A Gardener's Weather Diary

All Thawed Out

2012-02-13T10:12:00.000Z

Sunday was much milder than of late bringing to an end the bitterly cold start to the month. The daily average temperature was 4.7°C (40.5°F) making it the warmest day of the month. It’s the first time in days that the ice in the bird bath has thawed out and the final remnants of last weeks snow have disappeared too.

All we need now is a little bit of sunshine and it would feel like spring is on its way. Unfortunately the Met Office forecast is for a cloudy but much milder week, I don’t suppose we can have everything.

February’s Peaked!

2012-02-12T09:43:00.001Z

Saturday was a beautiful sunny but cold day and the frost didn't thaw out all day.

I think February’s cold weather has peaked as following on from the winter’s lowest temperature overnight Friday/Saturday we’ve just had our warmest overnight temperature this month of 3.0°C. The forecast for next week is for predominantly cloudy weather with temperatures around 7°C or 8°C during the day. Have we seen the last of this cold February cold snap or is there another spell still to come?

It certainly has been a cold start to February although despite our severe frosts the temperatures recorded in Ossett haven’t been down as low as those recorded in England in the winter of 1947 one of the coldest on record.

With no severe frosts forecasts next week I'm hoping it will be safe to move my seed potatoes back into the greenhouse so that they can form some good chits ready for planting out in April.

Another Cold Night

2012-02-11T10:01:00.001Z

Friday was another cold grey winter’s day. We've had a few of them just recently and they’ve put any gardening activities on hold.

Overnight into Saturday the sky cleared producing another severe frost with the temperature down to -5.9°C (21.4°F) yet a further lowering of this winter’s coldest night. At least Saturday has dawned bright and clear but still well below zero. The pond had somehow managed to lose its covering of ice despite the temperature hardly rising above 0°C for the last couple of days, but it’s now frozen over once again.

Our snowdrops still remain frozen in time, just waiting for a rise in temperature before coming into flower. They’re now going to be later into flower this year than last so the mild start to winter certainly hasn't brought our snowdrops into early flowering mode.

Winter this year is the opposite way round to last year in that we started off mild in December and the first part of January and then the cold spell kicked in. Last year December was very cold with a milder January and February. Unless February remains very cold it looks like this winter will be milder than last year but may well turn out to be on the cold side of what we might expect. The chart below is updated to 10th February.

Click to view full size image

Just where will this year’s brown trace finish. Moving towards the yellow line moves closer to an average winter but temperatures will need to warm up for this to happen or will it continue in its relentless downward trend towards last year’s winter value.

In the meantime whilst the weather remains this cold my seeds are staying cosy in their packets waiting for some milder weather.

Sparrows don’t seem to mind

2012-02-10T09:25:00.000Z

Thursday was a horrible day even allowing for it being the middle of winter. No sunshine, it was a dull misty murky cold day with outbreaks of light rain or drizzle at times. At least we didn't get any snow.

From noon onwards we had some light rain. It might well have been this rather rare freezing rain but I didn’t venture out to check. Strange that it rained with the temperature almost at 0°C.

The weather didn’t stop our resident flock of sparrows tucking into their bird seed as soon as it went out onto the bird table. They were even prepared to share the space with one of our regular collared doves.

Coldest Day of Winter

2012-02-09T10:30:00.000Z

Wednesday set the new record for this winter as with a high of 1.3°C and low of -5.6°C it turned in an average temperature for the day of minus 2.0°C.

The chart starts at midnight Tuesday. Wednesday managed a few hours just above zero around the middle of the day. Overnight the temperature fell to -5.6°C not quite the coldest of the month.

In the garden our snowdrops are in a state of frozen suspension waiting for the temperatures to rise a little before putting on their display. I can’t say I blame them. They were in full flower last year by the 8th February.

It’s a little bit easier to see the frost on these self sown cyclamen seedlings. They’re tough as old boots and the freezing temperatures wont do them any harm.

Our pond has frozen over again as a result of the length of the cold spell together with the well below freezing overnight temperatures.

Cold & Grey

2012-02-08T09:51:00.000Z

Tuesday morning started off sunny but by lunchtime it had turned into another cold grey February day. It didn't get very warm all day (max 3.3°C) and by midnight Tuesday the temperature had fallen to -3.5°C. It continued to fall to -5.6° by 03:00 Wednesday morning before beginning to warm up slightly so that by day break it was only -2.6°C.

The sunshine on Monday tempted me outside, well into the greenhouse at least as the early afternoon sun lifted the greenhouse temperature up to a positively balmy 14°C. There’s plenty of tidying up to do to remove the remnants of last years crops. The old tomato grow bags need to be cleared out and taken down to the plot to be added as compost to this year’s potato beds.

Our grapevine always manages to get unruly despite my best efforts with the secateurs. The first essential job was to cut back the remaining old vines and tidy up all the dead fallen leaves to give the vine a good spring clean. There was a surprising amount of debris once the vine was cut back to the main stem and the leaves gathered together.

The old gnarled stem looked much better once it was trimmed back. I'm always amazed that this rather dead looking vine will be growing out of control come summer.

Once all the debris had been removed the greenhouse was already starting to take on a tidier look - well one side of the path - ready for some serious growing to get started when the weather begins to warm up. Next job sort out the rubbish on the left of the path, that’s the bit out of shot.

Like Clockwork

2012-02-07T09:57:00.000Z

Monday wasn't too bad with some sunny spells and the temperature managed a high of 6.8°C. There was no frost overnight Sunday/Monday so I thought our light covering of snow would have melted but where the sun didn't shine the snow didn’t melt - or so it seems.

We’ve had another keen frost meaning Monday morning has started cold, sunny and frosty.

Unlike everybody else's snowdrops ours are just about to come into flower. It seems to me that they must be months late as snowdrops have been appearing in bloom on television and in newspapers for weeks now. Well not our snowdrops.

I’ve had a look back at last years snowdrop photographs and I was a little surprised by what I found. Last year we had a bitterly cold December one of the coldest on record although January and early February weren’t too bad. These are photographs from last year.

So it was the 8th February last year when our snowdrops managed to flower. Well this year’s buds are just about getting ready to break although I'm not convinced that they’re going to make it for Wednesday. We shall see.

Taken on the 6th February 2012 this year’s blooms are well on their way but are within a few days of last year’s flowering date. I’ll now see if our crocuses and daffodils flower around the same time.

Thaws straight away

2012-02-06T10:36:00.000Z

Sunday was nice and sunny and the mildest day for a week or more resulting in Saturday’s snow thawing.

I’ve been having a go at checking some figures. I know that we’ve had some mild days this winter but we’ve now had a couple of pretty cold spells as well but it seems the description in the press and media regarding this winter is that it’s been a mild winter.

Well winter hasn’t finished yet and it’s true that in the middle of January “mild” was a fair description of winter at that stage. Since then things have changed quite a bit. I reckon that by 4th Feb an average winter temperature should be 5.28°C and our actual value is 5.26°C. So spot on average - so it’s now just a typical sort of winter that we’d expect to get more often than not. Cold days have come along and offset the mild ones.

Click on image for full size view

Out of interest in the cold winter of 1963 the average winter temperature at 4th Feb was -0.31°C and taking 1989 as one of the warmest winters the corresponding average temperature was 6.71°C.

It snowed

2012-02-05T10:18:00.000Z

Saturday saw our first snowfall of the winter. It had been widely forecast for the last few days so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to anyone. A few flakes fell early afternoon but nothing more than a dusting. It snowed for a couple of hours early evening and left us with around 25mm or 1” of snow, certainly nothing too serious.

This is the scene early Sunday morning. The forecast is for a sunny day with the temperature reaching 4°C so with a little luck some of the snow may melt away. Overnight we didn’t have the severe frost of the last two nights. The temperature fell to -2.1°C by 01:30 Sunday morning but then it warmed slightly rather than getting any colder.

Glorious Sunshine but......

2012-02-04T10:23:00.000Z

It was a glorious sunny day on Friday but it didn't manage to lift the temperature above 2.5°C. Out of the sun the ground remained white covered by frost all day.

Overnight Thursday/Friday set our coldest temperature of the year at -4.9°C but that record hasn’t lasted long as overnight Friday/Saturday saw a new low of -5.7°C (21.8°F) our lowest since 21st December 2010. It was low enough for ice to have formed on our pond.

Compared to last February this year is already colder. In 2011 we had just 5 hours below 0°C whereas this year we have already had 30 hours and that’s after only three and a bit days.

The forecast is for snow this afternoon so it seems that winter has really has arrived. The temperatures are supposed to pick up a little bit after the snowfall so it shouldn’t be around for very long.

Spoke too soon!

