The winter in UK - worst on record ?
There is chaos in travel in UK - all London airports closed and flights cancelled for two days now - two of the busiest in the year too. Apparently they can clear a runway including de-icing to make it safe for take-off, but it takes so long to de-ice the aeroplanesto be safe to fly that the runway needs de-icing again, and they just can't keep up. Thank goodness we are not scheduled to go anywhere other than to relatives for our Christmas lunch, and we have enough stocks in the freezer and larder to be quite safe and well-fed if we can't travel - but that is still almost a a week away , but it won't surprise me ( or worry me ! ) if I get to spend an hour or two with my orchids on Christmas day because we can't safely drive.
The newspapers this Sunday before Christmas , suggest that tonight will see all weather records broken in UK with a forecast low of minus 26.5 C - which co-incidentally, according to my mental arithmetic is (also) minus 26 but F as well as C. This I hasten to say in the Northern Scottish Glens. Here on the South coast of England, a mile from the sea which has an enormous modifying effect , minus 4 or 5 C is likley, although inland a few miles like the nearest town to the north of me ( 7 miles away) it is regularly 3,4 or 5 degrees Centrigade colder in winter, and the same amount warmer in the summer, for the same reason, the effect of the sea.
So although they have had 20 cm ( 8 inches) of snow some 20 miles away ( where we hope to be for Christmas day) and maybe several feet by now in the north of England, here are a couple of pictures showing (all) the snow we have had... so far here - my garden in December 2010.
The orchid house extends behind the trellis where the winter jasmine was a sea of yellow flowers before the snow came, and the Wisteria is full of buds, waiting for a little late winter sunshine... just as I am.
Merry Christmas, all dear orchid friends !
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