Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The coldest winter in over a thousand years!

They managed to save the sunflower even if they have put timber everywhere after the cutting. There is a flower lover in all humans it seems :-)

That is what Polish weather men has predicted for us here in Europe this coming winter. They mean that the Gulf stream is so weakened by all cold water melting on Greenland and that the oil spill in the gulf has made the stream sort of slower by the thickness of all the oil in the ocean.






Our swedish weather men hasn´t really answered on this yet, but I sure hope that they will reach another result when they calculate on the same facts. I think last winter was cold enough to be honest so I´m not looking forward to a winter colder than that one :-) :-) I wonder if we in Europe can force BP to pay most of our heating costs then? I doubt that very much!






I don´t think that we up here in the north would be the ones suffering most if this shows to be the truth. Our houses are well insulated for cold weather, but that is not the fact in southern Europe. Every winter we hear in the news how people freezes to death in southern Europe when the cold weather hits hard. I´ve never heard anything like that in happen my own country.






But I´ll prepare my home for a cold winter just in case. I´ll have to get something to cover the windows, thick blankets or perhaps styrofoam? Tomorrow I´ll also drive to Falköping to order fire logs, a whole pallet of them actually :-) But I´ll continue to buy smaller packages of it until the real cold hits us. I have electric radiators too, but I really don´t like to pay more money to those electric companies. They get enough as it is anyway :-) :-) :-)






But even if we don´t get it that cold it might be a good idea to buy a pallet of them anyway. I can always use them next year if I have some left then. It´s never wrong to be prepared for the worst even if we get the warmest winter in thousand years instead :-) :-) :-)






It has been a rather cold day today even if the sun has shined all the time. Northern winds has cooled down the area and it will be a clear night once again. I didn´t get frost last night as I thought I would, but my neighbors did :-) So now there´s a fire in the stove and soon I´ll have a cup of hot tea by my side :-)
Have a great day now!

32 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

wow...i hope the weatherman is wrong too. 1000 years! i don't think they kept records back them!!! haha! we have a wonderful dark, cold, breezy day and i am loving it. joyce

Anonymous said...

It looks cool as opposed to cold in the photos but I suppose walking around will tell the best. And the sunlight photos look warmer, maybe later in the morning. But yes, I guess it's time to load up the logs and get prepared for another cold one. I just can't think a weatherman would be dumb enough to go out on a limb like that. Maybe another Polish joke. Check with your local guys and compare. Have some great tea now.

Valerie said...

Oh, I hope you don't have the coldest weather in over a thousand years either!

It was such a hot, hot summer here...I'm ready for some cool weather. Not quite ready for cold yet.

Love that they left the solitary sunflower during their deforesting project. So sad. I can never get enough of your forest pictures.

Just wanted to drop by and say hello. Also, in response to one of your comments, many weeks ago, :)...YES, we here in America are CRAZY with regards to maternity leave. Recently, as in the past decade or so, the Family Medical Leave Act was passed by Congress and signed into law protecting women and men's rights to take time off to care for a family member (new baby, adoption, elderly parent, etc.). It basically guarantees that the American worker (companies of 50 or more employees) can take up to 12 WEEKS UNPAID leave and not lose their job.

Many, many of my co-workers (teachers) could not afford to take off 12-weeks of unpaid maternity leave and so many go back to work much sooner. Some as soon as 6-weeks post-partum.

I think there is a combination of factors that come into play as to why women can not afford to take off more time once they have a baby, but regardless it is just craziness!

Hope all is going well for you, friend! STAY WARM!!!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
I do hope so too! It was cold enough as it was last winter :-) :-) :-) I almost didn´t make it to my surgery that time :-) To be honest, I´m most worried about what might happen to my car if the temperature drops to much. No problem here at home, I´ll just keep the electric engine heater on all hours of the day. But what would happen when I drove it or when I have it standing outside at work?

I was thinking about what we have learned about the climate back then in school. What I know the climate was quite warm! The vikings moved to Greenland and there were actually forests there then. So perhaps they mean it will be a really warm winter this year :-) :-) :-)

I´ll enjoy the last of the day :-)
Have a great day Yourself!
Christer.

SharleneT said...

