Stormy Weather

[marthe]

Anna,
Many thanks! Your description of snowdrops, Winter Jasmine and cyclamen is cheering indeed! I'm a great fan of all three though I've never had any luck with getting my Winter Jas. to behave and bloom. When it does, the scent is heavenly!

[Nick Armstrong]

No weather yet in February, it seems...! Well, no stormy weather...

Stiff northerly wind here in the metrollopes today, was bright earlier but cloudy now... Last night, I went out late and the sky was very dramatic, clouds speeding in a southerly direction against a starry black backdrop. I like this weather

[salymap]

Not bad here today Cali, but cold wind when I went out to one of the bins. Good sunny spells earlier too.

Am hoping the council verges will soon show the daffodils peeping though,we have some big clumps just across the road from me. I've seen mothers standing by while their young kids pick big bunches. Thank goodness it doesn't happen much.

Just watched a dreadful film- Anchor's Aweigh, Sinatra and Gene Kelly but the music was toe curling with Jose Iturbi taking part. Hollywood Schmaltz. Bestio

[Anna]

Last two days have been brilliant, blue sky, sun, NO WIND! Last night was brilliant moon, starry, starry night, I woke up in the night and saw the moon in a fantastic minor cloud formation floating across the sky, thick frost this morning, a little more breezy and therefore chilly. Saw some primroses. It seems, now we are into February, we are over the worst of Winter without major mishaps, river levels here substantially dropped, no longer on flood alert. Soon be Easter (and Waitrose have the most awful display of Easter Eggs!) and then we are home and dry except for the floods in the Summer. (Gloomy? Moi?)

[EdgeleyRob]

Lots of blue sky and sunshine today,very cold though.

[BBMmk2]

That's good to0 hear, anna! Bet yoiur quite relieved!! A mix bag of sun and overcast here.

[mangerton]

It was sunny but freezing here first thing this morning. It soon clouded over and it's been overcast ever since. Temp has hovered around 4° or 5° C. Pressure now 1021 mb.

[salymap]

Well that's today's excitement,I've put the fortnightly bins out. Seems very cold outside too. I should get on with delayed jobs but might watch an old film.

[eighthobstruction]

Well Salymap , the local council is gradually weaning you off your addiction to bins....soon it will be once a month, then twice every six months....after that I'm afraid it's down to patches.....

[JFLL]

I remember snowdrops always being the first flowers to appear in our garden, followed by crocuses, but in recent years it’s been the other way round. However, this year the snowdrops did appear first by a day or two. (We’ve also got a silly primrose that seems to flower all winter.)

Brisk cold wind off the Thames estuary here on the Blackheath heights today.

[Anna]

I've just put the recycling out: glass, tins, plastic containers and tetrapaks in one sack, paper and cardboard in another. Tuesday is kitchen waste and garden rubbish. I find that as everything is recycled I don't bother with putting the regular bin out fortnightly, once a month is enough as it only contains packaging that at the moment the council are unable to recycle.

On topic, it's grey and dull but warm at 10° I'm just about to cook late lunch (a small rack of lamb so very quick to cook) rather than my usual evening meal so I can relax with the rugby at 3pm (cheering on Italy), then finish reading yesterday's paper, quick tidying up and organizing and again at 9pm relax with Brian Cox (suddenly I'm finding physics fascinating!)

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

bit less than 10 in the middle kingdom .... grey and cold

... brought back memories of waiting for Ma to finish cooking Sunday lunch - house steamed up, enticing smells, the whole family asking when it will be ready [bisto kids not in it] and then the joy of roast beef, yorkshire pudding, piles of vegetables etc etc and apple pie .... Ma worked as a cook ... she created round the corner queues at the pub she cooked for when it was Steak Pie day .... that ritual repeated every Sunday for years ...i can easily imagine the joy of doing it once or twice, but serving the weekly ritual must have been a grinding chore ... no one i know still cooks Sunday Lunch on Sundays ....

[Anna]

bit less than 10 in the middle kingdom .... grey and cold

... brought back memories of waiting for Ma to finish cooking Sunday lunch - house steamed up, enticing smells, the whole family asking when it will be ready [bisto kids not in it] and then the joy of roast beef, yorkshire pudding, piles of vegetables etc etc and apple pie .... Ma worked as a cook ... she created round the corner queues at the pub she cooked for when it was Steak Pie day .... that ritual repeated every Sunday for years ...i can easily imagine the joy of doing it once or twice, but serving the weekly ritual must have been a grinding chore ... no one i know still cooks Sunday Lunch on Sundays ....

Calum, my mother was very strict about Sunday lunch, it was to be served at 1pm prompt! Then she could relax for the rest of the day with father (his one day off work) and us children could go off and do our own thing knowing that tea was just a sarnie and a bit of cake and we could turn up any time. It's unusual for me to cook at lunchtimes but my immediate neighbours still hold to the tradition with their grown-up children and grandchildren still in attendance at least once a month. I've just been reading an article in an old Telegraph about obesity and families not eating together anymore, just kids going to the fridge and grazing on whatever they want so I think, although it's a bit of a faff, the traditional Sunday lunch is A Good Thing!

[mangerton]

.............the traditional Sunday lunch is A Good Thing!

Absolutely! Something I grew up with, that I still keep up. Miss m often joins me, though not today.

"Bucket day" - a Scots term father used, and mother found vulgar - here today too. The rubbish is removed weekly at the crack of dawn each Monday, so it;s best to put it out today. Dundee has long been very keen on recycling, and at the recycling "centres" you can dispose of just about anything.

[gurnemanz]

Calum, my mother was very strict about Sunday lunch, it was to be served at 1pm prompt! Then she could relax for the rest of the day with father (his one day off work) and us children could go off and do our own thing knowing that tea was just a sarnie and a bit of cake and we could turn up any time. It's unusual for me to cook at lunchtimes but my immediate neighbours still hold to the tradition with their grown-up children and grandchildren still in attendance at least once a month. I've just been reading an article in an old Telegraph about obesity and families not eating together anymore, just kids going to the fridge and grazing on whatever they want so I think, although it's a bit of a faff, the traditional Sunday lunch is A Good Thing!

Likewise, when we were children at home (always with a proper pudding - there was a thread on this topic a while ago). We certainly kept to Sunday lunch when our two were at home and our daughter took on the proper puddings, which has remained her speciality to this day. Now that they are long gone we seem to have reverted to the weekday pattern of a snack lunch and a cooked meal in the evening.