2012-02-03T09:45:00.000Z

Lets move the temperature chart on just one day.

As you can see from the chart I spoke too soon about avoiding the forecast severe frosts. Thursday was a cloudy and cold day with the temperature managing a maximum of only 2.6°C. Late in the evening the cloud cleared and the temperature plummeted.

By dawn on Friday the temperature had dropped to -4.9°C (23.2°F), that’s the coldest February temperature I’ve recorded. On the upside Friday is off to a bright sunny start.

I'm now glad I moved my seed potatoes for this year out of the greenhouse and into the garage as the overnight temperature fell to -5.2°C.

It will no doubt be quite warm in the greenhouse once the sun thaws out the frost but it’s the cold overnight temperature that governs the growing conditions not the daytime high. With light snow and bitterly cold temperatures forecast for the weekend my seed potatoes can stay where they are.

Spared so far

2012-02-02T11:10:00.001Z

It was quite pleasant in the sunshine on Wednesday and it tempted me outside to do a little more work on the base for our summerhouse. The trouble is in winter this part of the garden is shaded from any sunshine and with the temperature around 2°C and in a cold easterly breeze it felt a little chilly. So far we seemed to have missed any severe frosts which have been forecast with over night temperatures for the last couple of days hovering just above freezing point.

Out in the cold

2012-02-01T10:14:00.002Z

Tuesday saw the end of January and it ended on a cold grey sunless day. The breeze was out of the east and had a bitterly cold feel to it.

The wind direction chart for the month clearly shows that when the wind blows from the east then certainly in winter we get a cold spell of weather.

After all the hype about the mild January it’s turned out just a smidgeon lower than average as after a mild first couple of weeks the temperatures have varied more dramatically over the remainder of the month. Two cold spells, one in the middle of the month and the current one have offset the mild start.

Rainfall wise after lots of below average rainfall months last year, January has got 2012 off to a wet start with one third more rainfall than average 59.8mm against 43.8mm.

All our monthly data has been updated on our 2012 weather pages.

Chickened Out!

2012-01-31T16:29:00.000Z

Monday was cold with just a little sunshine in the afternoon but it didn't do a lot for the temperature.

The forecast is for the cold weather to continue, certainly for the rest of this week, with night time temperatures plummeting very low over the next few nights to maybe the coldest of the winter so far. With this in mind I’ve moved my chitting potatoes out of the greenhouse and into the garage for a little extra warmth or should that be less cold.

As daytime temperatures even in the greenhouse are reaching only 5°C there wont be much chitting going on and I’d rather be safe than sorry at keeping the tubers frost free. On long cold winter nights my greenhouse doesn’t provide much frost protection.

Muffin Trials

2012-01-30T10:30:00.000Z

Sunday was so different, not a hint of sunshine and cold with a high of just 3.1°C and the daily average coming in at 1.3°C. This weather may be with us a while, through into the second week of February if the forecasts are correct.

Last week I made some apple muffins which turned out well. I thought some may be nice with a little of our frozen fruit used in them. The apple recipe only made 8 muffins and I wanted to make a dozen sufficient to fill the muffin tray. There’s thousands of muffin recipes on the web so it was a matter of deciding which one. I settled for a blueberry muffin recipe except I intended to use some redcurrants to replace the blueberries. I added the equivalent amount of de-frosted redcurrants as a first attempt to see if the muffins would turn out OK.

The ingredients:

2 eggs, 240ml milk, 120ml vegetable oil, 200gms sugar added to a bowl and mixed together.

375gms plain flour, 4 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt mixed together.

The 2 sets of ingredients are added together and given a good mixing and then I added 175 gms of de-frosted redcurrants.

The mixed contents were shared between the 12 muffin cases and cooked for 25 minutes at 200°C gas mark 6

Next time I might try with 200gms of redcurrants especially as we still have plenty in the freezer.

RSPB Bird Count Saturday

2012-01-29T10:02:00.000Z

Saturday was a cold crisp sunny day. It did cloud over in the late afternoon but otherwise it was a beautiful day for counting birds.

For once it seemed our feathered friends didn’t completely desert us for a couple of days as they usually do for the RSPB bird count weekend. These starlings found the temptation of a new fat filled coconut too much to resist.

Shallots arrive

2012-01-28T10:23:00.000Z

Friday was sunshine and showers, with the showers a little too frequent to make any use of the sunshine in between them. Temperatures were around expected with a high of 6.5°C. After a dry 2011, January has got 2012 off to wet start and we've had around a third more rainfall this month than we might expect.

It’s the time of year when onions and shallots start arriving from the suppliers. Marshalls have sent our shallots which arrived today.

Last year we started our shallots in pots in the greenhouse and it worked well. There is no way that ground on the plot will be in a fit state for planting. I’ll have to do a bit of tidying up in the greenhouse first though.

A First Sighting

2012-01-27T10:01:00.003Z

Thursday was another not too bad sort of a day for winter, some sunshine during the day dried up the rain which had fallen in the early hours of the morning.

I’m taking winter as a time to sort out my 2011 video. I like to make sure that the most important clips are backed up and that any unwanted stuff is deleted from my computer. I was a little surprised when I came across some clips from RSPB Old Moor taken last April which had been left on the clipping room floor. This was the first and only time we had spotted a Reed Bunting so I didn’t want to loose this bit of video.

I’ve uploaded the best of the video to Youtube. It was taken on a visit last April so it’s good to know that in a few weeks time Spring will hopefully be arriving.

Cold Weather Warning??

2012-01-26T10:21:00.000Z

Wednesday saw some mild air return as temperatures once again managed double figures. We had some reasonably sunny spells so it turned out to be a pretty good day for January.

The weather forecast for next week has two very different scenarios. One is for the weather to continue much in the same pattern with mild windy and sometimes wet weather. The second scenario is just the opposite with very cold weather taking over with severe frosts at night and the possibility of snow showers. I have a link to one of the American forecasting models and this has varied between the two scenarios over the last few days.

I grabbed this screen shot on Thursday morning and it’s definitely going for the cold option at the moment. The temperatures are in °F where anything in red is indicating 28°F down to 14°F. This particular forecast is for 06:00 on the 2nd February. This winter it’s been rather unusual to have any red on the chart and we’ve maintained blues and purples for most of winter.

The chart below is the forecast for midday on Thursday 26th which is more typical of the forecasts for this winter with virtually the whole of the UK swathed in blues.

As I said at first there are two scenarios and it’s possible that the mild and unsettled weather will continue into February but on the other hand..............

Apple Muffins

2012-01-25T09:22:00.001Z

Tuesday was pretty wet and miserable and not a day for venturing outdoors unless absolutely necessary. It rained on and off for most of the day with the rain coming from an unusual direction as it doesn't often fall on the web cam window.

As I didn’t want to go outside I decided to do a little baking. As Sue posted in her blog we still have some apples left that have been stored in the fridge. We’re now using the last of these apples and we have unsurprising only the smallest apples left.

I found a recipe for apple muffins on the Internet and decided to give it a go. The only difficult bit was deciding how many tiny apples constitute two large apples.

I must have judged it about right as the muffins turned out OK. There were eight to start with but that was soon reduced to six after a couple of tasters disappeared to check the quality. I might just try a hint of cinnamon in the next batch.

Chitting Potatoes

2012-01-24T10:12:00.000Z

Monday was a mixed bag of weather, some sunny spells but then some short sharp showers and a gradually falling temperature.

Having decided to put gardening on hold for a few weeks and wait for some better weather that idea went out of the window when our seed potatoes arrived from Alan Romans.

Arriving as they do at this time of year it a tricky decision deciding the best place to keep them. They could go in the garage and be kept in the dark for a few weeks where they will be safe from any frosty weather or go into the greenhouse in boxes in the light to allow them to start chitting.

Our potatoes in storage in the garage have managed to grow a few sprouts due to the mild winter so far. Bearing this in mind I’ve decided to take a bit of a risk and to put the potatoes in the greenhouse, set out in boxes, which will allow them to chit by forming tiny sprouts before planting which will be early April.

The potatoes are now set out in old supermarket boxes on the greenhouse shelving with the varieties each carefully labelled. The boxes are into their second recycling life as they were used to store last summer’s potato harvest in the garage. They’ll probably make their way down to the plot in April when the potatoes are planted and once emptied chopped up and placed in one of our compost bins for their final recycle.

To finish off each box of potatoes has been covered with a couple of layers of fleece just for a little bit of frost protection. I think if some really severe cold weather is forecast I might have to move the boxes into the garage to give them a little extra protection from the cold. I’ll need to keep an eye on the forecast as until the end of February we can expect especially frosty nights which may damage our seed potatoes.

