Winter Weather

Posted by Colin Harvey Jan 10, 2009

After seventeen consecutive days of sub-zero temperatures and deep penetrating hoar-frost, the weather finally seems to be warming up. It's finally climbed above zero, and for a few brief hours, the sun shone; we were actually able to spend a little while out in the garden.

The water in the bird bath --which is about two or three inches deep-- was still frozen solid, so to give the birds something to drink, I boiled a kettle and poured the water over the ice in the bath; it didn't thaw it completely, but it did help a little.

By the greatest of ironies, just as the weather's warming, the redwings have arrived. These thrush-like birds arrive each January and swarming over the bushes, strip the plants of berries --particularly the bright red berries of the pyrocantha (firethorn).

They'll be gone in a few days, leaving the bushes ravaged. It'll take considerably longer for the ground to thaw, but in a few days the rock-hard ground will be swamp-like.