Posts Tagged ‘Winter’

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We’re in a Deep Freeze

January 4, 2010

The cascade behind our house. January 3, 2009.

I hope the year 2010 has gotten off to a great start for each and every one of you.  By the way, how do you say 2010?  Is it “Two Thousand Ten” or “Twenty Ten”?  I hear it both ways around here.

Now that the holidays are over we can get back to normal here on the Plateau.  Of course winter means that there is not a great deal to do outdoors except to split and  bring in firewood.  Perhaps winter days will mean that I’ll have more time to get caught up on all the indoor projects I have on my list.

One thing I would like to happen is for us to get out of the deep freeze.  Temperatures in the single digits are not to our liking!  Fortunately the single digits have been overnight, but we haven’t been above freezing ALL YEAR!

The picture above shows the icy cascade behind our house on the edge of the golf course fairway.  We’ve seen ice there a few times before, but I don’t think it has ever been this thick.

The saddest thing (at least as far as Betsy is concerned) is that we have all this cold weather with almost no snow.  We woke up Saturday to a very light dusting of snow, but that’s all we’ve seen so far.

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Posted in Weather | 13 Comments »

It’s Been Cold Here

February 7, 2009
Mirror Lake, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. February 6, 2009.

Mirror Lake, Fairfield Glade, Tennessee. February 6, 2009.

Friday brought us something we haven’t seen in a while — blue skies and warm temperatures.  It actually got up to about 55° and it is supposed to be even warmer today.  Thursday was the first day in quite some time that we didn’t have a fire in the fireplace.

I did a little maintenance in the yard, but it was still fairly wet and muddy so I soon quit.  But since it was such a beautiful day I wasn’t ready to go in, so I took a walk on the other side of the golf course, something I haven’t done in several weeks.

When I got to Mirror Lake I was surprised to see that there was still a thin covering of ice at the end away from the fountain.  You can see the geese are also all down at that end (the picture above can be enlarged by clicking on it).  I’ve only seen the lake frozen a couple of times in the five years we’ve lived here.  I didn’t even imagine that there would still be ice, but there it is.

It dropped below freezing again when the sun went down, but since it’s supposed to be warm again tomorrow I doubt there will be any ice by the afternoon.  I’ll have to admit that the sheen of ice looked pretty in the late afternoon light, but I won’t be angry if that’s the last ice I see this winter!

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Posted in Weather | 26 Comments »

Our Woodpile is Shrinking

January 22, 2009

woodpile01

Our woodpile is shrinking.

This cold snap, and an earlier one in November, have put a dent in our woodpile as you can see from the picture above.

We usually have a fire in the fireplace when the temperature drops below 40°.  We have a fire because a certain blonde in my life likes fireplace fires and also because it helps warm the house.  In the past we’ve had fires mostly in the evenings while watching TV, but it’s been so cold for the past week that we’ve tried to keep the fire going through the night.  I’m not sure if it will help us make up for TVA’s rate hikes, but the heat usually comes on only in the early morning about dawn.  When we get up we get the fire going good again and the heat usually goes off for the rest of the day.

We get our wood cut to length, but I usually split some of the bigger pieces.  That gives me something to do during the day.  I can get even more exercise by carrying the wood from the woodpile to the garage.

We try to maintain a two-year supply of wood so that it has plenty of time to age before we burn it.  So although this year’s pile is dwindling, we still have plenty of wood.  But in spite of that I sure would like things to warm up.

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It Was Cold Then Also

January 19, 2009
A snowy street in Tianjin. December, 1994.

A snowy street in Tianjin. December, 1994.

As most of you know, Betsy loves snow and has been bitterly disappointed that we haven’t had any so far this winter.  We had a problem with black ice Saturday night/Sunday morning here on Plateau, but that’s not the same thing.

So, being the nice husband that I am, I tried to find a picture with snow that Betsy hadn’t seen.  In the process I reminded myself of what it means to feel cold.

The picture above was taken outside the main gate to Tianjin Foreign Language University, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China, in December, 1994.  I was teaching English at the university that year.  The street scene is very typical of Tianjin at that time — a few motorized vehicles, but lots of bicycles.

We didn’t have a great deal of snow in Tianjin that year, but it sure was cold.  Like everyone else, I rode a bicycle when I had to go somewhere beyond walking distance.  My apartment had heat, but the classrooms were unheated.  I’ll have to admit that I never quite got used to teaching with my winter coat and gloves on!

Fortunately spring did come to Tianjin and we all thawed out.  But I do have many happy memories of my year in Tianjin and I hope Betsy appreciates the opportunity to see some snow!

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Posted in China | 19 Comments »

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