Our potatoes have started off our “sowing” record for 2012 which can be found here.

Measuring Windy Weather

2012-01-23T10:29:00.000Z

The gale continued to blow for most of the day again on Sunday and it was into the evening before it started to calm down. Once again it was mild but not very pleasant outside.

It set me off thinking how to measure the windy weather. It’s all well and good measuring the highest gust speed that’s just one measurement and the last gale blew for the best part of 3 days. So with a little help from the “Countif” function in Excel I decided to calculate how many wind gust speeds in increasing 5mph bands my weather station recorded from January 2011 to the present.

I was surprised by the numbers but they do show how windy the last couple of months have been. I have even checked the 590 roughly manually and it seems correct.

Our strongest gust was in February 2011 with a speed of 36 mph during a particularly windy spell that month. But for pure persistent blowing power December 2011 and January 2012 hold the record.

For information my weather station saves all its weather data in 5 minute intervals so a wind gust speed is logged every 5 minutes or 288 gust speeds a day, 2016 per week, amounting to just over 8000 values per month. So all Excel has done is count up the wind gust speed in each of the 5 minute intervals.

Never Ending Gale

2012-01-22T10:19:00.000Z

The one thing we've had lots of this winter is gale force winds. Saturday was typically with strong to gale force winds blowing all day. There might be glimpses of sun and a mild temperature for January but it’s just unpleasant outside in the perpetual gales.

The latest gale started around midnight on Friday and as we approach midday Sunday it’s not relented much apart from a short spell in the early hours of Sunday morning. Those bright frosty days last week without the wind were such a pleasant change from the typical windy days this winter is producing.

What’s left in the Freezer?

2012-01-21T10:27:00.000Z

Friday was back to normal for this January. The cold snap has gone and we’re back to dull, wet and windy. That just about sums up Friday and of course it was mild for with the daily high temperature making double figures once again although to be fair it didn't manage to get there until midnight.

Robin over at The Garden of Eden posted an inventory of canned produce remaining in the cupboard. I too like to keep a list of our stocks but these are in the freezer rather than canned. I wish I could keep these records a little more accurately but I always seem to find a bag of goodies that have found their way into a forgotten corner of the freezer for a couple of years. As spot on as it ever will be our list of freezer produce remaining from last year.

We've also still enough potatoes in store to last another couple of months by which time they will have started to sprout and grow in any case. We have a few onions left but these haven’t stored very well this year and much of the crop has gone mouldy in store.

Down on the plot we've got parsnips, leeks, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale and beetroot ready to harvest.

In the greenhouse I’d left some winter squash “Crown Prince” and rather luckily they seem to have survived the recent cold spell when temperatures fell to minus 4°C even in the greenhouse. I had intended to give them a little protection but just never got round to it.

What a Difference a Week Makes

2012-01-20T10:25:00.000Z

Thursday produced some sunny periods, scattered showers and blustery winds with temperatures around average.

Just over a week ago it looked like January 2012 might be heading into the records as a particularly mild month. The last week of cold frosty nights has probably put an end to that possibility.

As you can see by the 13th of the month our 2012 purple line was all set to touch the record green line set in 1916 but since then the cold nights have reduced us to a near normal average temperature for the month.

I’m certainly putting any gardening activities on hold as in our un-heated greenhouse the overnight temperatures were down below minus 4°C last week. That’s survival temperatures not growing conditions. The temptation is so great though when other blogger's are getting the new season under way.

Mild weather makes a comeback

2012-01-19T15:00:00.000Z

The mild weather returned on Wednesday after 5 very frosty nights in a row.

It will take a day or so for the ground to thaw out completely. Our bird bath was still in the process of thawing out although all the obvious signs of frost had disappeared.

Another Brrrrry Day

2012-01-18T10:29:00.000Z

Tuesday was a continuation of the cold spell with another day with an average temperature below zero. Once again we had plenty of sunshine.

The continuing cold weather had resulted in a thin ice forming over our pond. At this time of year it doesn’t get any sunshine and four nights with temperatures below minus 4°C have taken their toll.

As forecast though the weather changed overnight with the temperature starting to rise quickly late in the evening and continuing through the early hours to reach double figures by 10:00 Wednesday morning. Our first cold snap of winter has ended just as abruptly as it started.

The Brrrrr Goes On

2012-01-17T10:36:00.000Z

Monday was another cold day with a severe overnight frost. There were some sunny spells through the day so it did warm up just a little bit more than Sunday.

Much of our garden remains in the shade all day during the winter months giving it a frosty look all day when temperatures remain around freezing. However down our side border under the magnolia tree a hint of afternoon sunshine gives little parts of the garden a total different perspective.

These hellebores change from an early morning frost into afternoon sunshine and look much better for the change. Unfortunately it’s not long before the frost returns

Brrrrr er!

2012-01-16T10:08:00.000Z

Sunday just got colder as the temperature just managed to creep above 0°C in the early afternoon. It was a cold grey day without any sunshine and of course the ground remained white covered by frost all day.

It certainly puts on hold any thoughts of gardening as the last few days have really seen winter start to bite.

Our spring bulbs are through the frozen ground but I don’t think they’re extra early and hopefully will come to no harm during this sudden cold snap.

These plants have been well and truly frosted over the last few days with the overnight temperature falling to minus 4.4°C below. It looks as though they will remain in their frozen state a little longer as the temperature at 09:00 Monday morning is still minus 4.4°C.

Brrrrr!

2012-01-15T10:12:00.000Z

Well it had to happen didn't it - a cold snap. We’ve done well up to now but Saturday was certainly cold, easily turning out to be the coldest day of winter so far. The days average temperature was minus 1.2°C, with an early morning low of minus 4.4°C, the first time we've managed a minus average daily temperature since the famously cold December of 2010.

The sun did make an appearance for much of the day but any shady spots remained white and frozen all day.

Swapped wind for frost

2012-01-14T10:15:00.000Z

Friday saw a change in the weather. The wind disappeared, replaced by colder sunnier weather. There was more rubbish to collect from the garden after the latest gale. The most testing was to remove a plastic carrier bag tangled in the branches of the crab apple tree.

With the help of the long handled pruners I managed to un-hook and manoeuvre the bag out of the tree. We had a couple of plastic milk cartons to remove from another part of the garden and to my surprise a complete bank statement, name, address and account number all detailed should the statement fall into the wrong hands. I'm amazed how careless some people are with such information.

By late evening the temperature was already down below minus 2.0°C making it our first serious frost of the winter and our coldest day of winter.

I suspect it will be a short lived record as Saturday morning is clear and frosty with a temperature of minus 4.4°C around dawn.

Colder days on the way

2012-01-13T10:16:00.001Z

The overnight gales died down quickly through Thursday morning to give us another mild day with some sunny spells. Once again we survived the gales without any damage. The wind did manage to overturn our old garden seat which I found rather amazing as it’s pretty sturdy.

Since December we’ve had an amazing spell of windy weather. My weather Station has been operating since October 2009. Up to the beginning of last December I’d recorded just one gale force wind gust above 30mph although at 36mph it remains our strongest gust.

However December and January to date have produced 6 days with wind gust speeds above 30mph. January alone has already provided 4 such days.

The forecast is for some much calmer weather stretching into next week with colder daytime temperatures and overnight frosts. A few days without gale force winds will be a pleasant change.

Mildest day but gales return

2012-01-12T10:01:00.000Z

Wednesday became our mildest day of the month with an average temperature of 10.1°C. I made a trip down the plot, badly timed as it started to drizzle as soon as I arrived.

By late evening and into the early hours of Thursday morning gale force winds were back with us again.

I’d gone down to the plot to erect some posts to provide some support for our raspberry canes. I wasn’t going to let the drizzle put me off. This should have been done last spring but the ground was so hard and dry it was impossible to hammer any posts in without splitting them. After some wet winter days that’s not the case any more. Anyone following Sue’s garlic postings will know that they appear to be trying to grow in mud. I thought it would be a good opportunity to get the posts in whilst the ground is soft.

The posts went in a treat so now all that’s left to do is put up some wires and tie in this years raspberry canes.

Record January

2012-01-11T10:00:00.000Z

Tuesday saw another mild and dry day with some decent sunny spells.

I know it’s early in the month and I don’t want to put the mockers on this mild weather but we seem to be heading towards one of the warmest Januarys on record. I’ve reproduced my figures in the chart below.

The top green line is the warmest on record set in 1916 and the purple line is January 2012 and is, at the minute, heading towards the record green line. Now I’ve seen rumours that through the weekend and into the beginning of next week it will be cooler with overnight frosts so this month’s average temperatures may take a bit of a nose dive. The source of my rumour also has some much colder weather for us starting around the 22nd January - possibly the coldest of the winter so far. Watch this space.

