Tuesday 24 May 2011

The weather gets even more bizarre.


What is it with this weather? I get the impression that I'm imprisoned in the last dry and dusty corner of the county, bleating into the ether about the lack of rain while the rest of the country bends under the weight of torrential rain. My Facebook page is full of far flung people exclaiming at thunderstorms/hailstones/floods etc. (No locusts or frogs yet but surely it's only a matter of time) while I gaze mournfully at the dustbowl I call an allotment.

On the plus side though, the elderflowers are early. Willow has been eagerly anticipating her first taste of summer and has been monitoring the progress of the flowers in the hedgerow and telling me to get my finger out re cordial so yesterday I obliged. I say 'I', Willow did most of the work as you can see.

Anyway, I'm as confident as confident can be that the dry spell will break by 18th June as that's when Proms in the Park is held in Diss. Every year, without fail, there is torrential rain and revellers end up forgetting the words to Jerusalem and sipping warm wine out of plastic cups while huddling under golf umbrellas in an attempt to keep dry.

I was actually offended by the frost in April, how can it be fair that we're battling mid summer conditions and yet have to contend with extreme night time cold at the same time? Interestingly though, I read a couple of old garden diary type books, The Urban Gardener by Elspeth Thompson, (published in the mid '90s) and one whose name I can't remember as I was reading it in the Oxfam bookshop but was published in the 1930's (didn't buy it as it was about growing flowers rather than veg) both complained of 'freak' frost and snow in April. So I guess it's not that unusual after all, next year I promise I won't cast any clouts til May is out.

Yesterday though, things took another turn for the unexpected with the gale force winds. Luckily our, as yet empty, cold frame on the allotment stayed put but my plastic greenhouse at home has suffered. It didn't move as it's lashed securely to various down pipes on the side of the house and the frame is weighted down with gro bags. However, it did rock violently enough to tip up the tomatoes on the top shelves so they came crashing down on the tomatoes below. Plus the outer cover has ripped where the ropes tying it down are attached. Now the winds have died down I have a morning of duct tape repairs and surveying the damage to my Mr Stripeys in front of me. My leftover tumbling tom seedlings, who were destined for the allotment, flew around the garden alarmingly, the pots have been left behind but the plants have simply disappeared.

I have to admit I'm genuinely quite worried and can't help feeling that global warming is genuinely upon us. Some people may claim it doesn't exist and I hope they're right, but I doubt it.

5 comments:

  1. Something is definately up with the weather. This morning I swear I heard them say in our local weather that there will be grass frosts in some places tonight as temperatures could drop to 2C!!

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  2. Oh you're kidding! I'll have to check our forecast, damned if I'm losing anything else to the frost!

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  3. Noooooo! Met office website confirming grass frost tonight! I need to find something to protect my courgettes ....

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  4. Well Tracey...I have known snow in June in our area so I don't actually think the late frost we had was so bad. As for the rain....we haven't had much either so you're not on your own there....a few miles to the north they had flash floods when we didn't get a drop of rain. Are you near any rivers?? The say the rain often follows the rivers and as we are surrounded we often stay dry!!

    We too have had the winds but that is coming from the tornadoes in the states so if that is all we are getting |i consider myself pretty lucky!!

    As for global warming...I'm not so sure...they said that the extremity of the earthquake in Japan slightly knocked the earth on it's axis so I think this could be why we are ahead in our weather.....if it's the same next year then we will know for sure...maybe our seasons have just moved slightly due to this!!

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  5. So it's only the world slipping on it's axis? That's all right then!

    I covered my courgettes by the way, much to the amusement of sceptical allotmenteers all around me. Not sure if was actually necessary in the end but they're all intact and healthy which is the important thing : )

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