In real-life news,

[oloriel]

it's warm.

(By warm, I mean that temperatures go up to 10°C in the daytime. From April to October, we'd call it cold. In January, it's warm.)

Too warm, in fact.
I know how cynical that sounds in the light of people dying from exposure on the American East Coast, but the sad truth is, of course, that too warm a January is dangerous, too, in the long run.

We have not yet had enough cold to kill off midges or slugs.
In the garden, even out here in "cold" Bergia, roses are in flower, and a lot of trees and bushes have started to bud pretty much as soon as they'd finished shedding their leaves. Most bulbs are already peeping out of the earth. The bees are using way too much of their winter stores, and if this goes on for another week, I suspect they're going to start breeding. Hazel and alder are already blooming in some places, but it's not warm enough for them to go collecting pollen, so, yeah.

Now, our local plants need their winter break, but they can probably handle it if they miss out on it once. However, naturally we can't expect that it will stay this warm until May (at which point serious cold stretches get unlikely); more likely, the frost is just going to hit later, the way it did last year. Even if it doesn't stay as long as it did last year, the result will be pretty devastating, because of course everything that's budding now is going to freeze then, and I don't want to start imagining what the bees are going to do, they're confused enough as it is.

This being a First World country in the 21st century of a globalised world, it's going to hurt individuals but won't turn into a fully-fledged famine, the way it would have 200 years ago. But still... it's too warm. Even with the still-short days, it feels like Spring. And that's just wrong.

(Also, I HAPPEN TO JUST LIKE PROPER WINTERS, DAMNIT. In their right time.)

Oh, and we've been getting heavy(ish) storms pretty much every week since December began. Some calmer and colder air would be nice, srsly.

Comments

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

Fascinating observations. I grew up in a semi-rural area, so I had exposure to some awesome things, like horses and ponies and planting a kitchen garden. But securely lodged within my small town life, I was never really that educated or aware about growth cycles and what caused bad harvests.

It is going to be warmer here for a few days starting tomorrow. I cannot wait! It was cold enough this week to burn one's face off--quite literally. I was really worried about Alex, because he has been one of those stubborn kids who toughs it all winter without wearing his gloves most of the time. He really had no idea how dangerous cold can be.

[http://users.livejournal.com/macalla_/]

Bei uns ist es vor allem neblig. So neblig, dass ich ganz neue Varianten von Nebel entdecke.
Wobei .. heute regnets ... und man sieht wiedermal weiter als drei Meter.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Da hatten wir mehr Glück - bis auf gestern (Regen) war es nicht nur trocken, sondern sogar meistens sonnig, so dass man sich wirklich wie im Frühling vorkommt!

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

It's warm here too. We have daily temperatures from 12 to 15C, which is too much even for Mediterranean.