Snow coming…

Beautiful photo by Aaron Burden from unsplash. I don’t normally use other people’s pictures but this is free to use on the Internet.

We have had snow warnings, for Thursday night and for Friday. We have had a lot of snow across the country over the last couple of days, but in the South and the North of the UK. But a low pressure zone is travelling up from the South, and an Arctic blast of cold air is coming from the North. The wet air from the south is due to turn into snow somewhere over the Midlands and Northern England (Staffordshire and Derbyshire). Lower levels are due to be 10 to 20 centimetres, but higher ground might get 40 centimeters. Not sure how much that is in inches but it sounds a lot? I think 12 centimeters is 4.7 inches? So today we got the shopping done. Made sense rather than getting caught out tomorrow or Friday.

Gone!

Minus 7.7°C in Shropshire last night, and below freezing locally. My Nasturtiums which were still in flower yesterday have collapsed in little siddy heaps. Their plant cells have all burst as the fluid inside them expanded into ice crystals. I knew it would happen, I was hoping to still have some in flower at Christmas.

The Jet Stream up in the sky has settled below England to our south and low pressure systems are pulling down cold air from the North of Britain. We are expecting freezing conditions for at least up to the weekend. By then the damage to my plants will be done. I haven’t got any garden fleece to protect the plants, I can only hope having plants close together will help some of them survive. X

Clocks went back

I forgot to put the clocks back last night. No real problem, it just meant I got an extra hour in bed. What does sadden me is that it’s 5.15pm and its already dark. Sometimes in the winter months it feels like you never see the sun. It hides behind the clouds, keeping its light lost in their faces.

As the year turns in the northern hemisphere the sun sinks further south, rising in an arc that tops at an angle, so consequently there is less daylight. In the southern hemisphere the earth is tipped towards the sun bringing more light to that part of the world.

Celestial mechanics is interesting. The fact that the earth is tipped on its axis is the cause. If the earth was upright all parts would have exactly 12 hours of daylight and night, there would be no seasons. But the angle of the earth would wobble more without the moon. It helps stabilise its orbit around the sun. Look things up, find things out, you might be surprised!

You know its coming…

In the northern hemisphere at least. We’ve hit the equinox, when the day and night lengths are the same. Cold, arrives, now. Unless we get some late summer heat. There’s been hailstorm in the North East of England and heavy rain in Scotland. Across the Northern hemisphere there have been hurricanes in North America and Typhoons in Asia.

The other side of the world is experiencing Spring. The South is getting warmer as the Earth starts to tip its south Pole towards the sun. The tilt of the Earth means that we have seasons. If the world was at 90° day and night would be equal across the whole world. 12 hours of light, 12 hours of dark. No glorious late evenings in summer or long dark nights in winter. What an interesting world we live on.

And it’s not flat!

Copper Tears

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Now there once were giant people throughout the lands. The Southern Giants were strong and smart, they were made of copper and bronze and shone in the sunlight. But the Northern Giants were also strong, and as they lived in the winter lands they were made of ice as hard as Iron. They could breath ice and snow when they fought. Because of this they were known as the Ice Giants.

After many years of war, Ralf, King of the Southern giants went to fight with them. He knew that if he did not win his lands would be forfeit and his wife would be killed by his enemies.

Lora, his wife, was scared when he told her his plans, but she knew he would have to go to save their fellow giants.

She watched him leave and cried tears which fell into her lap and made a huge pool of liquid copper, each tear making a ripple many feet high.

As she waited she thought she heard him calling her, she stood up and the copper spilled onto the ground, making a lake of copper at the base of the mountains where they lived.

Meanwhile in the North the Giants fought each other to a standstill. Ralf was winning, but as the battle came to an end one Ice Giant hit a fatal blow against him. He was dying but he hit back and felled the last Ice Giant.

His wife foresaw his death and started to weep again, she could not bear his loss. Her tears flowed over the land. Then the wind strengthened from the North. Forcing Lora to stand and start to run from its freezing grip. She was so tall that her tears fell from such a great height that they froze solid and shattered as they hit the ground.

It is said that there is a land in the south where her tears sit like trees in a forest, they are so many. And if you are far away you see the autumn colours of their copper and bronzes glinting in the sunlight.