OK. Lets tallk about the weather..........

[Kobione]

We read the Daily Mail. UK on line most mornings, and there were some lovely snow pictures today, and even looking at them made us feel a heap cooler! Our recent weather has been very uncomfortable for the exact opposite reason - did you see Sydney reached 45.8 deg. yesterday!! We have had 4 or 5, 43 deg days in the past 2 weeks, and the days between have not been below 35, and the nights not below 20deg. Consequence - my garden has gone, (for now), nothing is thriving, all in 'preservation mode', so no garden pics. Too hot to go for days out - unless to a beach and that's too far! Fire danger too high, so quite a few days on guard. Result - I'm bored, and the girls are going stir crazy!!

We have lived where we did get snow, but it was a real novelty. Looks like you are getting some real dumps over there, so how is it actually affecting your daily lives? I only have very faint memories of my Dad digging the car out of the drive!

[FUJI]

Hi! kobione,

My good lady and I being of mature years, have been well prepared for weeks and even more since we had the very clear warnings of what was to come.

One ton of dry logs in the back yard, ample food stocks in the pantry, boiler professionally checked and cleaned, good winter clothes and shoes on the hooks. When we venture out is is mainly to prevent us going stir crazy, we take extra care to walk in the least slippery areas......it's good to know we have three grown up children who keep a close eye on what we are up to, so help is at hand if we do require it.

We don't have a vehicle now, but when I did, it was ( for over 20 years) a 1973 VW Camper, it would start up in any weather, and usually got me home or made a temporary home wherever I was. I did lots of winter toy making demonstrations and sales at country museums and on Historic Sites ( sometimes in Tudor Costume) so the camper was always prepared with fuel, food, bedding and suitable clothing.

I admit to preferring bitter winter weather to summer heat.....give me a steady moderate temperature any day.

FUJI

[Phil]

I'm with Fooj when it comes to preferring the winter cold over extreme summer heat, how you cope with 43'+ is beyond me.

I think after being caught out in the past the Met Office are beginning to err on the side of caution. We were told to expect at least 6" of snow with a daytime high today of -1, we currently have just 2" of snow and the thermometer in the kitchen is showing a steady +3'.

I'll be popping out shortly to clear the drive but apart from that won't be venturing out today.

[annie]

kobione, tis no secret i hate winter.

i see nothing in the horrible frosts, snow is something that only looks pretty on christmas cards and i loath the cold. it's nothing new, i was the same as a kid, come october the only reason i would be seen out was cause i had to go to school.

i love the sun, and heat. i am a right misery in winter. the short days and long nights are hellish for me. i spend all of winter just longing for spring and summer and all of spring and summer dreading the next winter.

i am sure i must suffer with that 'sad syndrome' thing...or maybe i am just weird!

[Heather]

i hate winter and summer, one is too cold and the other too hot ! Give me spring with its gentle warm sun and light breezes, its spring flowers and new life, or Autumn with its wild wet windy days or crisp cool days and its beautiful colours of the trees and that smell that gets in the air of smoke from bonfires and damp ground... makes me wish we could photograph smells sometimes

you can keep this rotten cold wet icy dangerous stuff and you can shove that overhot burning sun that burns everything including me to a crisp !

[Leon]

I love cold weather, (hate driving in snow though )

I'v just been out on the school field opposite with my 3 kids, I then got bombarded by two other kids I have never met. was excellent fun ...I do wonder though why other parents sit and watch through the window, perhaps I'm just a big kid at heart :)

Edited January 19, 2013 by mrwall

[Heather]

I do wonder though why other parents sit and watch through the window

cause its nasty wet cold stuff and they have more sense than to go out playing in it ? lol

[fuzzyedges]

...I do wonder though why other parents sit and watch through the window, perhaps I'm just a big kid at heart

Or in this day and age "Who is that unkown grown up playing with my kids??"

[Denis]

I much prefer an ambient temperature of about 20º for my summer warmth. I too dislike very hot days, and couldnt think of having to live in temperatures at present in Australia, but can tolerate the cold quite easily.

