Weather- January 2010

[Lori S.]

Yikes, freezing pipes, what a pain indeed!  Reminds me of my mom's house when I was a kid & teenager.  The oldest part of the house was built in 1900 (mostly from railroad ties stolen from the railroad nearby by a previous owner, or so the story goes!) - no insulation in the walls, and the water pipes close to the foundation (such as it was) would freeze, and we'd have to crawl around in the dirt basement to thaw them out with hairdryers and heaters.  My uncle used to bring in bails of straw from the farm to put along the foundation on the north side, which helped some I imagine.  Anyway, the house has long since been renovated, thank heavens!

[cohan]

at least there was electricity for the hair dryers 
my earliest childhood home had electricity, but no running water--we brought it in in buckets from a hand pump..interestingly, i dont recall those ever freezing solid (could be i just dont remember, as it wouldnt have been my problem...) though i'm sure there was thin ice  in the upper parts broken by manual pumping..
i do really envy that handpump anytime there is a power outage--water is the one thing  we cant get now without electricity! my heat is wood, cook stove is propane, and there are always candles and kerosene lamps...

[Sinchets]

Our biggest problem is that older houses here were never intended to have water inside them- they are all build with a standpipe outside. Water pipes were installed later into the house and as these are somewhat exposed we insulated around them outside. I am not sure if the problem this year is there- or where the main pipe is exposed further up the hill. It most have broken 4 or 5 times last summer- everytime it rained and the ground moved- and so was never covered over again. Not much chance of taking a hairdryer 500m up the hill to sort that one out

[Roma]

I wasn't sure where to put these pics but there's snow in them so I suppose 'Weather' will do.  They were taken on January 11th and show the seeds and?scales which came off the Betula utilis after a windy night.

[Ragged Robin]

Interesting what can be seen in different weathers Roma - the snow is a great foil for picking up tiny details and the amount of seed is incredible - would any of it grow on in to seedling Betula utilis given the chance?

[Lesley Cox]

Probably most of it Robin.

[Roma]

Interesting what can be seen in different weathers Roma - the snow is a great foil for picking up tiny details and the amount of seed is incredible - would any of it grow on in to seedling Betula utilis given the chance?

I did find about half a dozen seedlings last year.  I potted up two and must get the rest dug up and potted before I have a forest.  The parent trees are getting too big and make the garden very dry and shady in the summer but they were grown from seed collected in East Nepal by Ron McBeath in 1981 so I am reluctant to have them chopped.

[cohan]

I wasn't sure where to put these pics but there's snow in them so I suppose 'Weather' will do.  They were taken on January 11th and show the seeds and?scales which came off the Betula utilis after a windy night.

if we get windy spells, our snow looks like this too--debris from native birches, and spruce--esp since the birds feed on the cones high in the spruces, raining down the leftovers!
sounds like your trees have an interesting provenance

[Hristo]

A clear day leading into night temps of -17c or lower.
Some pics of the local snowscapes;
House
Abandoned local house
Pretty View
Kamenari ( Our village )
Bulb Beds
Workshop

[Ragged Robin]

Hristo, these are really interesting snowscapes around where you live with the plains in the background, very pretty. Is the local village very active or has the population dwindled?

Your bulb beds look magnificently snug under their thick blankets against the -17c nights

[cohan]

A clear day leading into night temps of -17c or lower.
Some pics of the local snowscapes;
House
Abandoned local house
Pretty View
Kamenari ( Our village )
Bulb Beds
Workshop

very interesting to see these views; like robin, i'm esp curious about the village-how near is it? are you in the village? are there any services?

[Hristo]

Hi RR, Cohan,
The village centre is about 1km away from us. Our house is in what is now part of Kamenari, but used to be a hamlet called Tochatli. The village is well populated for a rural settlement in Bulgaria, 75% of the population are ethnic Gypsy. 24% Muslim Turks/Bulgarians, 1% Christian Bulgarians. Services are;
1 village shop, 1 bar, 1 restaurant/bar, 2 holiday villa complexes, Mayors office, Pre-school & Primary School,
Doctors surgery ( under construction ) and one Bulb/alpine nursery.

RR, yes the snow is essential, these beds now hold the bulk of our bulb collection, or at least the part of it that is not planted in the garden, last nights temps were down to -22c. We don't heat these beds at all, they rely on stored heat and the thermal insulation from the snow sat on them! Worked well for the last 3 years, and we have had temps down to -25c!

[Ragged Robin]

Wow, sounds an interesting community and well served too - to be constructing (Doctors surgery) as opposed to closing facilities in rural places is wonderful, congratulations to you and Simon for adding a key aspect to the village being 'put on the map'.... 

[Stephenb]

I wasn't sure where to put these pics but there's snow in them so I suppose 'Weather' will do.  They were taken on January 11th and show the seeds and?scales which came off the Betula utilis after a windy night.

Even less weather related (and definitely not January weather) is the following shot which your picture reminded me of. Actually it is weather related as it reminds me that it can actually get warm enough to sit outside for breakfast. I was sat under a birch tree in the garden with my porridge, sour cream (not snow!) and orange raspberries and birch seeds were falling from the tree...gave a nutty flavour to breakfast that day . You can see it's early morning from the long shadows of the birch seeds...

[Ragged Robin]

It looks delicious fair weather food, Stephen, I wonder what the birch seeds thought of their new growing medium   - not that they had time to think about it