Waiting for storm Helene. I HATE Florida this time of the year!!!
How’s the weather?
- Thread starter The Masked Shadow
- Start date
Check this out:
That gardening claw visible in the lower left corner was used to denude the pond of all of its submersed/emersed/floating vegetation, except of course for my little cattail stand in the back corner. That water is crystal clear; so clear, in fact, that the net seems to be floating in mid-air, rather than at the pond bottom.
No, it's neither in mid-air nor on the bottom; it's sitting on top of the almost inch-thick ice that formed last night. We've had hard killing frosts for at least a few weeks now...and there have been mornings when a paper-thin layer of ice formed on the surface...but this is the real thing. Not thick enough to walk on yet, but definitely a harbinger of things to come...and come soon.
Last night we had our first tentative snow; big fat flakes drifting lazily down and disappearing upon impact. Trees are bare, and the last time I went over the lawn with the mower was to mulch leaves rather than to cut grass. Most summer birds are long gone; the first of the winter species have appeared. A Northern Shrike, one of the coolest little predators we have, appeared this morning for the first time of the season, and will likely be staking out my bird feeders all winter as usual; those feeders have to come inside each evening...bears, don'tcha know...but in a few weeks that peril will be over when the bruins enter their dens for winter. Deer have exchanged their beautiful rusty cinnamon summer coats for a heavy pelage of winter grey. The muzzleloader hunting season begins in 2 days; I think that both I and the deer know it and are on pins and needles.
I know I'll be sick of it in a few more months, but right now...the arrival of the cold is delightful.
That gardening claw visible in the lower left corner was used to denude the pond of all of its submersed/emersed/floating vegetation, except of course for my little cattail stand in the back corner. That water is crystal clear; so clear, in fact, that the net seems to be floating in mid-air, rather than at the pond bottom.
No, it's neither in mid-air nor on the bottom; it's sitting on top of the almost inch-thick ice that formed last night. We've had hard killing frosts for at least a few weeks now...and there have been mornings when a paper-thin layer of ice formed on the surface...but this is the real thing. Not thick enough to walk on yet, but definitely a harbinger of things to come...and come soon.
Last night we had our first tentative snow; big fat flakes drifting lazily down and disappearing upon impact. Trees are bare, and the last time I went over the lawn with the mower was to mulch leaves rather than to cut grass. Most summer birds are long gone; the first of the winter species have appeared. A Northern Shrike, one of the coolest little predators we have, appeared this morning for the first time of the season, and will likely be staking out my bird feeders all winter as usual; those feeders have to come inside each evening...bears, don'tcha know...but in a few weeks that peril will be over when the bruins enter their dens for winter. Deer have exchanged their beautiful rusty cinnamon summer coats for a heavy pelage of winter grey. The muzzleloader hunting season begins in 2 days; I think that both I and the deer know it and are on pins and needles.
I know I'll be sick of it in a few more months, but right now...the arrival of the cold is delightful.
The weather in blighty can only be described as seasonal at the minute. No signs of the first frosts yet but the night time temps are creeping further down as time goes on, so it's only a matter of time.
The clocks go back tonight over here. That will mean that tomorrow it will be dark around 5:30pm. And until the shortest day of the year in December it will be darker earlier every day.
Clocks going back is the most depressing part of the year for me. A sure sign that summer is well and truly behind us.
The clocks go back tonight over here. That will mean that tomorrow it will be dark around 5:30pm. And until the shortest day of the year in December it will be darker earlier every day.
Clocks going back is the most depressing part of the year for me. A sure sign that summer is well and truly behind us.
Yeah, I'm not a fan of the twice-yearly monkeying with clock settings either. At least in "blighty"...I love that term!...it's one and done; everybody does it, all at once. Canada has so many time zones due to its size that just telling time requires advanced degrees in both astronomy and political science. My province of Manitoba does the switch, as does Ontario to the east where I once lived...but the two proinces are in different time zones. Saskatchewan to the west of me doesn't change its clocks, so for half the year the time there is the same as it is here, but for the other half it's the same time as Alberta, next over to the west. Newfoundland, way out east, actually keeps its time a half-hour later earlier than its immediate neighbour Quebec.