I can always keep warm in winter, but never keep cool enough for summer. The secret of winter weather is to dress for it, nothing pleases me more than walking in the snow or rain. No one else about to get in your way! I was out walking yesterday afternoon when the snow was coming sideways across the fields. I shall be going out for a three to five mile walk in about ten minutes too...luvverly :)

[Leon]

Or in this day and age "Who is that unkown grown up playing with my kids??"

I will refrain from replying to that one

[Kobione]

I suppose basically you over there are set up to deal with the colder weather, whereas we are the reverse. We have 3 split sytem air conditioners - the Boeing in the lounge area, and two medium ones in the bedroom and 'puter room. We have ceiling fans in every room, excellent insulation and heavy duty canvas pulldown blinds on the north facing windows. On an over 40 day we get out and about early. take the girls for a swim in the dam about mid-morning, like we did today, and that keeps them cool!:

Then we 'shut down' for the day. During the night we close off the bedroom, say to the girls 'Come on in the coolies' and they do and as a result we all sleep. lol

[annie]

and you get to put the washing out everyday.......!

[colinb]

because of this crazy world we currently live in and the fact I keep getting made redundant (last job working for Ofsted, HM gov pulled my job end of term last July, now working 3 days per week doing graphic design over in Lincoln) I have a back-up doing a little part time work for a local taxi company (all legal I’m fully ‘badged up’ by local council) and I have noticed this year the ‘services’ are trying and succeeding much better in keeping roads and pathways clear which is good. But there are still far to many 4x4 owners who don’t understand their vehicle will not stop any quicker on ice than a car :o

Edited January 20, 2013 by colinb

[fuzzyedges]

But there are still far to many 4x4 owners who don’t understand their vehicle

Just clipping what you said is where I stand

At the bottom of our road is a hill (downwards) to a T junction The hill is very rarely gritted but the road it joins is

Oh so much fun is to be had watching them apply there brakes feet from the junction and sliding into the gritted road, where there brakes work The surprised looks are worth a million just before they test the strength of their seat belts

[Guest Lee]

Did anyone see the programme on BBC2 last night, Winterwatch the Big Freeze of 1963? 4 years before my time but, obviously, my parents remember it and they said it was terrible....and judging by the footage I can believe it!

What impressed me was how the country battled on...unlike today where the majority lock themselves in their houses and moan that the council hasn't cleared their roads. The programme showed people getting out and cleaning their own streets and the best thing.....the trains were running!! Steam locos with snowploughs attached to the front hammering down the line into 6' snow on the track and clearing a path. If you missed then look for it on the iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk...The_Big_Freeze/

[Denis]

I was 9 years old in 1963, and we lived in a small tied cottage In north Hertfordshire We woke up one morning to a drift that reached to the window sill....of the upstairs windows. I remember dad having to dig a tunnel from the back door up to the outhouse where the toilet was, taking the dug snow through the house to the front door, as it was only four foot deep out the front!

I also remember seeing my first Helicopter that landed in the village. This had airlifted in milk and bread after three days as we were cut off. The remnants of the drifted snow hung around until early May against sheltered walls and hedgerows. I do remember the bitter cold and the shortage of everything.

[Kobione]

I remember that! I was studying at the then Wulfrun College in Wolverhampton. We lived at Albrighton and I used to get a trolley bus(?) to Tettenhall, then a bus from there to the end of our street. The trolley buses were working, but the other buses were all pulled off the road, so I had to walk home from Tettenhall. My Dad set out from home and walked to meet me. I remember how cold it was and how 'slushy' underfoot, and how quiet with no traffic at all going past. I also remember that this was the first instance of seeing really heavy snow fall after our return to UK, and my teacher of the afternoon, (Chemistry - a guy called Mr Nutter!), simple let me sit and look out of our second floor window and be fascinated by the falling snowflakes!

We have some respite here today -only 36 deg.