Strawberry cuttings

2012-01-10T10:37:00.001Z

Monday continued the spell of mild weather. It was dull all day but apart from some light drizzle it remained dry for most of the day.

Sue took some strawberry cuttings from our new plants in the autumn and we wondered how they were getting on. They’ve been left in the cold frame behind the greenhouse and plants left there to over winter can get a little bit neglected. After all our recent rain I at least expected them to be waterlogged.

Surprisingly the plants don’t look too bad. There’s a few brown leaves but that’s to be expected. Most of the plants are still alive with some green leaves. I’m almost tempted to clean away the dead leaves to tidy the plants up and then let them spend the rest of the winter in the greenhouse where they will get a little more TLC than left where they are.

Sue tidied up our strawberry bed on the plot last month clearing away the last of the straw and mulch before giving the soil a gentle hoe just to break up the soil surface to stop it forming a crusty layer.

Forcing Rhubarb

2012-01-09T10:27:00.000Z

Once again Sunday wasn't too bad a day remaining cloudy and mild.

As you might be aware we live just a few miles outside the famous Rhubarb Triangle in Yorkshire. It’s this time of year when the forcing of rhubarb gets into full swing but this year there’s a problem. It’s been too mild for the rhubarb roots which need a frost for successful forcing and we just haven’t had any.

The good news for them is at least they have some rhubarb roots left. After last year’s very dry summer I reckon I’ve lost most of my rhubarb. There were some signs when we visited the plot last week that one root has survived and had some healthy looking buds forming.

There should be four very large clumps of rhubarb in this bed but so far only two are showing any signs of growth. It looks like this clump will need some weeding and feeding to bring it into full production in a few months time.

I have never actually tried forcing rhubarb as normally it’s a pretty early crop and we have some still stored in our freezer so for me it doesn’t really seem worth the effort.

The Great Storm

2012-01-08T10:46:00.003Z

Saturday wasn't too bad although it was cloudy for most of the day it remained dry. The wind picked up for a short while in the evening but nothing too bad and it was short lived.

I thought last week’s storm was bad but obviously Britain has suffered from far worse storms in the past. All too often we only seem to consider our weather over it’s modern well measured era rather than delving too deeply into the past.

The Great Storm of 1703 lasted from 24th November to 2nd December with the worst of the storm hitting on the Friday night and Saturday morning of November 26/27. The winds struck at a reported 140mph in the English Channel and it’s thought winds speeds even higher than this would have been recorded further north.

Click here to read full story

There are parallels in the story of many windmills being destroyed in the storm some catching fire as their sails spun out of control in the wind.

The Eddystone lighthouse constructed 5 years earlier was totally destroyed killing its designer Henry Winstanley who visited the lighthouse to see how it would withstand the elements.

At sea the storm devastated the English Navy which lost lost 14 of its principal fighting ships and 1,500 crew. Around 40 merchant ships were reported lost.

The total loss of life was estimated at around 8,000.

Thought to be a 1 in 500 year storm it just goes to show you never can tell what the weather might throw at you.

Allotment visit

2012-01-07T10:29:00.002Z

Friday was much better than the last few days with a reasonable amount of sunshine and the gale force conditions of the last few days had disappeared.

We thought we should visit the allotment to collect some fresh vegetables and discover what state the plot was in following the gales. Visiting the plot just after lunch we managed to pick a time when the sun had disappeared but with virtually no breeze it didn’t feel too cold.

We were pleased to discover that there didn't seem to be any damage at all and our greenhouse and shed had survived the gales intact. Most of our winter vegetables are still in good condition and we soon managed to gather what we thought was a pretty decent harvest for the first week of January.

As it’s the start of a new year I’ve decided to start a new page on my web site for our harvests from the plot for this year. Click here to see full details of our first harvest of 2012.

Whilst we were fortunate to have avoided any damage from the gale force winds that’s certainly not the case around Yorkshire where we live. Just a few miles away in the Pennines the winds were at their strongest and these wind turbines became rather high profile casualties of the gales.

Click here to read full story

Battering fades at last

2012-01-06T10:30:00.001Z

After being battered by gales in the early hours of Thursday morning the wind eased to strong and blustery by midday before eventually calming down in the evening.

After our run of dry months which came to an end in December it looks like January is set to get 2012 off to a wet start.

By the end of Thursday, just 5 days into January our monthly rainfall already tots up to 32.6mm set against an average monthly total of 43.8mm.

Battered again

2012-01-05T11:01:00.000Z

For most of Wednesday we had a lull from being battered by strong winds but then as forecast the strength picked up again and we were battered once again through the late evening and into the early hours of Thursday morning. The winds were stronger and more frequent than Tuesday’s gales.

The chart below (starting at Midnight on Tuesday) plots both storms and shows how last nights storm was more intense.

This time though our bird table and feeder station remained upright and we fortunately haven’t any other damage in the garden. Unfortunately this particular storm coincided with the the local council’s collection of recycled plastic. Their system doesn't work in windy weather as the light weight plastic container supplied for collecting the rubbish just blows around in the wind depositing the contents everywhere - well not quite everywhere mostly in our garden!

So this morning’s first task was to collect other people’s rubbish before council collection lorry arrived - we didn't put ours out as we knew what would happen - why do people put cardboard packaging in a plastic recycling container?

Battered

2012-01-04T10:11:00.001Z

Just like the rest of the country we were battered by gale force winds and rain on Tuesday. It’s windy almost every day at the moment but yesterday we had a couple of gusts measured at 30mph and many over 25mph which is unusual for our sheltered suburban garden.

As you can see from the above graph we had plenty of rain mixed in with the gales. In the end we had 14.0mm of rain producing our wettest day since November 8th 2010. Looks like our spell of below average rainfall might well be over especially as January isn't generally a particularly wet month.

We were lucky that the wind didn’t do too much damage in the garden.

Bird Table and Feeding Station Blown Over

This bird table and RSPB feeding station felt the worst of the weather blowing over in the morning gales. I’m not too sure how it managed to do that as the bird table was weighed down with a small paving slab which the wind needed to dislodge before the table could blow over. One leg of the bird table rested on the base of the feeding station so I thought I had a foolproof method of preventing them from blowing over in any gales. Apparently not!

Adjustments Required

It looks like correcting the feeding station is work in progress as after an afternoon and night of more windy weather its taken on a rather jaunty angle this morning. It looks like it’s still recovering from a rather good New Years Eve party.

The plastic trays which fix to the bottom of the feeders to try to prevent some seed falling to the ground were smashed in the fall and will need to be replaced.

So in the garden we got off very lightly.

Hopefully all will be well when we next visit the plot and our shed and greenhouse will be in one piece and still where they should be on our plot.

Off to a mild start

2012-01-02T11:48:00.000Z

The new year got off to a mild start with the weather continuing as the previous few weeks.

I noticed that the BBC and Met Office are recording 2011 as the second hottest ever UK year. As a gardener that surprised me somewhat as I can’t remember any crops struggling due to the heat. Our crops struggled more through lack of rain and cold temperatures throughout the main summer months than from a prolonged heatwave. Crops like sweetcorn failed to produce completely which I put down to a cold and dry summer.

Click here to read full article

Looking back over the year April was clearly the standout month with above average temperatures but that’s a little too early for most of the main vegetable crops to benefit, especially as we had a keen frost at the beginning of May which undid much of April’s good work.

Our early potatoes and outdoor grapes were frosted along with our Kiwi. The grapes and Kiwi never fully recovered from their set back so we can only hope for better luck with the weather this year.

Frosted Kiwi 4th May 2011

The other surprising thing I noticed was the value of the average annual UK temperature. The article above gives a little graph of the monthly temperatures and gives the annual average UK temperature as 9.62°C.

The average temperature recorded by my weather station for Ossett last year is 11.0°C which is positively tropical compared to the UK average quoted. I’m wondering where you have to live in the UK to experience this average temperature. Ossett is situated in the north of England so I’m thinking possibly Scotland say Edinburgh might be the place to experience something like this temperature. My weather station temperatures are usually in close agreement with other Weather Stations that display their data on the Internet via Weather Underground so I’ve no reason to believe my recordings are so far out.

It would be interesting to find out what the average temperatures are in the areas that my readers live in. It would be great if you could pop a comment here if you know what the average annual temperature is in your area.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T11:14:00.000Z

Saturday brought the year to an end on a mild note with the temperature managing double figures one again. Over the last couple of years it’s been quite exceptional to manage a double figure temperature in December, indeed last December we didn't even manage one solitary hour in double figures.

I've been doing lots of sums over Christmas and the New Year to compare the hourly temperatures for each month since I've had my weather station. Looking at this December it’s easy to see just how much milder it’s been than the previous two Decembers with far less blue in its column.

