Winter is Coming..

[OFSO]

First wood stove lit last night, over a week earlier than last year. On sofa, both of us and Visitor Cat fell asleep in the warmth.

[Wodrick]

We go in stages, no heating required, just some assistance from the A/C, and ultimately the fire. We are still at no heating required. 24c indoors.

[Rwy in Sight]

A similar sitution here; some rain and heavy cloud pushes into leaving behind the bermuda shorts and chnage into long trousers. Tempratures around 20 inside and outside the house.

[Smeagol]

Well here at the eastern edge of the Known world (East Norfolk coast), the weather is somewhat confused. Yesterday was glorious shorts and a shirt only on the golf course by about 9:30 and the rest of the day was equally good, though Mrs S required the central heating in the evening. Today is less pleasant with early morning mist followed by drizzle. Not sure about the outside temperature as I have not ventured out, too busy preparing the Sunday roast whilst Mrs S attends church.

[Hydromet]

Well here at the eastern edge of the Known world (East Norfolk coast), the weather is somewhat confused. Yesterday was glorious shorts and a shirt only on the golf course by about 9:30 and the rest of the day was equally good, though Mrs S required the central heating in the evening. Today is less pleasant with early morning mist followed by drizzle. Not sure about the outside temperature as I have not ventured out, too busy preparing the Sunday roast whilst Mrs S attends church.

And weirdly enough, exactly the same here in the antipodes. Yesterday, beautiful spring day, high 20s. Rain in the late afternoon and overnight, today the forecast temperature where I am is 13.

[Rwy in Sight]

It seems we are set for a week of thunderstorms and rain. A welcome change for now.

[Alisoncc]

I only wish Winter was going. Only 12.3C most of the day. And it's supposed to be the middle of Spring here. Had heater running all day since I crawled out of me pit.

[Rwy in Sight]

Alison, I share your feeling. I suffer from cold at the very beginning and very end of the winter.

[OFSO]

First morning with car thermometer showing single digit on drive into gym.

[Pinky the pilot]

T'was 3C overnight and reached 20C today.

Much the same for tomorrow according to the forecast.

[PHXPhlyer]

First morning with low in the 50s.
High mid 80s.
It is nice to be able to give the A?C and my wallet a much needed break.
Hoping to have at least a month before needing to switch over to heating mode.

PP

[Rwy in Sight]

I might had a bad night last night as I was cold - I only had a light cotton sheet. A duvet is now on my bed

[Undried Plum]

I see some talk of some kind of summat to do with El Ninyo or Conyo or summat brewing up some nasty cold stuff in the first week of November.

Have done some due panic buying to lay up Winter supplies.

We normally have a month's worth of supplies for any eventuality anyway, but we've now got enough for two months of a '62/63 type winter.

When most needed, the wonky wind turbine and the solar panel array are fukkin useless. The two woody boilers are bloody marvelous, but they do need a wee bit of leccie to operate. Two Tesla Powerwall batteries don't actually amount to much.

A couple of Tilly lamps and the paraffin and a dozen spare mantles are very comfortable to know to have in reserve.

If all power conks out to the freezers for more than a week, there's going to be one hell of a barbeque party hereabouts.

[TheGreenGoblin]

An Old Man's Winter Night
Robert Frost - 1874-1963

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him—at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off;—and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon,—such as she was,
So late-arising,—to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man—one man—can't fill a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It's thus he does it of a winter night.

[Undried Plum]

One aged man—one man—can't fill a house,

A farm, a countryside, or if he can,

It's thus he does it of a winter night.

Buggah!

[TheGreenGoblin]

One aged man—one man—can't fill a house,

A farm, a countryside, or if he can,

It's thus he does it of a winter night.

Buggah!

You will survive, you are clearly not a bad bugger...

[Alisoncc]

Don't need to worry up there as Winter hasn't left here yet. And it does take a while to make it's way up there. Just back from walking the dog. Needed to wear kit I used to use trudging the North Yorkshire moors mid-winter.

[llondel]

I switched from teeshirts to long-sleeved shirts this past weekend. First rain of the season and a bit of wind too. Surprisingly still warm out despite further attempts to rain today. I think it's just getting in some practice for when it pisses down on us over the weekend (yes, outdoor dog show Sat/Sun).

[Pontius Navigator]

Looking across the valley to Bodmin Moor last night it alternated between thick cloud and crystal clear. This morning 8 degrees and clear skies looking to a blistering 11 degrees.

[Undried Plum]

OAT +1°C at the moment. Was -1° last night.

Severe clear with nil wind. A major drawback of a wind turbine is that it produces nil power when you need it most. The solar array is producing very little as the sun angle is so low.

I've fired up the log-burning boiler for the first time this season. Both Powerwall batteries are depleted and the cluster of 7 boilers are down to 50°C. The middle one is normally at 95° and the outer ones at 65°. Sustainable energy is all very well, but it's bloody difficult to store surplus power and I hate selling it to the national grid because the price they pay is a pittance.

TSLA shares are at $865. I bought them at $50 five years ago to fund the replacement of my Model S seven years later. That's next year. I've got vastly more shares, at these crazy high prices, than I need to buy even the most expensive electric car on the market, so maybe now would be a good time to cash in some of the shares and salt the money away in gold. Bitcoin prices are also stratospheric, but I'm reluctant to swap any of them for increasingly worthless fiat. They're up 470% on the year and with fiat Inflation zooming up irrevocably the inflation problem is only going to get worse and hard currencies such Bitcoin are likely to go to the moon. RPI, which grossly understates the true level of inflation, is 4.9% and climbing rapidly. The true rate of inflation is more like 10% and looks likely to double in the next year, so precautions should be taken.

One task for today is to go and have a close look at a parcel of land which is for sale. It's crap land, ruined by coal mining but planted about 20 years ago with monocultures of Norway Spruce and Sitka. The asking price is low, so I guess there'll be a lot of interest.