Tag Archives: weather

What I did on my Summer Vacation

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.

January thaw

Posted on by

I know climate change is not good and will have many problematic consequences for us in the future. With that said, I am loving this winter. we had barely two inches of snow from Jonas and yesterday we went walking at the Rockefeller Preserve. Last year I left the house to go to work, the gym and to shovel. I couldn’t plant my peas until April; this year I am hoping I can get them in in March.

Yesterday we walked. OK, the footing wasn’t great; a combination of mud and packed snow. But still.

january thaw

bouchercon 2015

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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.

Iceland

Posted on by

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.

Copenhagen and random thoughts

Posted on by

I love Copenhagen as a city. I suppose its greatest claim to fame is Hans Christian Anderson, the author of such tales as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Ugly Ducking.” As any one who has read these stories will tell you, they are much darker than their Disney versions. There is a statue of the mermaid in the harbor and she is little.

little mermaid

I would have like seeing the museum but it was outside of Copenhagen and we didn’t have the time.

This is also a very green city- and by that I mean it is rapidly attaining full sustainable energy. There are not that many cars = probably because they are so highly taxed. In the harbor, on reclaimed land, there are wind turbines. Here is an idea I thought very cool as a form of tree irrigation.copenhagen irrigation

All the trees have these gigantic bags of water around them as a form of irrigation. They are also working on fresh fruits and veggies grown in the city. As someone who has a large garden every year, I found this fascinating. These igloos dot the city and when you get closer they are full of growing things. Plus, they play music to help the plants grow.

copenhagen greenhouse

So, there has to be something I didn’t like, right? It was cold! We stopped for lunch at a cafe. Note the blankets on the chairs, the jackets everyone was wearing. And there were heaters every few feet. I want to add, this is the beginning of JULY!

copenhage cafe

In all fairness, all of Scandinavia was cold. We’d brought jackets, long pants and sweaters and we still had to buy new sweaters. In Iceland, the tops of the mountains were covered with snow.

iceland snow

So, I loved everything about Scandinavia but the climate.

Spring gardening

Posted on by

 

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

Posted on by

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!

flowering trees

Posted on by

After the harsh winter, it is wonderful to see the flowering trees and all the other flowers.

crab apple

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the number of flowers on the apple trees, we will have a great crop. As the flowers fall off, the ground is white, as though with snow.

apple tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lettuce and radishes are coming out in the garden and I have transplanted the tomatoes, peppers, basil, eggplant and so on, some into the garden and some into the earth boxes on the deck.

earth eggplant

 

 

 

 

 

 

earth tomato