It’s the New Year Awards

2011-12-31T09:57:00.001Z

Friday was wet and windy. The day’s maximum temperature was 10.7°C which is a bit misleading as it was a cold day with the temperature hovering around the 5°C mark for much of the day. The temperature rose quickly in the late evening to reach its maximum value for the day at midnight.

It’s the time of year when the New Year’s Awards are handed out to lots of surprised recipients who aren't expecting to receive one. Well not to be outdone I wasn't expecting an award either but to my surprise I was awarded a Bloghood. Now I’m told this award is to try to get more followers to my blog. I know 25 is pretty poor but my blog is only about the weather and a few gardening related bits and pieces so I don’t expect the world to be riveted.

However at the time this Bloghood was awarded I had a couple of fruit pies cooking in the oven and with the waft of cooking pastry around I suspect this might be something to do with why I was included in this New Year’s Awards list.

At long last

2011-12-30T10:13:00.000Z

Thursday was wet and windy making for a thoroughly miserable day. It did bring to an end our long spell of months with below average rainfall with the 7.8mm of rain today taking us just above December’s long term average of 73.4mm. This ends a spell of below average rainfall going back to last February.

Click here for full article

I know that the second half of December has been mild but our crops certainly aren't showing any of the effects listed in this online newspaper article.

Harvesting our Christmas vegetables on the plot last week I didn’t notice any of our crops in a state of early production. All our over-wintering vegetables looked to be doing just that. Spring cabbage and cauliflowers looked okay but there weren’t any signs that they were ready to be picked.

Our leeks looked in good condition along with the sprouts we picked. Parsnips and carrots were in good condition although the slugs had nibbled some of our carrots but that’s to be expected when they’re left in the ground to over-winter.

We’ve had a few rose flowers lingering into December but I put that down to them hanging on in a late autumn rather than being early for next year.

Lets not forget that officially we are only a few days into winter proper so I’m sure that there’s still plenty of time for some cold and frosty weather. Meanwhile it’s best to make the most of the mild weather whilst it’s here.

Windy again

2011-12-29T10:13:00.000Z

The strong blustery wind was back today. It came back bringing some heavy squally showers with it. Although it’s not as mild as over Christmas the temperature continues to be above normal for December.

Both the above average temperature and windy weather have produced substantial blips on their respective charts for 2011. The mild temperatures show from the middle of the month whilst the high wind speed chart shows the windy weather has now been around since the last weeks of November.

Not so mild

2011-12-28T10:16:00.000Z

Not quite so mild as the last few days but Tuesday still managed to reach a very respectable high of 11.4°C. It was the first time for more than a week that a high wind speed of less than 15mph was recorded. The strong winds have been the main feature of the month’s weather.

Heatwave continues

2011-12-27T10:04:00.000Z

Boxing day continued the December heatwave with a high temperature of 14.2°C. There was no chance of a frost either with an overnight low of 9.8°C pretty remarkable for the end of December.

Along with feeding the birds we like to make sure that they have some water to drink and have a bath in. They are resourceful and will make use of any water they can find. Some sparrows are certainly enjoying the little water available in a plant pot saucer by the greenhouse whilst other sparrows make use of the official bird bath to take a lunchtime bath.

Mild and windy

2011-12-26T09:58:00.001Z

Christmas Day turned out to be mild and windy. Even allowing for the recent mild days it turned out to be the mildest with the temperature reaching a maximum of 13.4°C in the early evening. I've got no idea where that stands in the league table of temperatures for Christmas Day other than it’s much warmer than last year.

Our starlings have found the fat balls and enjoyed tucking in to their Christmas dinner too. I saw on television last week that I’m supposed to arrange our bird feeders in such a way that the birds don’t squabble over food using up valuable energy reserves. Is that even possible with starlings? They seem to arrive in a flock and feed in a flock.

The squabble at the end of the video is slowed down by a factor of 10 and you can really appreciate the aerial antics of these starlings.

What a difference a year makes!

2011-12-25T10:19:00.000Z

Christmas Eve was another mild day with some decent sunny periods. Last year the run up to Christmas was bitterly cold with daily average temperatures below freezing. Our pond was well and truly iced over with only the filtered water keeping a small part of the surface ice free.

Ice covered pond 24th December 2010

No such problems this year with the mild spell of weather and daily average temperatures around 10°C higher than last year our pond is certainly ice free.

Ice free pond 24th December 2011

Last year’s picture looks much more Christmassy and this year’s picture isn’t helped with the building works going on to provide a base for our new summerhouse.

A wet day

2011-12-24T10:21:00.000Z

At times we had some heavy rain today, enough to make it our wettest day for just about 10 months as 11.2mm of rain fell. It was most rain in a day since the 26th February 2011 when we had 11.4mm.

Last autumn with our freezers full we still had some apples to store. As a bit of an experiment we filled up the salad compartments of our old fridge freezer in the garage to see just how long we might be able to keep these apples. There were several varieties and all kept well stored in the fridge. We had enough apples to fill all the shelves with apples too. We’ve been using the apples to eat and make pies throughout autumn and into winter.

These Golden Delicious from the salad drawer have been made into apple tarts for a Christmas treat. A few sultanas and a hint of nutmeg was added to the fruit to give it that festive taste.

December heatwave

2011-12-23T10:46:00.001Z

Thursday produced another very mild day for December with the temperature managing 12.9°C. Interspersed with some sunny spells it was a brilliant day for December.

West Yorkshire saw some unusual cloud formations yesterday. I grabbed the picture above from my web cam yesterday morning as I thought it was a bit unusual. However this wasn't very impressive compared with the cloud formations photographed around West Yorkshire.

Click here to view full article

Other local pictures of these cloud formation can be found at the BBC web site by clicking here.

Double figures - in December!

2011-12-22T10:18:00.000Z

The forecast was right and as the shortest day arrived the temperature managed double figures. It was windy though and the wind took the edge of the temperature and it didn't feel that mild to me in the afternoon as I replenished and cleaned out our bird feeders.

It was a dull day with some light drizzle at times through the day.

We’re now past winter’s first milestone, the hours of daylight will now start to lengthen, but with January and February to come I bet the worst of winter has still to arrive.

Milder

2011-12-21T09:46:00.001Z

The forecast for Tuesday was that it would be the best day of the week, milder with some good sunny periods. Well the milder part was correct but the sun didn't bother to make an appearance and it remained cloudy all day. Shouldn't complain too much though as the weather’s good for December and last year this week produced a run of night time temperatures well below freezing.

Along with the return of a small flock of starlings, our long tailed tits have made some fleeting appearances this week. Not that they stay in our garden long, behaving in their usual frantic manner flitting from peanuts to fat cake. It’s a tricky decision wether to watch them flit about for a few moments or make a dash for the camera and miss them altogether as they’ve disappeared by the time the camera’s retrieved. I made a dash for the camera today and got this snap seconds before they did their disappearing trick.

A little rain

2011-12-20T10:24:00.000Z

Monday turned out to be dull with some light rain at times. It wasn't as cold as the last few days but miserable nevertheless.

At one stage it looked like December was going to be our first month since February with above average rainfall but this is not looking so certain now.

November rainfall up to 19-12-2011

Earlier in the month we were well up on expected rainfall but we have now fallen back to almost exactly average rainfall for December. The forecast is for weather systems to come in from the Atlantic for the remainder of the month so there’s a chance yet that we’ll exceed the month’s average rainfall.

Mini cold spell continues

2011-12-19T11:14:00.000Z

The rather cold spell of weather continued on Sunday producing a new coldest day of winter with an average daily temperature of 1.6°C. It was certainly cold enough for the frost to remain on the lawn all day.

Lawn still frosted in the middle of the afternoon

The colder weather is starting to bring birds back into the garden in search of food. A flock of starlings has discovered our supply of food and are making short work of fat balls and buggy nibbles.

Whilst we used to get lots of starlings a few years ago they've been much rarer in recent years. This cheeky chappy is filling up on buggy nibbles.

Sunny spells, cold and dry

2011-12-18T10:17:00.000Z

Saturday did at least have some sunny spells but it didn't stop it from been another bitterly cold day with the temperature barely rising above freezing.

Last Saturday I posted some video of the Welsh Highland Railway taken when we visited Caernarfon. This runs between Caernarfon and Porthmadog. The Ffestiniog Railway another narrow gauge railway runs from Porthmadog to Blaenau Ffestiniog. This video, of one of their trains arriving at Blaenau Ffestiniog, was taken back in September when we were on holiday in North Wales.