Will BP pay your extra fuel bills? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA heeheeheehee (snort)... my guess is, probably not, but what do I know? Why don't you test it and send them a bill?... please let me know the result... enjoy your tea and come visit when you can...

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
It was actually rather cold today. It was the arctic winds that made it so. But I feel it´s way to early to get cold weather really.

One never knows, they might be right. But I´ll wait to hear what others say before I believe it :-) But I´ll order fire logs anyway :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

HI Valerie!
Nice to see You here again! But I know that You have lots to do now when You have a little one again :-)

I was pleasantly surprised that they had placed the timber so carefully so they wouldn´t damage the sunflower :-)

It´s strange to read how different we can see on maternity and paternity leave! We have over one year, and fully paid time too. Fathers also have payed time to stay home with their children. Parents also get fully payed to stay home with sick children here. No matter the size of the company they work in.

I think I prefer our way :-)I don´t care if it does raise our taxes!

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sharlene!
:-) :-) :-)
I kind of guesses the same here :-) :-) :-)
Ah, they will only blame Greenland for letting the ice melt to fast :-) :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Terria said...

Wow, the coldest winter in 1000 years! I think I'll read up on that prediction also. Not that weather-people and scientists are always right, but they might be. I need to see what they are predicting for Oregon this winter. I may need to prepare more too!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Terria!
I don´t think You have to worry about Your winter weather. They predict this only on the gulf stream coming from Your part of the world.

If we didn´t have that stream up here our climate would be very different! Sweden would have much the same climate as Alaska has, or even worse actually. Most probably would the most northern part here be covered by ice most of the time. But it´s never wrong to be prepared!

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Robin Larkspur said...

Holy Moly, 1000 years! The weather channel will go nuts with that! I love your dogs...always so curious and happy. And your sunflower still standing tall!

Kat said...

Christer,
I have been so preoccupied with hunting for a music player that I haven't been by to visit lately. I'm glad I cam today so I wouldn't miss the sunflowers. They are one of my favorite of all flowers.

My hope is the forecast is wrong, and your weather won't be all that cold.

Alen Trädgård said...

Vi har planer på att köpa en ny braskamin i år ( vis efter förra vintern) blir det så kallt som de spår så får vi nog verkligen göra slag i saken:) Hoppas verkligen att det är fel för förra vintern tyckte jag var rena mardrömmen. Ha det gott/Monne

caryn said...

Hi Christer,
Coldest winter in a 1000 years? Isn't that when the Little Ice Age was happening? I suppose we have to expect extremes of weather with Global Warming which doesn't really exist as we all know. ;-)
It's dark, warm and rainy here today. Very tropical feeling. Tomorrow I guess it will be cool and then hot again. Roller coaster temperatures. I'm not turning on the heat until November.
I'm glad to see the sunflower is standing tall amongst the logging trucks and hope it stays there for awhile longer.
Have a good day.

Chris in the Emerald City said...

Looking forward to pictures of your winter! Our camera was lost/stolen/who knows, so I'm afraid I won't have any for the fall...

Peace,
Chris...........

Susie på Stjärnarve... said...

Jag hoppas verkligen att det är ett "polskt skämt" och inte blir verklighet. Efter förra vintern får det gärna bli en mild och skön barvinter här i år!

Kristina said...

I hope that weatherman is wrong! Our winter last year here in Nebraska, USA, was just plain awful! I hope we don't get that again! You'd better feather the nest and pile up the wood! :) Take care!

Kristina

Perovskia said...

I love that the sunflower was left standing :)

Sounds like you'll be well-prepared for winter, regardless of the weather. Nothing like a warm fire and hot tea won't cure :)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Robin!
I haven´t heard anything from our weather men yet, so I do hope that it´s wrong :-)

They are collecting the timber now, so tomorrow I´ll se if these guys are as careful as the others has been.

