Winter Solstice 2014

[lorin]

[Iolanthe]

Lovely, Lorin.

It doesn't feel too much like winter here today. Milder again and a bit damp.

[Frostheart Grueburn]

Pretty!

Lovely, Lorin.

It doesn't feel too much like winter here today. Milder again and a bit damp.

You don't say. Just saw flowers in Sutton Hoo; bloody flowers? What tomorrow, bikini-clad sunbathers in Avebury?

[aliantha]

Dunno what the weather is here today, although I'm told it's cold out. I parked the car Friday afternoon and promised myself that I wouldn't take it out again 'til Monday. That was part of my Yule gift to myself.

Happy solstice, everybody!

[Orlion]

I've been wearing short sleaves the past couple o' nights (not shorts... I just don't wear shorts).

I don't like it. I think Ol' Man Winter is luring us into a false sense of security... into a trap!

[Menolly]

Joyous Yule!

The Yule Fairies by DJ Conway

[michaelm]

Been a little warmer here too (although no bikini clad sunbathers here).

I went to the store around 7pm last night with a short sleeved t-shirt on. Didn't think to pick up anything else - just wasn't that cold (although it's just the walk from front door to car then back and forth across the supermarket parking lot).

[Avatar]

Summer solstice here.

--A

[michaelm]

Summer solstice here.

--A

I completely avoided winter in 1999 - spent the early part of the year in the northern hemisphere, then spent the last part of the year and early 2000 in the southern hemisphere.

I went from summer to fall to summer to spring to summer.

[aliantha]

Summer solstice here.

--A

I completely avoided winter in 1999 - spent the early part of the year in the northern hemisphere, then spent the last part of the year and early 2000 in the southern hemisphere.

I went from summer to fall to summer to spring to summer.

I'd like to try that, one of these days.

[Avatar]

I completely avoided winter in 1999 - spent the early part of the year in the northern hemisphere, then spent the last part of the year and early 2000 in the southern hemisphere.

I went from summer to fall to summer to spring to summer.

I managed that for 2.5 years once, going back and forth between SA and the UK. No winter for nearly 3 years.

--A

[michaelm]

I completely avoided winter in 1999 - spent the early part of the year in the northern hemisphere, then spent the last part of the year and early 2000 in the southern hemisphere.

I went from summer to fall to summer to spring to summer.

I managed that for 2.5 years once, going back and forth between SA and the UK. No winter for nearly 3 years.

--A

It's a bit like being a retired New Yorker with money then...

[Avatar]

Except for the retired part, the NY'er part, and the money part. It was fun, but a little weird as well.

--A

[michaelm]

Except for the retired part, the NY'er part, and the money part. It was fun, but a little weird as well.

--A

Actually that might not make that much sense to anyone outside of the US - there seem to be lots of retired New Yorkers who spend the winter in Florida and then head north again when it warms up.

[lorin]

I love the snow. I can't imagine a life where you don't have mornings where you wake up to a beautiful blanket of white. I can't imagine never experiencing the silence of a new snowfall. Or walking in the woods and seeing all the bare leaved tree branches covered with snow. Or watching your dog joyously diving into a drift of new snow. It is magical and worth all the headaches to go with it.

[michaelm]

I wish my wife thought that way and that we could move back north somewhere. Winter here is horrible, and if there's snow or ice, people still drive in it as if the road is clear and dry.

You'd think the world was coming to an end when it snows here, and it does it most years, so it's not a novelty to people...

Scotland is an amazing place when it snows and the trees have icicles hanging from them and the hillsides have a thick blanket of snow. The majority of the UK has underground power lines too, so you don't get the same problems with lines coming down like you do in the US.

[Menolly]

Except for the retired part, the NY'er part, and the money part. It was fun, but a little weird as well.

--A

Actually that might not make that much sense to anyone outside of the US - there seem to be lots of retired New Yorkers who spend the winter in Florida and then head north again when it warms up.

Having grown up between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, I have had my fill of snowbirds...

[Avatar]

I love the snow. I can't imagine a life where you don't have mornings where you wake up to a beautiful blanket of white. I can't imagine never experiencing the silence of a new snowfall. Or walking in the woods and seeing all the bare leaved tree branches covered with snow. Or watching your dog joyously diving into a drift of new snow. It is magical and worth all the headaches to go with it.

Uh, it's cold and it's wet. I can live without it.

--A

[MsMary]

Except for the retired part, the NY'er part, and the money part. It was fun, but a little weird as well.

--A

Actually that might not make that much sense to anyone outside of the US - there seem to be lots of retired New Yorkers who spend the winter in Florida and then head north again when it warms up.

Having grown up between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, I have had my fill of snowbirds...

Word!

And it's not just New Yorkers.

Also

We don't care how you do it up north!

[aliantha]

I like snow when it knows its place: a few conversational flakes that look pretty as they fall, but don't stack up anywhere; a couple of inches to look at while warm and dry inside; a lot more than a few inches, so that the workplace closes along with the schools; and on Christmas.

Anything else has pretty much been beaten out of me by living in West Virginia and the mid-Atlantic for the past 35 years or so. If they'd plow the roads around here *as the snow is falling*, it would be okay. But nooooo, Virginia's not a northern state, we can't afford to have an adequate snow-removal response, it doesn't snow often enough to justify the cost, etc.