Dull, cold and dry

2011-12-17T10:33:00.000Z

Friday was cold, not that the temperature fell below freezing, rather it remained only just above freezing all day. This produced the coldest average daily temperature this winter of 2.1°C. The forecast is for a cold few days before becoming milder next week.

Yesterday we harvested one of the cabbages that had been planted out back in May as a “pigeon tester” to see if mixing up different varieties of brassicas would confuse the local wood pigeons.

Planted out 31st May 2011

They weren't to be outwitted so easily and by the beginning of July it looked like the plants would be completed devastated by the pigeons.

Pigeon damage - photo taken 3rd July 2011

It was a trial after all and we found that both green and red kale had been left untouched. Maybe they were full up on cabbage and cauliflowers. We decided to leave the plants and see what would happen.

Picture taken 3rd July 2011

By the end of July the pigeons seemed to be leaving our cabbages alone. Who knows perhaps they had found tastier peckings elsewhere but it looked as though our cabbages were on the road to recover.

Harvested 15th December 2011

This was one of those pigeon ravaged cabbages which survived and was harvested on our last visit to the plot. It produced a good sized head weighing in at 2.8kg so I don’t think that early pigeon damage reduced the size of the final head. It might be that late cabbage plants can survive the damage caused by pigeons and go on to produce a good crop. I must admit that the plants looked in a pathetic condition at one time and I could easily have been tempted to pull them up. I think I’ll carry on netting the vast majority of our brassicas. Even if netting looks a little untidy, brassica plants mostly devoured by pigeons look even worse.

Our first dusting of snow

2011-12-16T10:03:00.000Z

We had a dusting of snow in the early hours of Thursday morning.

The sun came out in the morning and as we were short of fresh vegetables we decided an afternoon trip down to the plot was required. The plot although not far away seemed a little more snowy than the garden.

Looking in some directions it was difficult to even tell there was any snow and in the sunshine it looked a beautiful day. It was just a bit chilly on the fingers picking vegetables.

On the shadier side of the plots the remnants of the snow still lingered on as the temperature hovered just above freezing. Not much else could be done on the plot in this state so after harvesting our vegetables we headed back home for a hot drink. Details of our December harvesting record can be found here.

A dry day

2011-12-15T10:56:00.000Z

Wednesday produced the first dry day of the month. There was plenty of sunshine and although dark clouds threatened a few times throughout the day we missed the showers that were around. Once again it was windy at times which has so far been the main feature of the month’s weather.

Our garden is fairly sheltered and I reckon if my anemometer measures wind speeds above 15mph then it’s windy. That covers most of December.

What storm?

2011-12-14T09:58:00.000Z

Fortunately we once again seemed to avoid the worst of the storm although at times it was fairly windy. Through the day there was a reasonable amount of sunshine. Just glancing at the maximum temperature of 9.8°C it might give the impression of a mild day for December but that temperature was very short lived and occurred just after midnight. Throughout daylight hours the temperature didn't get above 6.0°C and in the stiff breeze if felt pretty cold.

I just couldn’t resist these two collared doves perched on the remains of our old arbour. They look as though they have already paired up ready for spring as they sit out the remaining cold winter days.

Lull before the storm

2011-12-13T09:53:00.002Z

Monday wasn't too bad a day. In the morning and afternoon we had some sunny spells and it wasn’t too breezy either. The forecaster’s are predicting more storms this week so we decided to take advantage of the decent weather and visit the RSPB reserve at Old Moor.

By mid afternoon the storm clouds were starting to gather but the wind and rain held off until evening time.

Computer glitch

2011-12-12T11:08:00.001Z

Sunday was dull but mostly dry with just a few of our now customary showers around lunchtime.

It’s been interesting this month to follow my weather station’s rainfall storm total for December. This totals the amount of rainfall until a dry spell of 24 hours occurs. Unfortunately like all PC’s do now and again mine crashed and the result was that the storm total reset itself to zero. We certainly haven’t had that 24 hour dry spell so I’m putting it down to a computer glitch rather than lack of showers. The little chart above shows the rainfall pattern for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

A hint of frost

2011-12-11T10:41:00.001Z

Saturday morning started off cold and just a little bit frosty. For the first time this winter there was ice on our bird bath. It was a flimsy coating and didn't need any warm water as it soon melted.

Not that the temperature rose to anything special only managing 5.1°C, which along with our cold frosty start gave us a daily average of 2.8°C the coldest of this winter.

Our birds are now starting to return after disappearing over the last month or so. This goldfinch was an early morning visitor tucking into niger seed as I snapped a picture of the ice on the bird bath.

Cold and cloudy

2011-12-10T10:46:00.001Z

Friday saw the wind die down in the early hours of the morning. It was cold and cloudy with more showers following the theme of the month. There were times during the day when it looked like we might just get a real heavy downpour but we missed any really heavy rain.

The rainfall for this month is now starting to mount up. Even though we haven’t had any spells of ‘real’ rain only lots of showers we’re now up on the average amount of rainfall for December. My weather station records a “storm” total for rainfall which is simply the total amount of rainfall that has occurred until a 24 hour dry spell is recorded. This amount has now reached 33.0mm. We haven’t had a day in December without any showers.

At the moment as the weather is pretty awful for doing anything outside we are re-vamping our main web sites. As part of the re-vamp I was re organising some of our video and thought just for something a little different I’d add some of the video from our visit to North Wales back in September. First up is the Welsh Highland Railway filmed when we visited Caernarfon.

We missed the worst

2011-12-09T10:27:00.001Z

Scotland and northern England were battered by hurricane force winds on Thursday but fortunately we were just south of the worst of the storm.

Click here to read full article

It was our second very windy day in a row but strangely enough our strongest gust (33 mph) was recorded on Wednesday and we could only manage a mere 30 mph for Thursday. The forecasters to their credit seemed spot on with our forecast, even down to the blip in the temperature which shot up to 11°C for a few hours before falling again just as quickly.

Another 7.4mm of rain added to this months growing amount as the strong winds continued well into the night.

Gale force winds and showers

2011-12-08T10:42:00.001Z

Wednesday was windy with gale force winds and showers. In our rather sheltered garden it’s only the second time I've recorded a wind gust speed in excess of 30 mph with a gust of 33mph at 11:00. The only other occasion was the 4th February this year when a gust reached 36mph at 20:00.

Plenty of showers amounted to 8.0mm of rain in the day making it our wettest day since 26th August and keeping us on target for our average December rainfall.

Cold, windy and more showers

2011-12-07T10:05:00.001Z

Tuesday continued the windy spell of weather we are having. All the frequent showers are starting to build up our rainfall amount this month. Although it’s early days December’s rainfall is on target to be around average for the month.

With heavy rainfall forecast for Thursday this week we might be beginning to see an end to our long spell of below average rainfall.

Just a tiny amount of sleet today

2011-12-06T10:32:00.001Z

Blink and you would have missed it but today we did have just a little bit of sleet or hail before all the showers turned to rain. It was cold all day with the temperature reaching just 4.9°C our coldest daytime value since 21st February this year. Despite the low temperatures we still didn't have any frost.

Sue asked me last week if I used sugar to make bread. I do as I thought sugar was needed to feed the yeast in order to make the bread rise. It seemed that this might be me believing in an old wives tale so as it was cold and miserable I thought it was a good day to test out a sugarless bread.

The result turned out fine. No problems with the dough rising at all. A bit like gardening this bread making - never too old to learn something new.

Cold

2011-12-05T10:12:00.001Z

Sunday was our coldest day since the 8th March with an average daily temperature of just 4.4°C. The temperature didn't fall below freezing with a minimum of 1.9°C.

Once again it was a day with plenty of showers. Thankfully all these fell as rain rather than sleet or snow. I reckon that winter has arrived now taking over from our mild autumn.

Wet without rain

2011-12-04T11:05:00.001Z

Saturday was dull and cloudy with plenty of showers spread throughout the day. It didn't dry up between showers giving the impression that it had rained for most of the day. In total the showers added up to 2.4mm of rain. As the day progressed the temperature got colder.

On the allotment some parts of the plot seem reasonable wet now despite the fact we haven’t had any great amount of rain. Although, on our visit to the plot on Friday, I did dig up this sprout plant (Crispus) for some fresh vegetables for the weekend and it was easy enough to knock all the soil away from the root of the plant.

Our rather clayey soil soon sticks to the roots of plants once it gets too wet but that’s not the case at the moment as the relatively dry soil fell away from the sprout roots.

A visit to the plot

2011-12-03T10:16:00.001Z

There was a cold chill in the air on Friday morning with the temperature just managing around 6°C by mid afternoon. It became windier and milder in the evening and our top temperature of the day 9.3°C arrived at midnight.

