Weather early 2009

[TC]

Today on the west coast has been beautiful.  Unlimited visibility and flat calm with wall-to-wall sunshine.  Although the temperature peaked at +2C it did not feel cold.  I prefer this to our usual mild but wet and windy weather.

[mark smyth]

Have everyone in the UK seen what's coming from the east? Local news says expect minus double numbers

[Gunilla]

It's -14C here now and the temperature is falling.

[mark smyth]

Not good. I hope this isnt the hard winter we, in the UK, haven't had for a very long time

[Gunilla]

We have had mild winters here too and I have been foolish and left a lot of plants out in my garden that certainly will not like this kind of winter. I wish we had a covering of snow at least.

[Anthony Darby]

I wonder what the composer would have thought, him being a modest fellow?

[gote]

Bald mountain?
Please allow a modest question:
Is the mountain not Blåkulla or Brocken where the witches go frolicking with 'you know who' on the walpurgis night?

By the way: This being a weather thread. We had -21.5°C last night with only 15cm of snow. I wonder how much I lost.
Göte

[Anthony Darby]

Although the correct translation is bald, the meaning is bare, i.e. devoid of trees. This tells you all you need to know. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_on_Bald_Mountain Perhaps the whole work (missing out this particular movement) could be played at the Early Bulb Day?

[Maggi Young]

This being a weather thread. We had -21.5°C last night with only 15cm of snow. I wonder how much I lost.

Göte, I hope you have not lost much... is there any comfort in thinking that any losses would be even worse if you had such temperatures without even that  small amount of snow? 


I think we went to around -7 last  night but the forst is lifting today.....  well, right now it is!

[David Shaw]

There are several versions of Night on a Bald Mountain on YouTube.

[David Shaw]

Our cold spell seems to have finished now as we finally manage to push it away southwards - hope you all enjoy the present .
The only protective measures we take against frost in the greenhouses is to cover the plants with fleece when the cold spell starts. I did this a week and a half ago and have only just removed the fleeces today! The fleece does not stop the pots, wether in the plunge or on the bench, from freezing but does slow this process down and gives protection to the foliage.
A week and a half is a long time for the plants to be smothered in this way and I noticed that some Townsendia seedlings had a black mould on their leaves. To help prevent this going further I lightly sprayed all the pots with a copper sulphate fungicide.
The BBC tell me that we are in for a period of relatively milder weather for a while now so this should help the plants settle down again whilst I watch what grows and what doesn't.

[johnw]

By the way: This being a weather thread. We had -21.5°C last night with only 15cm of snow. I wonder how much I lost.
Göte

Göte  - I would think everything below the snow will be fine. That's a goodly amount.  Do you have tender shrubs above the snowline? I would be interested to hear what they might be and how they fare.


johnw

[art600]

Here in frozen north Kent where we had 5cm of snow yesterday, the temperature has not risen above freezing for two days.  I have just, very reluctantly, driven to the Chemist and the temperature was -5C.  While you might be used to this in Scotland, temperatures as low as this have not been felt for years.

I just hope it kills all the aphids.

[Maggi Young]

Ian was down and back to Dundee to talk last night... home safe  with the temp. around minus 6 ...
tonight we only need to go a couple of miles ( if that) to the ABerdeen SRGC meeting, where he is giving a demo on powerpoint construction. So many bad colds and bugs around that many are unable to come out in this weather, thank goodness it is not too bad at the moment. Our Group has members from a sixty mile or so distance in every direction except east, so bad weather can, understandably, have a bad effect on attendance.
Ian's having a three-talk-week to start the year.... Thursday night he's at the Friends of the Cruickshank Botanic Garden at the University in town (Aberdeen)..... he gets his favourite subject for that one... Erythronium! Could be ten inches of snow by then, of course

[gote]

This forum is a challenge to find out.
According to tradition in some parts of Europe witches gather once every year to a witch sabbath on a mountain where they meet the Devil with whom they have a pact. The dance back to back and perform various XXX-rated abominations. To get there, they ride on brooms or other suitable sticks.
Swedish witches go to Blåkulla which is assumed to be on an uninhabited island in the Baltic. They do so on the night to Friday before Easter day.
In Germany they go to Blocksberg in the Harz and I believe on April 30ieth.
Slavic witches go to Lysa Hora meaning indeed bald mountain (and I get the impression at midsummer) There are several of these mountains scattered in the former Soviet Union.
The piece indeed tries to depict such a witch sabbath. The bald mountain is not just any naked mountain but the specific place where you meet the Devil. Therefore it is called 'A night at Blåkulla' in Swedish since nobody here knows what Bald Mountain is and the place actually has a name in Swedish. Similarly you will find references to Blocksberg in connection with German recordings of the piece.
I would have assumed that there would be a similar place in British folklore?? Or do British witches stay virtuously at home?
Göte