Something's happening here (What it is ain't exactly clear...)
Tuesday, 30. December 2008, 01:51:10
There's a man with a gun over there.
But's that's not important right now because I'm British, and what we like to talk about is the weather.
It's cold.
My tootsies are turning into little icicles on bicycles and my little fan heater can't get it's heat anywhere even close to me unless I stand it on something no more than two feet away from me; and then anyone going to the bathroom trips over the cable...
I've even had to bring the aspidestra inside.
The reason for this cold is the really nice weather we're having. These may be the shortest days of the year, but the skies are clear and the sun shines like mad for the whole time it's above the horizon. Then it goes down and without clouds there's nothing to stop the sheer cold of space from freezing us right down to our nipples. I can feel mine twinging right now.
In effect, we're having the summer that we didn't get last year, right now. It's the time of year when I want to be out there cutting the garden back, and there's a rose coming out in the front garden, spiders, flys, and slugs abound, some of the trees haven't shed their leaves yet, scorpions, funnel-web spiders, and redback spiders are now endemic, and then there's the really weird thing.
Today I heard a cuckoo.
Either that or an amazing cuckoo-imitating bird. I've thought I heard it a couple of times recently, but today it was clear as a bell, and no, it wasn't a really effective cuckoo clock, it was, as far as I can tell, the real thing. I feel as though I should write to The Times, but do I call it the first cuckoo of winter or the last cuckoo of 2008?
It's going to be -4 degrees tonight, so I'm thinking maybe the last cuckoo of 2008.
Unless it's found itself a nice warm place to sleep alongside the scorpions, funnel-webs, and redbacks.
But's that's not important right now because I'm British, and what we like to talk about is the weather.
It's cold.
My tootsies are turning into little icicles on bicycles and my little fan heater can't get it's heat anywhere even close to me unless I stand it on something no more than two feet away from me; and then anyone going to the bathroom trips over the cable...
I've even had to bring the aspidestra inside.
The reason for this cold is the really nice weather we're having. These may be the shortest days of the year, but the skies are clear and the sun shines like mad for the whole time it's above the horizon. Then it goes down and without clouds there's nothing to stop the sheer cold of space from freezing us right down to our nipples. I can feel mine twinging right now.
In effect, we're having the summer that we didn't get last year, right now. It's the time of year when I want to be out there cutting the garden back, and there's a rose coming out in the front garden, spiders, flys, and slugs abound, some of the trees haven't shed their leaves yet, scorpions, funnel-web spiders, and redback spiders are now endemic, and then there's the really weird thing.
Today I heard a cuckoo.
Either that or an amazing cuckoo-imitating bird. I've thought I heard it a couple of times recently, but today it was clear as a bell, and no, it wasn't a really effective cuckoo clock, it was, as far as I can tell, the real thing. I feel as though I should write to The Times, but do I call it the first cuckoo of winter or the last cuckoo of 2008?
It's going to be -4 degrees tonight, so I'm thinking maybe the last cuckoo of 2008.
Unless it's found itself a nice warm place to sleep alongside the scorpions, funnel-webs, and redbacks.
WIDGETIZE