Category Archives: weather

What I did on my Summer Vacation

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Shades of my fifth grade essays.

This past week, my husband and I went on an Alaska cruise. This makes two visits to Alaska in about one year. The previous visit was an interior one. We biked in the back country (and saw bears), kayaked, hiked a bit of Denali, and so on.

This time we cruised up the coast. We left from Vancouver, an amazing beautiful city, traveled up the Inside Passage.

Our first stop was at Icy Strait Point. We are talking remote. Goods are delivered once a month by boat. Our van driver said that many of the people go south for the winter. I believe it.

From there we went to the Hubbard Glacier which was definitely a high point of the trip.

Hubbard Glacier

This glacier is still growing, despite climate change. We saw it calve several times. The water was filled with floating ice.

From there we sailed to Juneau

and Ketchikan.

It was cool and rainy throughout, but at least we didn’t see snow like we did the previous summer.

In Ketchikan we went on a tour of Saxman Village, a First Nation community. Above is a lodge house and some fine examples of totem poles. They are designed to communicate information in a pre-literate society. The original paint colors were ground ores, e.g. iron oxide, mixed with the saliva of woman (who first chewed the roe of one of the local fish.) Since they have declined to continue doing that – no wonder – the paint is now bought.

Alaska is amazing and very beautiful. It seems to stay pretty cool all year round though. (The temperature never rose above 57 and this was the first week of September.) I wonder what the winters are like. Harsh I’m sure, and this is from someone who is familiar with both New York and Maine winters.

Weather in Crete

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Since Crete is near the equator, it stands to reason that it is a hot country. That is partially true. During the summers, the weather is hot and dry. Winters, with temperatures in the fifties, are rainy. That is when the olive groves and the vineyards are watered. (Excavations have shown that the Ancient peoples did practice irrigation in the hot dry summers.)

Horns of consecration on a summer day.

Their clothing, loincloths for the men and short-sleeved jackets for the women, also suggest hot weather. (I often think those tiered skirts, probably made from wool, are very heavy and hot.)

Does that mean the Bronze Age culture never saw snow? No. Crete is a mountainous country. Two mountains, Jutkas and Ida, are even now pictured with snow.

Most of the population lived in the lowlands, (although not all) but the snow capped mountains were visible from communities on the plains.

Winter?

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We are almost into January and the warmth continues. Thus far, even in upstate New York, we have not had a killing frost. I still have beets

beets

and kale

kale

Moreover, my poor dog is suffering. She grew in her winter coat. And now it looks like her April hair; ragged as she sheds. This is her flank one day after brushing.

shelby fur

I, however, am not complaining. Maybe this year I will actually get my peas in to the ground mid-March instead of being held back by snow.

bouchercon 2015

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I am getting very excited about Bouchercon, this weekend in Raleigh, NC. This will be my fourth. Each one has been in a different part of the country and has been very fun.

My excitement is tempered somewhat by the weather. Flooding in South Carolina. Parts of 95 closed. We are coming from New York but my heart goes out to those just one state away. For those in New York who are planning to fly, the New York airports have delays. I hope that clears up in the next day or so.

My parents retired to Conway, SC and it is strange and creepy to see the areas around them – that I recognized – flooded.

They say that only Death and Taxes are certain. I think weather should be added to this aphorism. Yipes.

rain

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After a very dry summer, we finally had rain. And a lot of it. Overnight close to a foot;

rain

The above pool cover was dry before the rain.

I am glad for my garden. Cucumbers and beans were beginning to wither, despite my watering. And the tomatoes!

tomato cracks

See the cracks? That’s what happens to tomatoes when they suffer stress from irregular watering.

Now we are waiting to see if Joaquin hits. When Sandy hit, I lost power, my library flooded, and nearby towns were awash.

Ah, weather.

Random thoughts on Scandinavia Trip

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Just a few things I found interesting. I have already commented on how cold it was. The tour guides in every country mentioned a late and cool spring. That probably explains why we saw flocks and flocks and flocks of sheep. And why everyone was wearing a thick sweater.

Other notes about fashion.

Stripes are definitely in. I saw stripes on everything so I guess, without noticing it myself, stripes became the new orange.

The other thing is nail polish. When I saw a woman with polished nails she was almost always American. This does not seem to be a fashion in the Scandinavian countries. I didn’t really see nail salons or colored nails until I reached London. Not that important maybe, but interesting.

We also did not hit hot weather until London. The last time I was in the British Isles, it was cool and rainy even in London. Not this time. Not only was it hot, but the grass was brown and dry. We took a walk in Green Park and it was not that green. Everyone’s climates is undergoing some kind of change.

I also like to try the food of the region. Not a fan of herring. (At least guinea pigs were not on the menus – as they are in Peru) But I had the best cheese ever in Denmark and Norway and some really tasty bread.

