A day for digging?
6 04 2008
I had planned to finish digging a couple of vegetable beds today, move Delilah and her litter of Berkshire piglets out to the field, and perhaps put the rotary hoe through the potato field. But yesterday’s weather forecast of light showers has proved to be wrong, while this morning’s forecast of occasional snow showers that won’t settle is also wide of the mark. It was snowing hard at 5.45am and when I took this photo at 7am, it was still coming down. It is spring somehwere, isn’t it?
And yes, I do know that the forecast is based on readings at Aberdeen Airport and Lossiemouth, both of the coast and some way from here. I mention that because whenever I talk about the weather forecast someone emails or comments to let me know the facts about microclimates, the difference between the coast and the inland hills, etc etc etc etc.
No Spring here.
Woke up to a 5mm dusting all over the village.
So much for planting out the cauli’s and strawberries.
Looks like you’re heading for Christmas up there.
I find it so frustrating when I can’t do what I’d planned, even though there are hundreds of other jobs I could do instead. I’m hoping to finish spraying if the weather and my back hold up, then it looks like we’ll be having a bit of the weather system you’ve got at the moment.
I know what you mean about forecasts though, my ‘local’ ones are Bordeaux and Bergerac and the weather there is often quite different to here.
But should you have nothing to do and are bored, I’ve half a hectare that needs digging here!
We have snow here too, and it’s coming down steadily. The children are delighted.
Also on another forum a poster from London said they had snow too.
As for forecasts, they don’t take into account our mountains and pockets of micro climates that can have vastly different weather system in each one.
Mainly hailstones up here on the Isle of Lewis today. Been up since 2.30am lambing, so it’s definitely Spring!
And at Midday it’s still at snowing (and setting) in Sunny Sussex too!
I know we had snow in Glasgow too. Not as much you, just a sprinkling! Snow in April, very weird.
You’ll be relieved to know you’re not alone, Stoney -
just shuffled out of clothes heavy with snow after hurrying through a blizzard so severe I couldn’t see across our little river valley (rare occurrence). The eerie halfshadows of snowlight were illuminating the valley at around 05:00 - enough to send our anxious, autistic cat into a complete flat spin - & send me out into the cold, to take emergency rations up to the horses & ponies; & to those sheep not lambing this year.
Meanwhile the OH is basking in the relative warmth of Damascus as I struggle on single-handedly with goat milking; kidding; lambing; care of our second sheep flock (outdoors); ducks; hens; geese; logging horses; carriage ponies; veg garden/greenhouses; hand-rearing seventeen (so far) kids plus one cade lamb; oh yes, & practising product development, formulating a Business Plan & launching a (frighteningly expensive) new business. So no pressure, eh….? ;0)
Oh yes, & there’s also chopping firewood to keep the fires stoked (no central heating here) as well as walking/feeding/training the dog. And hand-carrying basketloads of hay up a very steep, slippery hill to our hungry horses. And caring for the cats. And grabbing the odd cuppa/bite to eat in between……so let’s hope it stops snowing - SOON.
Meanwhile it’s still bitterly cold & for a while I didn’t think I’d manage to milk our herd of goats via the machine, I was so concerned the pipes on our trusty bucket milker had frozen solid. But between us me & ‘the girls’ mananged it….
So; only a few hours, before the Big Freeze sets in. Oh what fun….or NOT; as the smallholders’ case may (inevitably) be - no rest for the wicked/daft, eh?!
I expect snow in April, but would like a little longer between the snow spells—just enough that the ground dries and I get two days of digging done before the next fall.
I’m just finishing a cup of tea—on my own. The family claim I’m a stinker because I’ve been mucking out pigs and carrying piglets out to their new home. They’ve even turned down my offer of gratuitous hugs…
I stood outside watching my hens sunbath whilst the snow fell. How’s that for perverse weather?
The weather was all over the place here yesterday too. I washed bedclothes in the morning and hung them out to dry, bitingly cold wind around but blue skies and warm sunshine. They were nearly dry at lunchtime when I decided to go up the mountains for a walk. About two minutes into the drive it started to drizzle (typical! I thought, since I’d decided to leave them out to finish drying), about five minutes further up the road it was snowing and by the time I’d driven the fifteen minutes up to Cruagh Wood it was snowing and hailstoning hard and visibility was very poor. I parked in the car park to wait for a few minutes in case it stopped and I could see blue sky over to the west. Five minutes later, it had completely stopped snowing and I could see the storm moving over towards where I live and out to the sea.
I walked in freezing cold wind for about ten minutes and by the time I was halfway round the 70 minute walk, we were back to gorgeous blue skies and blazing sunshine and I was down to a t-shirt. When I turned around I could see more dark clouds though and sure enough a few minutes later I was walking through a snowfall again. It eased off by the time I got back to the car and by the time I got home the washing, despite having been snowed on twice, was almost dry. Maddest weather I’ve seen.
Yesterday (& at times, today) reminded me of the weather in the Falkland Islands:
four seasons in one day. I well remember waking to see wintry snow on Pleasant Peak one morning; then driving to go fishing in a local creek, where the weather was almost Spring-like. By lunchtime it was so hot we were all down to tee shirts & shorts; & in summertime mood, barbequed our catch at the waters’ edge as a school of porpoise swam smoothly by.
In the tranquility of the afternoon we visited a penguin colony before popping to Port Stanley to do some shopping; by which time the weather was rapidly closing in with increasingly strong winds & autumnal hailstorms. We hurried back to Mount Pleasant before the Stanley road was closed due to storms - a common occurrence.
We went everywhere by Land Rover, & never alone; a minimum of two vehicles would travel together just in case one got bogged down (you had to see to believe some of the terrain we had to tackle!). Oddly enough about the only vehicle on the island which wasn’t a Land Rover, was a Fiat Uno (nicknamed the ‘Flying Tomato’!).
I clearly recall the annual horse races, as well - the course was peppered with potholes & tussocks of grass, & the jockeys all downed bottles of beer for a bit of ‘Dutch Courage’ before responding to the crack of the starting pistol with whoops & much clapping of spurs into the ponies’ sides. Bizarre!
All in all, a fascinating, wild place where the wind never seems to stop blowing & farming is a serious challenge - I think you could call it, ‘Extreme Crofting’!!
So regardless of the weird weather, I’m thanking my lucky stars that we’re not doing over there, what we’re doing, over here!