h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You would love it!

'Alberta has been hit with a fierce winter storm, and forecasters say the snow and high winds are expected to continue through the weekend.

Environment Canada has issued extreme weather warnings for much of the province, including several snowfall and blowing snow warnings.'

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2011/01/08/edm-winter-snow-storm.html#ixzz1AU0BLR9g


When I've not been shovelling snow, I've been out driving around town. It's been better than a carnival ride!




And, a smug note for officials at Heathrow:

'As of Saturday afternoon there were no weather delays at either Calgary or Edmonton international airports.'



Seriously, (despite the whiny comments on the CBC stories), we're used to this kind of stuff and prepared for it. I mean, for goodness sake, I just went out for my usual non-essential Saturday grocery run, dropped in on friends, drove downtown (down big hill, across river, up bigger hill) and back on a lark (rear wheel drive, no winter tires).

Now I'm going to stay in and drink eggnog until it's time to shovel again.

Yes I would love it. We've gone all mildish coldish dampish blighty here again after our unbelievably fierce December. But I'm very pleased because our wildlife are now coping much better.

And our stupid airports are thoroughly relieved

I had a look at your photo links on the Canadian thread of your garden

I'm just relieved my Italian garlic plants appear to be vagueley alive

I'm sending off for my tomatillo seeds next week

Hope the egg nog is good

yes, the egg nog was good.

as was the winter ale from my friend who dropped by (1 litre at 7%)

and so was the half bottle of home made brunello I had with the nice steak and kidney pie from my friend the meat pie man.

And I'm looking forward to the homemade Chardonnay.



It's dark now. I just saw a couple walk by outside as though nothing were unusual. I suppose that's because nothing is unusual here.


Actually, despite the snow, we've been fortunate that it's not too cold. It was about -7 C today when I was out driving.

If it had been much warmer, the snow would have been uncomfortably heavy when shovelling. Sort of like this uncomfortable heaviness in my brain.


concerning the garden pictures:

It really is amazing that in the summer in that exact location I grow all sorts of peppers and tomatoes and squash and beans, isn't it?







oooh, I should sleep. But it's only 7 pm here.

I better get to that Chardonnay.

Apparently we got more snow over the weekend than we usually get in all of January.

And yet, there were no delays at the airport.

Forecast for tomorrow is a high of -20 and . . .


snow!

Oh stop it with your airport digs I accept it, Canada is the world champion at airports

We're now in a run of very mild westerliers..which actually in my corner of the south east is the first time for about 9 months I think..warm spring, hot dry summer, freezing December...now once again all is right with the world in blighty And I've immediately caught a cold and sniffles

Okay, I'll stop with the airport thing (there were some delayed flights here yesterday)


But, in other news:



'Hampshire made a disappointing start to their Caribbean T20 campaign, slipping to a 23-run defeat against Canada at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. '

http://www.cricket365.com/county/story/6657583/Canada-upstage-Hampshire-in-Caribbean-T20


That must sting!




More coverage here: http://www.canadiancricket.org/page_NEWS_HOME

'The two teams have met only once before over 100 years ago in a match that was drawn. '

Not a bad record for team Canada: No losses ever against Hampshire!

And how sad for Hampshire: No wins ever against Canada!

Hampshire?

At least the thing over a 100 years ago was actually cricket.

The proper thing a 100 years ago would have been over several days. And to spend days and days playing something, and for it to end in a draw is always to be applauded and particularly savoured.

Canada for the over a 100 years ago thing...but as for 20/20?...tiddly winks.

Have you ever heard of the 'timeless test'?

It was between South Africa and England in 1939. The test series was drawn, ie the 4 previous, 5 day matches, so they decided to make the last one go on forever how long it took to get a result. After 11 days, but including 2 rest days still no result...England had to rush off to get the boat home; it couldn't wait any longer. So the series was drawn.

I'm afraid I'm not really up on cricket.

I just thought it would be fun to point out a Canadian win.

I do know that the local cricket club is over a century old now.

Well I did know all of that, apart from the 3rd one.

You should get along to a local match sometime.

I've passed by them playing a few times. They don't seem to draw much of a crowd.