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kat!
The sunflower still stands despite timber and frost :-) Sunflowers always make me smile :-)

We are all hoping for that over here too :-) :-) :-) But now I´m prepared :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hejsan Monne!
Det är nog inte fel att ha en bra braskamin! Även om det inte blir speciellt kallt i år är det ju inte slut på kylan för det :-)

Men även jag hoppas att de har fel! Men idag beställdes det en pall med värmelogs, jag kan ta´kylan utan problem, hoppas jag :-)

Ha det gott!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Caryn!
I looked up when the small ice age was and it says that it continued from around 1300-1900. But I think that the coldest winters here were around 1620-1650. People starved to death all over europe then. What I know was Finland hit the hardest then. I do hope we don´t have to have winters like that again! I sort of gotten used to the idea that we´re going to get it warmer climate :-)

Up here it seems that the temperature will stay low for quite som time. But it does happen that October can be really nice and warm, but not so often I´m afraid :-)

They are collecting the timber now, so I´m not sure the sunflower still stands after that. We´ll know tomorrow.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Chris!
I´m sorry to read about Your camera being lost! I hope it´ll turn up again!

IU´m not looking forward to take photos of our winter :-) I feel that I have been born in the wrong part of the world :-) :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Tjänare Susie!
Samma här! Men nu är jag förbredd, beställde en pall med värmelogs på väg hem från jobbet :-)

Ha en bra dag nu!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Kristina!
We all hope that over here too :-) Our last winter was terrible to be honest, though I can´t deny that it was one of the most beautiful we have had in many, many years :-)

I´m preparing myself for a really cold winter, but hoping for a warm and nice one :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Perovskia!
Great that You wrote here today! Once again most of my addresses to most blogs has disappeared :-) I changed browser and for some reason I don´t understand it refused to import most of my old favorites!

A warm fire and a hot cup of tea beats most things :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Good ..morning, Christer! It has finally dropped below 100 today. It has been between 113 to 111 all week. Hotter than the desert actually..according to one of my best friends. She lives in Las Vegas and says it wasn't ever that hot there. Of course, in actuality, Riverside IS the desert!
At least..right on the very edge where it begins to get hills..

Your photo's especially the one with the very clear road through the trees, reminded me so much of some of the roads we used to travel in Oregon. Just beautiful. I think it is the road...that really caught at my memory!

I guess men can hoard things as much as women..but it is usually old cars, engines and engine parts..but it happens. They have had men on that show also...
I have only watched it twice and both times just happened upon it.
It...horrifies me so I don't watch it. Like watching a auto accidently...you know?

Have a great day and enjoy your wonderful cool weather. How I love to look at your country photo's...
Mona

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Mona!
And still You are way over our hottest summer temperatures up here :-) :-) :-)

It´s funny how places on the other side of this little planet of ours can remind of places over at Yours :-) I get that feeling too sometimes when seeing photos from America.

There´s absolutely no difference in men and women when it comes to that subject! We have much the same program over here and there´s no difference on this side of the ocean :-) I always feel so sorry for them! What went wrong one day so they started this behavior?


I enjoyed our weather very much today as trhe sun shined. But I did not enjoy it this morning when I had to scrape ice from the car :-) Ice that stuck so hard to the windows that I hardly managed to remove anything :-) :-) :-)

Have a great day in the heat!
Christer.

Cindi Myers said...

I love that the sunflower was still standing! It's heartwarming to know that someone was careful and cared.
I will cross my fingers that you don't get the bad cold winter!
The weather here has been cool but then today it was up to 77 again. Then this weekend it's supposed to drop to low 60's...and possibly freeze in the evenings!
AAHHHHH!!! My garden is bursting with color! I hope they are wrong but I will be out covering everything with sheets if it does!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Cindi!
It still stands after they collected timber just beside it yesterday :-)

I think we cross everything we have over here so we don´t get it that cold :-) :-) But I´m preparing myself for a cold winter. If it gets normal or warm doesn´t matter then. There will be cold winters in the future anyway :-)

Only the toughest flowers still stands here after some nights with frost now.

Have a great day now!
Christer.

Anonymous said...

Nice photos of Swedish nature. Makes me homesick! Hope the winter won't be too bad. You're right though that in Sweden buildings are built to withstand a lot of cold, it's probably going to be worse for the rest of Europe. Keep stocking up on those fire logs though....

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Lisa!
So You are from Sweden originally.

Yes I think that we are more prepared for cold winters than those living in the southern parts of Europe. A pallet with fire logs will arrive here on monday morning :-)

Have a great day and welcome to my blogs new home at Word Press!
Christer.