Winter arrives at last in the UK........

Very glad we've been burning our shoulder wood up to now, keeping our oak and hawthorn back for if it went cold........

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-big-freeze-hits-predicted-persist-month.html

Not as impressive as the cold in a proper USA winter, but at last we can have some decent fires here and watch wood do what it does best.........burn ;-)

Lived in the UK for three years and was amazed that your winters are as warm as they are, given how far north you are. The jet stream is a powerful thing. Here in NY we've had the warmest winter in years.

Spent 4 year outside Cambridge. They rarely got the extremes we experience here, but when they do it shuts things down. Sort of like the Seattle area...weather is steady with the odd hic-up. Here we are still waiting for winter to arrive!!

Hey woodchip. Why are so many folks driving on the wrong side of the road?

Dennis, it's something to do with not being used to snow and ice.

Half an inch of snow and everybody goes to pieces.

Got down to 27f last night and I had the first overnight burn of January.

At least it will be a maximum of 27f by Tuesday, and I can feel like we've had some proper cold.

We have below average temperatures forecast for the next 4 weeks!

I feel sorry for the wildlife, some frogspawn was laid in one of our ponds yesterday, poor little things.........

Not only there woodchip. This was in the news a few years ago and we really had a laugh over it. A whole inch of snow! That is simply amazing to us northerners.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- A surprise 1-inch snow that turned to ice on frigid roads stunned North Carolina's capital, trapping motorists in epic traffic jams and stranding some 3,000 pupils overnight at schools. The governor urged people to stay home Thursday while crews clean things up. Highways were clogged with desperate drivers whose commutes Wednesday stretched to as long as eight hours. Law officers tallied about 1,000 accidents in the Raleigh-Durham area, but there were no reports of fatalities.

Glad the stove gets to stretch it's legs, N !!

Atleast there's no slugs ;-P

I hope you can get some proper cold its killing us with all the warm air over here :sick:
Here is some funny stuff for ya woodchip when I was driving semi-truck across the US I was in Georgia and they got an inch of snow OMGOODNESS and the plows where flipped upside-down on the side of the freeway from all the snow. :lol: The local news sounded like 10ft of ice hit the area and all I could do was laugh after I discovered no one got hurt!

Pete

Here in UK we can only be amazed at your lovely deep snowy pics. that some of you have and yes even with a teensy bit of snow everything goes to pieces here, we are just not geared up for it, we just don't have enough for the councils to spend out big on preparations although they are supposed to have got in more grit this year.

It is finally rather chilly here.......last night 3 of the ferals cats came in to snuggle up with me instead of being in their ususal boxes I put outside for them. I lit up the fire .....mmmm it was nice and cosy.

I'm outer London and we usually get the snow last or not at all, it looks like it could at the moment but it's forcast just cold. The pond outside work is iced over.

Fifi

I've spent a fair bit of time in the Peaks District- I would guess the hills around Buxton are a beautiful sight right now

My cousin lives up that way, plenty of snow on the peaks now

Plenty of logs being burned too ;-)

I have fond memories of hiking there- despite the presence of my evil ex wife. The North York Moors as well- I bet it's even more bleak and amazing now.

I know I am not the only one....that reads Woodchip and Fifi's posts in an english accent... :lol: (I think Jagsy does too)

can't help it....love me some "english accent".....very secksy ;-)

pip pip...cheerio....and all that kind of thing.

maybe if Woodchip typed in "English" it would sound more englishy...you know "armour" ,"colour", "aluminium".
To me, it comes off as a sort of unambiguous accent....could be mid-west...could be southeast...I just can't place it.

I actually speak with a West Country accent.....

Not as strong as The Wurzels, but tend to drop the accent when I'm in company as some find it hard to understand.

And I hear you asking, who are "The Wurzels".......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaHurVOoDIA

No combine harvester here, but, I do make cider from them thar apples t'in the orchard.......

Love the youtube clip woodchip...

Just had warmest January here in decades - 65 on Monday,61 yesterday,57 expected today.4 days in the 60's,5 day's in the 50's & 9 days over 40 degrees last month.Temps in low-mid 30's (near normal) w/ rain/snow mix expected on Friday-Saturday with several inches possible.High's in 30's all next week,I knew it wouldnt last.

...and the Cherry trees in D.C. are starting to blossom! I need more "junk" wood to burn this week!

lol I used to speak with a West Country accent until I moved up here anyway it's finally snowed here:







Fifi

Fifi, looks like you have more snow on the ground than we do....now, that's very unusual!! Good luck on the 2 wheels, I have a hard enough time on my 2 feet in the winter sometimes

Well, that was an interesting 3 weeks of cool weather!

3 weeks of 24/7 burning with a super little stove that's not (according to the handbook) supposed to be used for overnight burns.

Can't wait to let it cool and clean out the corners of the ashpan area.

Only slight problem was with a few bits of ash coming out of the door on reload where I had stacked it full for overnight burns, a tiny bit of ash can get down between the front bar and the door.

And I'm not about to put in a complaint about that!

More snow pictures here, Mainland Europe had it much worse than us out on our little islands..... ;-)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...etting-Venices-famous-waterways-ice-over.html

Fifi has more snow than I do as well. I figured when we got 32" on the ground before Halloween that we were gonna be royally screwed this year. Still time to get a couple good smacks upside the head with some late season storms, but this is looking more and more like the winter that wasn't.

I wonder if we'll have any noticable plant damage with all the trees that started budding around New Years when we had that couple weeks of 50 degree weather. Didn't even get near freezing on clear nights then. Last 2 nights here it was low single digit temps and by the middle of the week we've got rain in the forecast again.

Its weird...when we get the precipitation its mostly been warming up, but when its not precipitating the temps have been on the colder side.

I blame that massive score of red oak I got last summer...jokes on mother nature though, I never even got half of it split.

Probably shouldn't have said that last.