It felt chilly on the plot in the afternoon. Perhaps the mild temperatures so far have made us a little soft. The plot certainly had a bleak winter look to it.

Amazingly amidst the gloom one of our roses (Elmshorn) still has some flowers and buds. A few flowers still out on the plot brightened up the dull day just a little.

Winter begins

2011-12-02T10:39:00.001Z

In meteorological speak the 1st of December marks the start of winter. It’s started in much the same way as autumn went out, mild and pretty breezy at times.

There’s lots of comments in the press and on TV anticipating a drought in certain areas if the winter turns out to be dry following on from a dry spring, summer and autumn.

Whilst I'm not entirely sure that we fit in with the areas suggested in the Sky News article we do fit in with the low rainfall. At the end of November we have only had 58% of our expected rainfall over the last 12 months. I guess that unless we get some really wet months in a row to get back to 100% is going to take quite a while.

So far in 2011 February has been the only month to exceed the expected monthly rainfall. Mind you it was wet and we had double the expected rainfall. April was our driest month with just 2.4mm of rainfall.

Rhubarb’s up

2011-12-01T10:57:00.001Z

Wednesday’s weather was typical of the month, some sunny spells, dry but mostly cloudy. It was another mild day but it felt chilly in the strong breeze.

My new rhubarb Stockbridge Arrow planted on the 4th November has already pushed a new shoot through the top of the compost. At least I know that one of the two pieces of root I received is growing. Once the cold weather arrives this shoot might wish it had stayed underground.

I've being tracking the mild November temperatures against the Central England Temperature Record. For us it’s finished in 4th place in this record stretching back 350 years.

I’ve now incorporated all the data for November so this is our final figure for the month.

The month has continued our spell of dry weather with our total rainfall for the month just 25.8mm set against an average of 63.7mm.

I've updated our annual temperature and rainfall data here.

Our sowing and harvesting records for November have also been updated.

A little of everything - well almost

2011-11-30T10:17:00.001Z

Tuesday gave us a bit of everything, a little bit of sunshine although it was cloudy for most of the day, a few rain showers and in the evening the wind really strengthened. We didn't get any snow though which did arrive on this day last year.

Many of our garden birds have disappeared, apparently they have decided that there are more appetising treats in the countryside than our garden. These fat balls have been out for a couple of weeks and remain almost untouched.

Our flock of sparrows have remained faithful and still manage to enjoy our half a fat filled coconut along with a good quantity of seed. This one will soon need replacing.

In the last couple of days though a couple of goldfinches have returned to help the sparrows eat the sunflower hearts. Perhaps this is a sign that the autumn hedgerows are beginning to run short of food.

What a difference a year makes

2011-11-29T09:51:00.001Z

Monday was a cloudy cool day, but even so it became milder late in the evening as more windy weather came in from the west. This rather bizarrely meant our mildest part of the day was as we approached midnight.

It’s a far cry from last year as November 28th went down in the record books as the coldest November night in Yorkshire as the temperature plummeted to minus 7.6°C at home but falling to minus 14°C at Topcliffe. This year thankfully we look like having one of the warmest Novembers on record. Like I said at the beginning what a difference a year makes.

Continuing windy and mild

2011-11-28T10:02:00.001Z

Sunday was almost a replica of Saturday but with lots more sunshine. Gazing out of the window it looked a beautiful day with clear blue sky but the gale force wind took the edge of the temperature making it feel cold outside.

However this day last year marked the start of our very cold winter weather. The daytime temperature on the 27th last year managed just 0.7°C with a night time low of -4.4°C. Compared with today’s high of 13.4°C and corresponding low of 5.6°C we’re doing well. I’m hoping the reasonable mild weather will continue a while yet.

Windy and mild

2011-11-27T10:52:00.001Z

Saturday produced another mild day. It’s the third day in a row that the temperature has managed to make it just above 13°C, well above what we might expect at the end of November. It was windy for most of the day with the strength of the wind picking up even more during the evening.

The wind didn’t stop it becoming milder as the day went on, starting at around 7.0°C and steadily rising to just over 13°C over a 24 hour period.

Squally showers

2011-11-26T10:52:00.001Z

A little bit of a surprise on Friday, we had some rain, well at least some showers. They were pretty well scattered throughout the day amounting to 3.6mm our wettest day since the first of the month. Despite these showers we are well short of our average November rainfall which is 63.7mm as we've now had just 21.2mm.

Our annual rainfall for the year remains well below average too as by the end of November we would expect to average 578.1mm against our actual rainfall of 347.4mm.

Banana to sort out

2011-11-25T09:43:00.001Z

Thursday turned out to be our second mildest day of the month with a daily average temperature of 12.4°C. This has only been higher on the third of the month with 13.6°C.

The mild weather has lulled me into a false sense of security and I've yet to provide any protection to our banana plant growing in our garden border. It suffered badly in last year’s severe winter and only after a long wait in spring did it manage to produce some new shoots from around the base of the plant.

So although this border is in the process of a makeover I’ll give the banana some protection for winter with some straw around its root to protect it from the worst of the cold weather.

Unfrosted parsnips

2011-11-24T10:15:00.001Z

Wednesday continued in much the same vein as the rest of the month, mild and cloudy.

We dug our first parsnips on the plot last weekend. I was a little dubious about digging a few roots to test for a couple of reasons. Firstly they hadn’t made their usual amount of top growth, a bit like this year’s potato crop, and secondly they haven’t had a frost to sweeten the roots.

I needn’t have worried as the roots were a decent size. I’m not going to suggest they were the largest specimens I've ever grown but they were plenty big enough. These Gladiator roots were completely free of canker which sometimes damages our crop. They tasted nice and sweet when cooked too. These roots have reminded me to place some straw around the remaining parsnips so that I can harvest the roots once the weather turns cold and snowy.

Mixed messages

2011-11-23T09:34:00.001Z

Tuesday was the umpteenth dull day of the month. It might have been a mild month but it’s certainly lacked sunshine. Once again it was mild keeping up our high average daily temperature for the month.

In the pond our water hawthorn (Aponogeton distachyos) has decided to flower. It normally starts to flower in late spring but has obviously decided a few late flower will do no harm, maybe due to the mild weather.

Down on the plot at the weekend it was a different matter. It might have been mild but it’s been damp and horrible even though we haven’t had a great deal of rain. This has finished off our crop of lettuce (Red Iceburg) which have turned into a soggy mush in the damp conditions.

It’s much the same story with our Flamenco strawberries. They're still doing their best to produce fruits but in the damp weather these are going mouldy before they ripen. Never mind I don’t really expect to be picking strawberries at the end of November.

Another cloudy miserable day

2011-11-22T09:52:00.001Z

Monday was like many of the days this month, cloudy and dull all day. As I made space for another week’s weather to be added to my charts I couldn't help but notice the dramatic drop in temperatures at the end of November last year. The snow arrived as well. We were heading into winter without any hint of how the weather was going to turn. Temperatures fell and the snow arrived and stayed. This article in the local Yorkshire Post looks back at that spell of weather from last year.

Click here to read more

Along with the rest of the country we didn’t expect the weather to turn as it did. I’ve just looked back at my blog postings for this time last year. My entry on the 21st November hinted there might be some cold weather on the way. How accurate that American forecast turned out to be.

Click here to link to my blog article

That same American forecast doesn't have any snow predicted for next weekend just wet and windy weather.

Misty day

2011-11-21T09:31:00.001Z

The mist never cleared all day so it was a miserable cold day.

The temperature only managed a maximum of 7.7°C so in the Central England Temperature Record it means 2011 moves down into 4th place. Some milder days are forecast later on in the week so it is still possible that the average temperature for the month might improve. It’s probably going to be dependant on over night temperatures remaining mild and frost free.

Plum tree sorted

2011-11-20T11:01:00.001Z

Saturday started off misty and murky but by late morning the mist disappeared and the sun came out leaving us with a lovely afternoon.

On the plot I decided it was about time I got round to sorting out our Marjorie’s Seedling plum tree. Back in the summer under the sheer weight of plums one of its branches broke. The break wasn't all the way through and the plums on the broken branch did go on to ripen. Although its not the right time to be cutting back a plum tree I decided I wanted to tidy the tree up for winter.

This was our tree in the height of summer laden with plums. It looked a little different yesterday before I set to with my saw.

This is how it looked with our old steps still in place trying to support the broken bough.

It looked much better once all the broken branches and twigs had been removed. I'm a little bit concerned about the actual point where the branch broke. I can’t really see how it can be cut back to give a smooth cut without destroying the whole tree. I might try gunging up the whole area with one of those compounds for protecting cut surfaces of trees. As you can see the actual break point still looks very messy.

