Weather mid 2009

[David Nicholson]

Started drizzling here about 0930 and got steadily worse throughout the day. By 1230 I could barely see across the road with a heavy mist rolling off Dartmoor, and it's still raining now. A real dreicht day!

[Lori S.]

We had a very violent thunderstorm during the night.  It woke us up at 2 am with a crack that put out the power for a little while.  (The cat thought us foolhardy to remain upstairs... she fled to the safety of the basement!)  Strong swirling winds had the boughs on the spruce waving up and down like ostrich plume fans wielded by Cleopatra's Nubian slaves!  Almost constant lightning with heavy driven rain and light hail for about an hour, but no damage other than some broken delphinium stems.   
And now the forecast is for cool rainy weather all week... oh well, the rain is welcome.

[Maggi Young]

We were visited today by Oleg ..."onion farmer to the Forum"  and his friend  Alex, from Moscow. As charming a pair of visitors as one could wish for.... and I do not say this because of the large box of Russian chocolate which Oleg brought for me....this did not necessarily make them charming.... merely very generous! Their charm was evident in other matters.....for instance, they loved Lily (and her little friend, the spaniel who is staying with us just now)...... and they did not mind the chaos there is in the garden at present  (with all the reconstruction that is in progress) 

It was a delight to spend time with them in our garden and then to visit, after lunch, the Cruickshank Botanic Garden and see some of the older parts of Aberdeen, to share a little history of the place..... the weather was quite beautiful and so an extremely pleasant day was passed in the company of new friends..... just lovely!

Oleg and Alex are only travelling in Scotland on this visit, Mark. They have visited UK quite often but have never been to Aberdeen before. We were astonished to learn of the bureaucracy which they must now negotiate their way through to obtain a Visa to vist the UK.... it seems that in years gone by it was very much more simple.... now it is a tedious process which takes weeks and of course, one might still be turned back on arrival in this country, just as is the case with travel for us to the US now.
 Ah, no wonder I stay at home,; things were simpler in my young days! 

[Giles]

.....nothing would surprise me, Maggi.
I visited the Soviet Union (as it then was) several times in the 80's. We were led off the plane by armed soldiers, and were individually put in a thing like a cattle crush to be measured, before being let in through customs. (they then took our passports off us for the duration of the visit). Trying out my Russian language skills (fresh from evening classes) I discovered that they had no idea what or where the UK was (one person got it more or less right, with 'is it part of the USA ?'  ). On my last visit to the USSR, I was in Kiev when Chernobyl blew up, (and decided never to visit again   ) to be greeted at Heathrow by some bloke in a 'space suit' waving a Geiger Counter at me, and telling me to take my clothes off (but guess that's another story!).

[Ragged Robin]

Giles, I'm sure I'm not supposed to find the story of your plight in Russia so amusing but it is a tale to remember and I do hope you are no longer potentially radioactive as are/were the poor sheep in Wales who didn't even visit Russia in the first place  

[Ragged Robin]

Maggi, it sounds as if you had a wonderful time when Onion visited and good to hear that the turbulent weather allowed you to do some sightseeing as well - it's a great way to renew acquaintance with your own locality when visitors pop in from abroad 

[Maggi Young]

Yes, Robin, we had a great time... though "Onion" is actually Uli, from Germany...... Oleg is the Russian in question! So many allium lovers in this place... hard to keep track of them all...... perhaps Uli will visit next? 
I confess it is quite some time since I was last at the Cruickshank Garden..... the place is not as it once was...... in Roma's time it was a wonderful place. It is still a fine, peaceful garden, but the "top note" of excellence has fallen rather flat, shall we say! 

[Ragged Robin]

Apologies to Oleg...  I really should know my onions a little better!

[Martin Baxendale]

Speaking of Chernobyl, my wife (who's from the East of Slovakia, not too far from the border with Ukraine) told me the grass on the plain above her home town went black the day after the radioactive plume from Chernobyl first passed over. It was also the day of their May Day parades when the plume passed over and the authorities said nothing about it until later, so all the schoolkids were out taking part in the parades, although the government must have known.

[Maggi Young]

Apologies to Oleg...  I really should know my onions a little better!

   

[Giles]

Robin,
My GP keeps telling me having three heads can't be normal, but glowing in the dark is a real asset when it comes to nighttime gardening  

[cohan]

the same storm (same systems colliding, at least) that hit lori was ending here as it started there--it was milling around rumbling here from late afternoon, and threatening to interfere with a show i wanted to watch on t.v. ..as it was, i never got onto the computer yesterday, out in the morning, lightning and thunder in the evening..
it finally really got going about midnight, and boomed and poured rain till somewhere around 2am..
luckily no damage around here in this storm -which downed trees and damaged homes in both of the large cities in the province- nor in the one on saturday which caused two deaths--a freak stage collapse at a music festival north of here, and a young girl killed by flying construction material in lori's city, calgary...

after a couple of days around/just below 30C, we are now seeing highs of 12-15 for a few days, and more rain..the rain is good, though not for farmers who have hay cut!..
when i saw the forecast today, i realised i needed to get outside and cut some firewood, so that was my afternoon!
i always tease a friend in florida that we see her annual temperature variation in a single day--several days ago we had a high of around 30C, and a low near 5C......

[David Nicholson]

Started drizzling here about 0930 and got steadily worse throughout the day. By 1230 I could barely see across the road with a heavy mist rolling off Dartmoor, and it's still raining now. A real dreicht day!

......... and today is even worse

[Rafa]

here it will be a sunny week with around 30º and low humidity (now 31º/ 20% humidity and little wind).
Many of yours could think its a marvellous weather, but we are quite worry because this is the perfect day for some mother f take the advantage to burn the country. Last week 4000 hectares and two people die, in south Gredos Mountain Range, and actually in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is another very big fire.

Good weather in summer in Spain, means fires.

[Maggi Young]

Rafa, we are seeing the fires in Gran Canaria on TV and we are told about the fires on the mainland also.

There are big fires in British Columbia, Canada too : we are seeing these on TV too. Very frightening and so damaging for wildlife.