Winter is coming……

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Actually, the best way to get an reasonably accurate weather forecast, is to read the ‘Daily Express’ and then expect the opposite……..job done!

The El Nino affect is supposedly the strongest we’ve had in years, so the next few weeks/months could be very interesting and it certainly gets the press all excited.

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It’s that time of year again where all the news channels, papers, social networking sites and other internet sites, start to warn us………that we are all in for the coldest winter for years!
Where, it will not be safe to walk the streets because of, shifty looking penguins wearing dark glasses and polar bears wearing trilby hats selling you some dodgy gear whilst trying to rip your heads off and be very careful of the ones wearing high heels and suspenders!
Anyway, no doubt sky news will be out and about interviewing them all, asking how business is and how they are coping with cold.
Though the thought of Eamonn Holmes interviewing a polar bear wearing suspenders, is too surreal even for me. When I say wearing suspenders, I do mean the bear wearing them and not Eamonn Holmes………although whatever the scenario, it would send the viewing figures sky high!
But will this year be the year they get it right about the weather?

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“What a wild winter sound,— wild and weird, up among the ghostly hills…. I get up in the middle of the night to hear it. It is refreshing to the ear, and one delights to know that such wild creatures are among us. At this season Nature makes the most of every throb of life that can withstand her severity.” ~John Burroughs, “The Snow-Walkers”

As I have mentioned before, I quite like the snow. Now that I am a self employed gardener, this can bring it’s own challenges, financial being one of them but if we went through this winter without any snow…….I’d be quite disappointed.
This though, will be the first winter for many years where I will not need to worry about Snow and ice duties/rotas/meetings etc. Whilst at Trinity, organising for the winter could start as early as August/September with the ordering of ice melt, shovels and other items to keep the college open, safe and ready for the winter ahead. Certain aspects of this I will not miss,  although the snow clearing itself, I did use to enjoy and the smashing up of the large snowmen with sledge hammers and the other strange shapes that the students use to build…….this I will miss.
This year I did not/will not need to deal with any of that, I will just need to organise myself…….easier said than done. Unless the weather gets really bad, I will have enough to do to see me through to the spring.

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant; if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” ~Anne Bradstreet

I’ve not seen any long term forecast for spring 2016 but if you do go by what they are saying about the winter, it will definitely start off cold. Spring is an exciting month for all gardener and it is the starting block for how the garden fares throughout the rest of the year. From the lawns, borders and the trees, a late spring means the garden and us, spends the rest of the year trying to catch up or adjust to the years season’s. Throw in a wet spring like the one we had 2012 and life next year could be very interesting but we all like a challenge……..don’t we?

“Then followed that beautiful season… Summer….Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape, lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.”
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As for summer 2016, no forecast here just a request……..

To have a long hot summer (with a little rain at night) and it to flow gently into an Indian summer come September/October. So when winter comes around again, we will be fully charged ready for its onslaught……nice thought hey?

There is one thing I can guarantee and that is, living in this part the world, we will continue to talk about the weather, moan about it and what ever we we have thrown at us……..it will never ever be right!

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