As for the cut back branches they’re just a small pile of twigs and branches ready to be burnt to produce some potash which is good to spread back on the plot. Not that these few twigs will produce very much.

Mostly cloudy but mild

2011-11-19T10:04:00.001Z

Friday started off with a little sunshine which soon gave way to clouds for the rest of the day. It was another very mild day for November with a high of 13.9°C.

The newspapers are already discussing the possibility of November being the warmest ever recorded in the Central England Temperature Record which dates back 350 years.

Click here to read full story

We’re located just outside this area, but not many miles north of it. Today our average temperature for the month is 9.6°C lower than the figure needed for us to break this record.

So whilst we wouldn’t break the record we’re still in with a chance of it being the second warmest November based on this old record.

Surprisingly the records from 3rd to 7th warmest have all been in place for many years with 3rd place dating back to 1818 over 190 years ago. So mild Novembers aren’t really a recent phenomenon.

Glorious

2011-11-18T09:57:00.002Z

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Thursday was glorious, sunny and mild and hard to believe it was the middle of November. There was just a gentle breeze and it was still possible to feel a little warmth in the afternoon sunshine. A real bonus day for the time of year.

So far this month we’ve had just 16.2mm of rain and with a long term average of 64 mm we could be in for yet another dry month. At this time of year the rainfall we are having seems enough to keep the soil in our garden and on the plot on the wet side even though the amount of rain we’ve had is relatively small.

Cold and dull

2011-11-17T09:01:00.001Z

Wednesday was cool and cloudy all day. With the temperature not even making double figures, 8.3°C was our maximum it certainly had a November feel to the day.

We harvested our medlars this week, much later in this autumn than over the last few previous years. The tree had just about lost all its leaves but all the medlars were still hanging on.

I’m still looking for a good way to use medlars. I’ve not come to terms with this idea of bletting or almost allowing the fruit to start rotting before its ready to eat. It looks like some of our fruits have bletted on the tree. It’s a bit like trying to decide whether or not to eat “shaggy parasols” - well maybe not at least we may decide to eat the medlars!

Afternoon sunshine

2011-11-16T10:19:00.001Z

It was another gloomy morning but to give us a pleasant surprise the sun made a most welcome appearance in the afternoon. Temperatures were about average for mid November at 10.5°C. When it chooses to make an appearance, the sun is now low in the sky throughout the day leaving much of the garden in shade for the whole day.

The weather was good enough for me to make a little more progress on refurbishing the area around our pond filter. This is an area that had been neglected for a number of years. It’s a pretty large job so it’s being given a few web pages all to itself so click here to read more

Pumpkin pie lifts the gloom

2011-11-15T10:26:00.001Z

The gloomy weather continued on Monday without the slightest hint of any sunshine. It was dry and a little cooler than the last few days. It’s rather odd that such lousy weather is producing such a mild November. It’s not due to any especially good daytime weather more the fact that overnight temperatures are almost the same as daytime temperatures due to the thick blanket of never ending cloud.

I decided to use one of our Crown Prince squashes to make a pumpkin pie, something we had never made before. There are plenty of recipes on the Internet but many use tinned pumpkin and shop bought pastry. A combination of a BBC Good Food and Jamie Oliver recipes gave me enough of an idea what to do.

The Crown Prince had been stored in the greenhouse and was in excellent conditions. The squash was cut up and roasted in the oven. There was plenty of uncooked squash left over which I've frozen to use later. I've no idea if it’s possible to freeze squash but I’ll find out now.

Cutting up the squash is certainly the difficult bit. It was just a matter of blind baking the pastry case, making the filling and cooking for 45 minutes. The end result was certainly different but very tasty. It still seems a little odd using a vegetable - although botanically it is a fruit -even though I know it’s a very sweet one to make a dessert.

For one day only

2011-11-14T10:10:00.001Z

Saturday’s sunshine was for one day only as we returned to dull, damp weather again today. Not much rain fell but it seemed wet all day.

Last year at this stage in November the weather got much colder for a week or so before we fell into a bitterly cold spell for the remainder of November and the whole of December. This year the forecast at the moment is for milder conditions to continue for the next couple of weeks at least.

Sunshine returns

2011-11-13T11:42:00.001Z

Saturday was the day the sunshine returned. After a gloomy week with not a hint of sunshine, Saturday was a pleasant change with almost unbroken sunshine from dawn to dusk. The temperature managed just over 14°C in the afternoon, pretty mild for November. Although we are not quite to the middle of the month the average temperature for the month is certainly above average.

At the moment we are below the average for the warmest November ever recorded in the Central England Temperature Record, but well above the expected average, and also above last year’s November which started off mild and finished off with a very cold spell.

The gloom continues

2011-11-12T10:42:00.001Z

Friday produced no let up in the dull, overcast and damp conditions of the last few days.

From the chart Friday probably turned out the dullest day of the whole week with the solar radiation hardly managing the 50 mark. However as you can see from the chart Saturday has dawned with clear blue skies and sunshine.

Still gloomy

2011-11-11T10:37:00.001Z

Thursday continued the spell of extremely dull and gloomy weather. It was another day without a hint of sunshine. It did attempt to rain a couple of times but it didn't amount to anything and we had a daily total of just 0.4mm. The average daily temperature remains high, not because of any pleasant mild daytime temperatures but because this thick blanket of cloud maintains the temperature overnight.

No sunshine recorded after last Sunday and once the temperature recovered from a cold start to Monday morning it’s hardly varied day or night since.

A ray of sunshine

2011-11-10T09:17:00.000Z

Wednesday produced another dull and gloomy day without any sunshine. This rose was the nearest thing to sunshine in the garden. It did remain dry all day but everything outside still seemed wet and soggy. The temperatures during the day are around normal for the time of year but with all the cloud the temperature doesn't fall much over night which is making November a mild month so far.

In the dark

2011-11-09T11:14:00.000Z

I suspect along with lots of the rest of the country we were in the dark all day Tuesday. The gloomy conditions didn't lift all day. The temperature didn't change much day or night varying from 9.2°C at its coolest to 10.2°C at its mildest. How different the last two days have been since such a beautiful day on Sunday.

The graph above shows temperature and solar radiation starting Sunday and ending midnight on Tuesday. Plenty of sunshine on Sunday then it disappeared. It's generally accepted that a solar radiation reading of 120 or more is needed to be judged as sunshine. We've been a long way short of that for a couple of days now.

Chalk & Cheese

2011-11-08T10:25:00.000Z

Monday saw a complete turn around in the weather again as we had a really dull and miserable day after yesterday’s almost unbroken sunshine. It must have remained cloud free well into the early hours of Monday morning allowing the temperature to fall to minus 0.1°C just before dawn at 05:45.

This is our first below zero temperature of the autumn, it still counts even though it’s just fractionally below. As the cloud and drabness arrived the temperature did recover a little through the day but didn’t manage to get into double figures. It’s forecast to stay like this all week, perhaps improving a little towards the weekend.

What a change

2011-11-07T10:15:00.000Z

Sunday saw a complete change in the weather. The drabness disappeared to be replaced by sunshine almost all day long. Although the temperature only managed 11°C it felt mild in the afternoon sunshine.

Down on the plot it’s amazing how the recent rain has transformed our soil. It’s not that we've had any great amount of rain but after being too dry to dig the soil is now such that it sticks to boots whilst digging.

At least having grass paths around our beds means that digging can be done without standing on the soil too much which is a great help now that the soil is a bit claggy. Much more rain and it will be too wet to turn over and digging will have to wait for the soil to dry out a little.

New Rhubarb

2011-11-06T11:20:00.000Z

Saturday saw and end to the milder weather but not the dull and dreary bit. The temperature struggled to reach double figures managing only 10.5°C in the afternoon which is just below average for early November. The clouds didn't lift all day with some light rain in the morning.

As I've been concerned about loosing some of our rhubarb plants on the plot through this dry summer I decided to order a couple of new crowns from Thompson & Morgan. These have already arrived and I’ve potted both crowns of Stockbridge Arrow into a large pot and will keep these in the greenhouse to protect them from the worst of the winter weather.

Both pieces of rhubarb root had some tiny shoots so although they don’t look much now I’m hoping they will produce strong healthy plants for next summer. It will be a couple of years however, before they have any rhubarb ready for pulling.

In a rut

2011-11-05T11:44:00.000Z

Friday was another mild and mostly overcast day. A little more rain on and off throughout the day gave the day a miserable feel despite the temperature.

It was just the sort of day I needed for my change over computer day. I've now managed to change over most of my software and data files to a new PC before my old one gave up the ghost completely. Tracking down all the software serial numbers, downloading latest software versions and drivers was quite a task. I've still got more software to install but I think all the vital bits are working.