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

It seems our wacky temperature fluctuations are wreaking havoc on a fairly major local charity event:

'A slushy rink is adding to the fatigue of players in the World’s Longest Hockey Game, underway for the fourth day in Sherwood Park, Alta.

The charitable event, which began Feb. 11 with the goal of lasting at least until Feb. 21, has so far raised more than $345,000 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation.'

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2011/02/14/ed-worlds-longest-hockey948.html#ixzz1Dzjpybu7


I went out to this event with a group of special needs kids a few years ago in miserable cold. Everyone was there, from our group and others, was cheering insanely for both sides, even though the poor guys could hardly stand up any more. Ten days of non-stop could very easily be fatal -- these players are certainly putting it on the line for cancer patients.

It would be sad if this warm weather brought it to an early end.

An u`pdate on living with Alberta's climate:

Fire . . .

'Unseasonable weather is challenging crews fighting a series of wildfires that sprang up throughout Alberta over the weekend, according to fire officials.

Strong, dry winds gusting up to 70 km/h combined with a lack of precipitation are creating extreme fire conditions over most of the northern half of the province.

About 68 new wildfires started in Alberta between Saturday and Sunday afternoon'

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/05/15/edm-alberta-wildfires.html


and Ice. . .


'Avalanche warnings issued in B.C., Alberta'

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/story/2011/05/14/bc-alberta-avalanche-warning.html




The leaves are coming out on the trees, the grass is green, I've got a strawberry flowering, the beans are `planted, I've got `pe`p`pers and tomatoes out overnight, I've bought a bunch of herbs, the sorrel is u`p (but we've not quite harvested any yet), my ho`ps are three or four feet tall . . .

and the wind is howling!

The unbelievable drought continues in my area. I've stopped thinking it will ever rain. But even when they get a bit of rain in north London it doesn't rain here. I genuinely can't remember the last time it rained. I spend at least an hour every evening with the hosepipe. I must have the most unenvironmentally friendly wildlife garden ever made.

Wildflower meadow doing well, chard, curly kale likewise. Italian garlic loving it. I put in a wild hop plant last autumn which is growing slowly up the willow fence I've installed. Trying to grow cuttings from it as well.

Pond gets ever lower But the creatures are becoming visible. Have some tiny newts and yesterday saw a tiny dragonfly laying eggs. It'll be a rescue job for me if the worst happens. I will *not* use tap water. All the evidence suggests that you get a very limited ecosystem with it. If necessary I'll rescue stuff and mix the last of the waterbutt water with some bottled water from Sainsbury's

El ninio is being blamed.

**

But good to hear about your plantings. Its so brilliant growing stuff isn't it..at least I can use the bloody tap water on that.

Latest reports are that 30% of the town of Slave Lake has been 'affect' (suggestion is 'destroyed') by the fires.


It's a beautiful sunny day here. Spring lasts about five minutes. You look out the window one moment and everything is brown and then suddenly the trees are in full leaf and the lawn needs to be mowed.

As for rain:

It's usually very dry here, with occasional evening thunder showers. Your mention of the rain in north London never reaching you reminds me of the many evenings I've sat online watching the Environment Canada radar tracking massive thunderstorms making a beeline for the City and then splitting in two at the edge of town and then closing back up on the other side. Big cities seem to do that to weather systems.

I may have mentioned that I have five rain barrels: two on the house, two on the garage and one on the outflow of the sump pump (you probably don't have many of those over there. It's a basement thing) which lets me hold onto ground water which would otherwise just run away into the storm sewer. Unfortunately I left the tap open on one of them this spring, so it's empty, and the others are rapidly going down. Generally, however, I get through the summer without using any other water for the plants.

I would like to see a really good downpour to fill up the barrels.