What's more current than the weather?

[glatt]

Heard on the radio this morning that the predictions of three feet of rain on the Texas coast this weekend are a gross exaggeration. It should only be two and a half feet.

If that precipitation fell as snow, it would be 25 feet.

This is gonna be interesting. Once again, I am glad I don't live on the Texas coast.

Oh, and fill your tanks. This will knock out refineries for a bit.

[Gravdigr]

It's August in KY:



Thank You God!!!

[glatt]

I'm going hiking and camping this weekend and the weather couldn't be better for it.

[Gravdigr]

I thought I might sleep on the river bank tonight, but, 58 might be a tad cool for lawn chair sleeping.

[Griff]

We don't need another pretty song that bad.

[Gravdigr]

Another really nice day for us today. I'm for the river. With a grill, some venison steaks, and some taters. Herbaceous substance mandatory.

[glatt]

I just got back from the river. Absolutely gorgeous this weekend. I used my sleeping bag instead of lying on top of it.

[Griff]

Nice weekend here as well.

[Gravdigr]

64.1 degrees, rfn. Beautiful outside. No more days like this one this year, I'm betting.

That's why I'm for the river. Well, that and this small container of sticky stank I got here.

It's just divine, btw. Can ya smell it? I bet if ya sniff real hard ya can smell it through the pipes and the tubes and the stuff. It's definitely blessed w/the skunk stank. can you say "Number 1"?

[Carruthers]

It's snowing.

Four to five inches of the stuff have landed and it doesn't show any signs of stopping here at the ancestral estate.
I looked out at 0430 and a smattering had just put in an appearance then.
The Met Office forecast was for a large swathe of Wales and Central England to get the worst of it and we, just on the southern edge of that area, were expected to get off pretty lightly.
It appears that an area of rain moving up from France hit a larger and colder air mass than had been expected hence the snow. At least we can blame the French for it.
This road is not a priority for salt spreading so the snow just becomes compacted and dangerous to drive on.
No newspapers have been delivered this morning and they might well not have arrived at the shop anyway.
In the absence of several hundred square feet of newsprint to wade through, Dad turns his mind to other things.
By 'other things' I mean jobs for me to do. That's why I'm keeping out of the way in here until I embark upon preparing another haute cuisine Sunday lunch.

We have a large, and very old, Buddleia in the back garden.
I normally cut it back in February which keeps it relatively under control.
For reasons best known to himself Dad told me to leave it alone this year so I did!
Under the weight of snow the wretched thing has more or less collapsed in on itself and it's a hell of a mess.
Bits have dropped off it with monotonous regularity over the last few years and I wonder how much longer it will survive.
The burden of snow obviously manifested itself at the weak points.
Having a self pruning Buddleia is one thing. Clearing up the debris is quite another.

Right, I shall go and do what any self-respecting British type chap would do under the circumstances:

[xoxoxoBruce]

You had me with Buddleja, so off to Google/Wiki.

Buddleja, or Buddleia /ˈbʌdliːə/ (also historically given as Buddlea), commonly known as the butterfly bush,[5] is a genus comprising over 140[6] species of flowering plantsendemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Well that's no help, gimme images….



Oh, pretty, but your description of carnage doesn’t jib with those images, they look like the would just lie flat.

Then this…



Oh, now I get it... it's like the aftermath of a George Bush.

[Carruthers]

Yep, that's about the size of it.

It's an attractive shrub/bush and will grow just about anywhere.
It will put in an appearance on railway embankments, waste ground or woodland while your back is turned.
It started to grow well in local woods and attracted several species of butterfly but, because it isn't native, the Forestry Commission cleared it out.
What could be better than hundreds of acres of conifers?

[Carruthers]

I had an early appointment at the Doc's this morning and it's normally about a ten minute walk.
Footpaths are pretty much unusable but the road is fairly clear, if somewhat wet, so I walked there.
Not a choice available to me when I got to the main road but all in all not a bad trip.
Took a few minutes longer than usual but at least I didn't have to strap tennis racquets to my boots.

The railways are a different matter. There were no trains on the Aylesbury-London line yesterday and none so far today.
I wonder how Londoners will cope? It must be a grim prospect for them, being cut off from the vibrant, bustling metropolis that is Aylesbury.

[Griff]

That's a pretty significant snowfall for you folks, isn't it?
We just a got a dusting. Based on yesterday's football Buffalo is already in it.

[glatt]

Dusting here on Saturday. Enough to make a couple snowballs if you scooped it off the trunk of the car. It's all gone now. Melted.