One last thing. My Goodreads Giveaway for Death of a Dyer (learned a lot about the dye trade in Peru) lasts until August 23. So far 350+. Be sure and add yourself to the giveaway before it ends.

The Orkneys

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Our final stop, before sailing to London and flying out to home, was Kirkwall. It is in the Orkneys. We were told that the Orkneys do not want to separate from Great Britain but remain. That, of course, is not the common view in Scotland. The National Party just had a vote to leave and enter the EU as a separate country. The vote failed but who knows what will happen next time?

Anyway, ruins here make even the Iron Age farm seem relatively recent. There are standing stones, similar to Stonehenge.

standing stones

Like Stonehenge, they line up to the solar equinox. There are a lot of speculations about the purpose of the stones but no one really knows.

We also saw ruins that date to 3000 BC. (Is the US a young country or what?) Trash was used in the walls to insulate inside. Plus, just like the ruins in Crete, there were indoor toilets. What happened that this little luxury went extinct and had to be reinvented in modern times?

neolithic ruins

 

neo ruins two

It is thought that the sea was further away then; again no one is sure. But the water is coming in now and threatening the excavation. The people who lived here ate fish and other things from the sea. No one is sure what happened to these people although there is another settlement nearby and one of the theories is that they moved.

The land upon which these ruins were found has belonged to the same family for generations. Incredible.

It was very cold and windy. We did not hit warm weather until we reached London. And, as with the other places we visited, there were a lot of sheep.

 

 

orkney library two

For all my fellow librarians, here is the Orkney Library. I was told this is the oldest Carnegie in the world. Something that amazed me. I thought all the Carnegies were in the U. S. The Orkney Library looks like it has been added to several times.

orkney library

Next time: some random thoughts.

Iceland

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Iceland is a beautiful country. Very dramatic with steep mountains, volcanoes and then lakes and streams with waterfalls.

waterfall

 

 

 

 

Iceland is a geothermal country and is growing – slowly. Volcanoes are a big part of the landscape. We saw the volcano that erupted in 2010 (I can neither pronounce nor spell the name) and stopped air traffic over Europe. The lava formations do indeed look like trolls, which are huge in the mythology.

lava

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scale of the image does not show how enormous this outcropping is.

Because of the this activity, all the energy is geothermal. And signs of the geothermal activity are everywhere.

geyser

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one is at geysir – yes, folks, geyser is an Icelandic name. Another feature is the boiling water and mud that one can see everywhere

fumerole

 

 

 

 

Iceland was very green, with snow on the higher peaks. But it is too cold to grow many things so most of the produce – that is not imported – is grown in greenhouses. Here, even a degree or two can make a huge difference.

We bought more sweaters.

One interesting feature: the livestock. Almost feral horses that are thickly covered with hair. Cattle that are a very old breed (Iceland has strict laws on importing livestock since they want to keep their breeds pure). The cattle look very different from our modern cows. They are horned with long pointed horns, for one thing, and instead of a barrel shape their bodies hang from their prominent hips as though the flesh was on a coat hanger.

And there are more sheep than people: sheep everywhere.

I loved Iceland but I don’t think I could take the cold climate. And, in the north, we had almost 24 hours of day. I cannot imagine coping with 24 hours of night.

Spring gardening

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This is a funny year. I always find surprises, partly because many plants reseed themselves. Tomatoes is one. Random plants come up all over the garden and I can never bear to pull them, which may be one reason I end up with 11 plants.

cabbage

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two tomato plants came up here along with what looks like squash. And in the background it looks like cabbage even though the package said broccoli. There are four broccolis in front of the cabbage, planted too close.

This year is odd as well. I have flowers on my peas, because they went in late (snow on the ground) and flowers on the tomatoes (begun in the house). Tomatoes and peas at the same time?

tomato flowers

 

 

 

And finally, just something nice. My weigela – I just missed a butterfly on it. I love spring!

weigela

 

Musings on car colors

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My husband and I took a trip over the weekend to visit a friend (a friend that I have had for forty years!). When we drove down 95 I noticed that it was a sea of black, white and silver cars. There were a few burgundy SUVs but from a distance, just like the dark blue and dark green, they looked black. I love seeing the bright red cars. mostly Pickups, that look like bright red tomatoes riding down the road.

Finally, on 85 South, I saw a robin’s egg blue VW beetle and a copper colored KIA.

Where are the rest of the colors? My first car was a Chevy Malibu. It was a beautiful creamy yellow. (In 1973. Can you believe it?) If you go further back, to the time of the movie American Graffiti, the cars were all kinds of colors: Pink, light blue, yellow. I’d like to see royal blue and emerald green, bright red like the pickups, and taxicab yellow

I say, stand up for colorful cars!