That colonial bastardisation of cricket (baseball) draws only a slightly bigger crowd and the city can't seem to hold onto a team. I've had to update the Edmonton Guide Entry about four times since I wrote it because the baseball team's name and league keeps changing.

I've never had to update the cricket team's name.

>They don't seem to draw much of a crowd<

I'm not surprised. Neither do our county teams, (including Hampshire ), anymore for the long version of the game. But even if your local team are playing 20/20, (T20), and there is no cultural link with the people it's pretty much a waste of time. But clearly somehow they have found a way to continue to exist...that's the magic of cricket I like it. It gets under your skin a bit like chess.

It seems that only ice and snow sports seem to really have taken hold in Canada

But I thought baseball was closer to rounders.

(I know you're not a sports type...but it's a bit of fun for us to discuss it I think...along with the weather ).

ball. bat. people running about.

is it cricket? is it baseball?


they seem to be of the same family.

Okay. This is getting a bit ridiculous. Everybody in the neighbourhood is still in good spirits, but we're clearly getting sick of it.

Today the snow continued and the temperature was about -20 with windchill making it about -30.

My little bunny houses (tables) in the back are almost completely closed in now. I spent the day shovelling a path from my gas meter to the front walk through waist deep snow so the poor meter reader wouldn't need a St. Bernard.

Yesterday I drove down a road where huge dump trucks were removing snow which had been plowed to the side of the road, but the road itself had several inches of new fallen snow on it. It's the same all over the city. A main road I drive every day was as bad this afternoon, despite repeated snow removal, as it was last weekend. A road less travelled that I take every day is a frozen rubble heap.

Apparently we've only had 46 cm of snow since the first of the year, but it didn't all come at once so it couldn't all be removed just once.http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2011/01/17/edmonton-snow-removal.html (the picture accompanying that story is of one of our snow piles. The little black speck on the slope of the heap is a rather large bulldozer.)

Thankfully, the snow seems to have stopped at this point and the temperature is supposed to go up to about -7 tomorrow. But in a few days it's supposed to go above zero, which may well be a very bad thing as it will inevitably get colder again and there will be massive ice sheets on the roads.

I guess it's still an adventure living in the colonies.



Hope you're keeping warm.

Hi anhaga, nice to hear from you. Sleep comes there none.

But I'm dragging myself back to bed again...I'll reply properly later. Yes I'm very warm..we're still in a mild westerly phase..

It sounds like you're having a wonderful time in the colonies..(who says they are all bloody hot, and you catch malaria? )

Pretty amazing.

We had a 2C drop here today as we went anti-cyclonic - beautiful sunny day.

But what happens to your wildlife? Has it all gone somewhere else, unless its properly evolved to deal with such a climate. I only ask that because we get a massive influx of bird species from northern Europe in the winter..luxuriating in our oceanic, and warmed by the gulfstream climate. That's why I was so worried when we went polar.

I mean how on earth do any bird species survive? With their tiny bodies such incredibly low temperatures are curtains, unless they have access to food with high calorific content.

Oh, they get by.

Some migrate, of course, but there are lots that stay all winter. The jays and crows and magpies of course get by on carrion and garbage. And there are lots of berries on trees and in this neighbourhood there are lots of backyard apple and crabapple trees that people don't pick much from.

Mice spend the winter under the snow, burrowing along through the buried grass. And there are lots of snowshoe hares for the coyotes to dine on.

One day I noticed a bunch of pigeons under a train bridge and they seemed to be huddled together for warmth.


I guess the short answer is that they have, in fact, evolved for it.

>Oh, they get by.<

Oh so you don't fuss and worry over them like me. What's few wildlife corpses between friends? I know, I know, food for those still alive.

I thought I saw a rat in my garden the other night The compost bin can be accessed from below and I've seen mice in it before..but maybe I've also got rats now?

'you don't fuss and worry over them'

I've seen enough wildlife corpses lying in winter fields in my time that I kind of accept it.

When I was much younger one winter I came upon a fairly freshly dead porcupine in a field where I liked to walk. Over the next week or so, every day there were new tracks radiating from what had become a frozen larder for neighbourhood animals. The whole thing was a smudge on the snow within a short time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX07j9SDFcc

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Happy Birthday!