the main A64 where the road crosses the river Wharfe the flood plains are still under water.
The river itself is now back within it’s banks as you can just about see to the left of the picture. I guess it will be some time before the fields begin to dry out.
Sunday 02 December 2012
Monthly Forecast
Sunday was mostly sunny and cold. It was the first time I’ve had to thaw out the bird bath this autumn, although, meteorologically speaking it’s now winter. It was only when I noticed one of our charm of goldfinches skating on the top of the bird bath and pecking at the frozen water a bit like a miniature woodpecker that I realised that the water was still frozen.
I’ve noticed that some of the newspapers have been carrying stories predicting the worst winter for a hundred years. I’m not too sure how credible these forecasts are or if they’re just intended to sell newspapers.
Anyway here’s an alternative forecast for December and the suggestion is I’m afraid that it will be colder than average. If you don’t want all the reasoning skip to the bottom of the blog for the summary.
You’ll also find a forecast for the winter on this blog too. Again skip to the bottom of the post if the reasoning doesn’t interest you. There’s no suggestion that we’ll be having the worst winter for one hundred years so fingers crossed.
Monday 03 December 2012
Stored Apples Keeping Well
Monday was a little bit warmer than the last few days with some sunny spells and
scattered showers.
Most of the showers fell throughout the night but there was just enough rainfall in the morning to keep the ground wet. I thought it would be a good idea to check out how our apples were keeping in the garage fridge. They still seem to be in good condition so they just had a wash, the cores removed and then were sliced ready to go into the cauldron for cooking.
Once softened the apples were added to a dish and covered with some crumble mixture. We’ve still got a few apples left in the garage so some more crumbles made using last summer’s apples are still on the cards.
Tuesday 04 December 2012
All Sparrows to Me
Tuesday was another cold day with a few a few squally showers through the day.
Now a I must admit I’ve never being that sure about the difference between a house
and tree sparrow. Is there a difference or are they all sparrows. On our visit to
RSPB Fairburn Ings last week I was hoping to be able to get some pictures of tree
sparrows to compare with what I was informed were house sparrows at home. I’m glad
to say it was mission accomplished -
House Sparrow
Tree Sparrow
It’s all down to what colour cap they have and the fact that a tree sparrow has a smaller bib under its ‘chin’..
At one stage at Fairburn I was busy trying to capture a tree sparrow as the whisper spread around the hide that a woodpecker was perched on one of the feeding stations. Not deterred I continued filming the tree sparrow until I was happy with my video. I still had time to get some shots of the woodpecker too.
Wednesday 05 December 2012
A Train Trip to Edinburgh in Weather Pictures
One thing for certain was Wednesday was cold. We’d booked a trip by train to Edinburgh to visit the city in the run up to Christmas.
After some overnight showers and freezing temperatures, the first task was to de-
The further north we headed the worse this problem seemed to be. At one stage the railway appeared to be running through a lake with both sides of the tracks inundated with flood water.
Then as we headed further north towards Newcastle it began to snow. As we crossed over the river Tyne in Newcastle any chance of that iconic shot of the famous Tyne Bridges was out of the question as visibility was reduced due to the snow.
By the time our train reached Berwick on Tweed just south of the Scottish border the weather had taken a turn for the better and the snow had stopped.
When we reached Edinburgh it was cold and sunny. Perhaps a little snow would have added a little to the festive atmosphere of the city but as it was we enjoyed our afternoon looking around the German Christmas Market and Scottish Highland Christmas Market just off Edinburgh’s famous Princes Street.
This Royal Scot Grey on horseback was silhouetted again a beautiful blue sky.
Thursday 06 December 2012
Frosty
Thursday morning’s temperature of -
We didn’t get any snow unlike other higher parts of Yorkshire. Without any sunshine and a strongish breeze it certainly felt cold outside. To finish off a miserable day it rained from early evening into the early hours of the morning.
Friday 07 December 2012
Limp Lettuce
Friday was a little milder and we escaped without a keen overnight frost. There was a little rain in the early hours of the morning before it became light. Through the day we had some pleasant sunny spells although the breeze meant it felt cold again out of doors.
I made a quick trip down to the plot to see what had or hadn’t survived the keen
frost when the temperature fell to -
I hadn’t expected any of the few remaining lettuces to have survived and expected all the plants to look like the Little Gem on the left, well and truly frosted. This wasn’t the case as some Lollo Rossa had survived the frost rather well.
I next checked the green manure which I think might survive winter providing it doesn’t get too cold or we have a prolonged spell of cold weather.
This looks to have survived the cold so far without any signs of a set back at all, although I think it actually stopped growing a few weeks ago when the temperature began to fall. Anyhow so far so good.