But there's hope on the horizon. Ontario has passed legislation to end the changing of clocks...but they won't actually make the switch unless Quebec to the east, and New York State to the south (and in another country, for crying out loud!) does it first. British Columbia on the west coast wants to match up with American states to the south of it. Manitoba keeps making noises about ending the switch, but again, they want somebody else to make the move before we take that bold and daring second step.
Hey, we're Canadians; the True North Strong and Free! We will take any trendy and forward-thinking step that is required to bolster our self-image of being in the vanguard of modern thinking, as long as someone else does it first. No way we are taking that leap of faith into the unknown; we want to know that there is the still-warm corpse of one of our neighbours at the bottom of the pit, so we will have something nice and soft to land on.
I actually have worked with people who somehow think that switching the clocks gives them an extra hour of daylight each day; trying to explain to them that it merely shuffles around the arbitrary numbers on a clock to align with sunrise and sunset to the best advantage of more people is like trying to teach a monkey to type. It can probably be done by someone who has sufficient patience and teaching skill...but that's not me.
Retirement is wonderful. I get up when I feel like it...go to bed when I feel like it...and usually don't carry any kind of device on my person, neither wristwatch nor cellphone, to tell me the exact time. I don't care! When hunting season opens, I am forced to carry a watch so that I know exactly what time legal shooting light begins and ends...but even there, my experienced eyeballs are rarely in error enough that I would shoot when it's too dark.
I can hardly wait to get rid of the changing of clocks; you go first!
But there's hope on the horizon. Ontario has passed legislation to end the changing of clocks...but they won't actually make the switch unless Quebec to the east, and New York State to the south (and in another country, for crying out loud!) does it first. British Columbia on the west coast wants to match up with American states to the south of it. Manitoba keeps making noises about ending the switch, but again, they want somebody else to make the move before we take that bold and daring second step.
Hey, we're Canadians; the True North Strong and Free! We will take any trendy and forward-thinking step that is required to bolster our self-image of being in the vanguard of modern thinking, as long as someone else does it first. No way we are taking that leap of faith into the unknown; we want to know that there is the still-warm corpse of one of our neighbours at the bottom of the pit, so we will have something nice and soft to land on.
I actually have worked with people who somehow think that switching the clocks gives them an extra hour of daylight each day; trying to explain to them that it merely shuffles around the arbitrary numbers on a clock to align with sunrise and sunset to the best advantage of more people is like trying to teach a monkey to type. It can probably be done by someone who has sufficient patience and teaching skill...but that's not me.
Retirement is wonderful. I get up when I feel like it...go to bed when I feel like it...and usually don't carry any kind of device on my person, neither wristwatch nor cellphone, to tell me the exact time. I don't care! When hunting season opens, I am forced to carry a watch so that I know exactly what time legal shooting light begins and ends...but even there, my experienced eyeballs are rarely in error enough that I would shoot when it's too dark.
I can hardly wait to get rid of the changing of clocks; you go first!
The various time zones around the world are enough as it is, never mind the northern and southern hemisphere changing their clocks twice a year too, and at different times too. I believe Canada's clocks go back early November?
Due to the tilt of the earth giving shorter/longer days and nights it was deemed a good idea to "massage" the time a little to give us an extra hour daylight for people to enjoy in summer.
In blighty, at the height of summer, our days are almost 17hrs long!! Whether that "extra hour" daylight is in the early morning or late evening means nothing to me. They should leave the bloody clocks alone!!
I wonder if they do anything with the clocks in the very far north/south of the planet, where days and nights are not measured in hours, but months!!
In fact, I do believe they actually have a procedure regarding their clocks. They don't change the time, they throw them in the bin instead!!
Due to the tilt of the earth giving shorter/longer days and nights it was deemed a good idea to "massage" the time a little to give us an extra hour daylight for people to enjoy in summer.
In blighty, at the height of summer, our days are almost 17hrs long!! Whether that "extra hour" daylight is in the early morning or late evening means nothing to me. They should leave the bloody clocks alone!!
I wonder if they do anything with the clocks in the very far north/south of the planet, where days and nights are not measured in hours, but months!!
In fact, I do believe they actually have a procedure regarding their clocks. They don't change the time, they throw them in the bin instead!!
