It's winter at last in the Highlands so it's time for roaring fires, pressure lanterns and hearty food! Currently it's -5 outside - not so bad as some folk have suffered but it'll kill all the biting insects. I saw a reference to Solyanka and it looked suitably filling so that's what we're having tonight, made in the massive old cast iron enamelled pot I rescued recently! You gotta love a good winter (maybe not -45 Chicago style though!)
Looks nice and cosy. We don't get any of those winters here. Its equivalent of summer year round, only hotter and wetter. Looks like you've got the lantern bright on duty. That's an Anchor?
Much the same here, although today is the warmest day in the last 3 weeks at +2C. Sitting with a nice Primus 1320, and popping out now and then to check the BBQ.
Here in the North East of England, the city of Newcastle is renowned for the population ignoring cold weather. At the weekends there is a very large nightclub scene. In cold weather, both males and females wander around from club to club wearing very little. Here is an example from last Saturday night.
@shagratork ... Those lassies make me feel cold just looking at them! @MYN It is indeed an Anchor. My faithful 909 350cp blasting out the light on a cold winters evening.
Actually Friday night, Trevor - I posted that photograph on my FB page on Saturday morning (2nd February)… They're a bit docile in Newcastle... No doubt, at the risk of getting frostbite to one of his extremities...
It has been colder than average here in North Somerset, though not truly extreme. Living room warm enough heated by a wood burner, though I have seldom run the stove so hot for so long. Bathroom intolerable without my new Tilley infra red radiator. Bedroom a bit cold, Fine for sleeping with several decent blankets, and a large cat, but too cold to remain in the room. Paraffin hurricane lamp in downstairs toilet, lest the plumbing freeze. X246B in kitchen when room in use, mainly for warmth. Other rooms each equipped with small electric heaters utilised via time switches during off peak hours only. Estimated fuel costs per week in severe weather are Logs about £15 Paraffin about £10 Electricity, mainly off peak about £20 In milder winter weather, about half the above. Long underwear in use.
I'm surprised that it's so cold that far south, the snow and ice have come and gone a few times here this winter.
It is indeed an old house, even an expert could not give a date for it, parts go back hundreds of years, but others are recent. On a small hill and therefore rather exposed, Somerset is a generally mild part of the UK but I an in an exposed part of Somerset. No central heating. Heating in the main living room is a multifuel stove, burning whatever is cheap. At present I am burning mainly small oak logs. Other rooms are reliant on electricity or paraffin.
I might post about this separately, but did anyone else hear the report that the UK government decided not to ban wood burning stoves... but it was a close thing. As I understand it, the government backed off because of massive pressure from constituents, quite a lot of them in conservative areas, by which I'm not making a political point, just that this is where the opposition to the proposal was strongest. The reason they considered it was because of the pollution cause when burning wet (unseasoned) logs. I cry foul! I refuse to believe that wood burning stoves produce anywhere near the levels of pollution that car exhausts, heavy industry, coal fired power stations, gas fired power stations, burning field stubble and moorland, or a million other things do. This would have been a simple attack on the freedom NOT to use expensive electricity or gas. I am fed up to the back teeth of government legislation dressed up as 'environmental measures' or 'health and safety concerns' that are simply designed to force the public into the hands of big business and commerce.
Guys ... " wi aie man ".. ( lost in translation ).. that is why they invented and brewed Newcastle brown ale up there... it stupifies the cranium a good deal and it is supped up there in profusion... " snow " what a bit of white ..on to the next Newcy brown yay
I think what Alby's trying to say (whilst befuddled with Brown Dog, seemingly) is this:- ...although Mark Knopfler is actually Scottish by birth (i.e. a Geordie with his heed kicked in...) Anyway, 'why aye' translates approximately as 'well yes, of course'; 'man' is a fairly non-gender specific term up here - a woman can be 'man'...
@ColinG They banned wood fired stoves where I live. It was a good move because we get a temperature inversion layer in the winter which kept the smoke in the valley. It really did affect asthmatics,etc. It is so nice to have clear, clean winter air. Depending on the source wood is renewable energy, so a great choice in some circumstances.
After a mild spell, cold weather has returned, not extreme or exceptional but certainly a bit cold. The electricity supply failed earlier today, trees down on to power lines AFAIK. I have battery backup for some purposes, but resorted to a couple of Tilley lamps for lighting. BTW, my pet cat alerted me to the failure ! he has keen hearing and has learnt to wake me upon hearing the UPS alarm, since the cat knows that I will then get out of bed to investigate and will then provide a morsel of extra food.
Yesterday (Sat.) mild at 10°C and wet all afternoon. This morning, bright clear skies and ice patterns on the cars. Splitting wood this morning.
I have a multi fuel stove and burn little else but wood in it, I do not feel guilty about this because being a semi retired forester I have been responsible for planting literally millions more trees than I have cut down. When a tree is growing it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, when it is destroyed all this carbon dioxide is released again, if it is burnt it is released quickly, if the timber is allowed to rot or is used for any other purpose it is released more slowly, at the end of the day it all goes back in to the atmosphere.
After lunch, it clouded and rained heavily, turned to slete and hail, then snow! Lasted about twenty minutes when it brightened up some. temps now around 8°C. Speaking of CO2 (for those that are interested), Mankind emits 3 gigatons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year (through industry, heating, farming, construction and transportation). Nature emits (through plants and from the Oceans, but also volcanoes) another 3 gigatons. The atmosphere holds 750 gigatons The soil holds 1,500 gigatons Fossil fuel deposits hold 4,000 gigatons The Seas and Oceans hold 38,000 gigatons Sedimentary rock holds 100,000,000 gigatons The total mass of the atmosphere is 2,500 times greater than the CO2 within it. Only 3 of the 750 gigatons comes from human behaviour, a ratio of 250:1. Current CO2 levels are around 400 parts per million by volume (ppmv). Divide 400 by 1,000,000 = 0.000004, the decimal fraction of CO2 in the atmosphere. To arrive at the volume of CO2 in the atmosphere produced by human activity, divide by 250, result: 0.0000016. Is this amount saved worth shutting down all of our industrial, domestic and transport activities? It's one hell of a story to tell us that WE as a race are responsible for warming the globe and for which we will need to be taxed for, and one hell of a way to make trillions of dollars from everyone - for the corporate world. Sacred Geometry International – REDEMPTION OF THE BEAST – The Carbon Cycle and the Demonization of CO2 – Part 1 STOP PRESS: (Well, not really), because for the past 18yrs there has been no measurable increase in "Global warming".
@Derek I've seen that video before and it's well worth watching. The man talks sense ! After a quick glance at your other link, I'll read it in full, later. Climate change ? The climate has been changing since this planet first had a climate and will continue to do so. I was around in the 1950's when the ex spurts of the day, insisted that we were heading for another ice age. Henry.
I prefer to get my information from sources such as NASA; Scientific Consensus | Facts – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet J. Cook, et al, "Consensus on consensus: a synthesis of consensus estimates on human-caused global warming," Environmental Research Letters Vol. 11 No. 4, (13 April 2016); DOI:10.1088/1748-9326/11/4/048002 Quotation from page 6: "The number of papers rejecting AGW [Anthropogenic, or human-caused, Global Warming] is a miniscule proportion of the published research, with the percentage slightly decreasing over time. Among papers expressing a position on AGW, an overwhelming percentage (97.2% based on self-ratings, 97.1% based on abstract ratings) endorses the scientific consensus on AGW.” rather than from Sacred Geometry International. What are the lay-lines saying today? Friends of Science is dedicated to questioning the papers of 97.1% of scientists studying Anthropogenic Global Warming. Warwick
