Looduskalender

Jo UK, what a beautiful cake.. I have never seen so stylish decorated Christmas cake!

Olga wrote:Jo UK, what a beautiful cake.. I have never seen so stylish decorated Christmas cake!

See Jo! as Carmel said earlier



Carmel I am wondering is 'les quatre fers en air' like "four sheets to the wind"?

Yes, I hope she will translate that one!

Carmel, I did 'Dormir comme un loir'

(Like a mouse? Really??)

Jo UK wrote:Yes, I hope she will translate that one!

Carmel, I did 'Dormir comme un loir'

(Like a mouse? Really??)

Yes les quatre fers.....actually Four feet in the air !! (on your back) but four sheets to the wind is much better !!.
A loir or a marmot.. said here to sleep...well,like me deeply and comfy.. snuggled up in bed...
Like any minute now.... !!!

When I found a site that did not translate the words one by one I found something that suggested that "les quatre fers en air" was like if you pop a cork on a bottle and it has such a strong alcohol content you just fall right over feet in the air, which is as poetical as 3 or 4 sheets to the wind.

[quote="Jo UK"]The Christmas Cake!

Very nice! Love the robins

Jo, I hope you are not freezing in the terrible weather you are having. ...even worse than here where we are more or less used to extreme weather conditions and equipped better too,I suppose. Keep warm.
Saw this today:
http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/4134/Interne ... ciel.dhtml

macdoum wrote:Jo, I hope you are not freezing in the terrible weather you are having. ...even worse than here where we are more or less used to extreme weather conditions and equipped better too,I suppose. Keep warm.
Saw this today:
http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/4134/Interne ... ciel.dhtml

Amazing shot isn't it?
And there are horrible stories about what might be happening to the sheep -- but mostly in Scotland I think.
So Jo, I second macdoum's concerns -- I hope the ice and cold is not too bad for you.

It is slightly easier now. There was a bit of a thaw yesterday but still lots of old snow and ice around.
We had no post for 4 days and the local pharmacy was running out of some supplies!

It's winter as it used to be. We had warmer winters for many years and got a bit soft. Snow ploughs and de-icing habits were lost or not renewed and now we suffer for it. Older people know how to cope but younger generations have not had this experience before!

Jo UK wrote:It is slightly easier now. There was a bit of a thaw yesterday but still lots of old snow and ice around.
We had no post for 4 days and the local pharmacy was running out of some supplies!

It's winter as it used to be. We had warmer winters for many years and got a bit soft. Snow ploughs and de-icing habits were lost or not renewed and now we suffer for it. Older people know how to cope but younger generations have not had this experience before!

UK made the Swedish newspapers today with burning second-hand books for warmth: a 0,5 kg book sells for 5p, a 20 kg bag of coal for £5; so 1 kg books 10 p, 1 kg coal 25 p.
Oh, well. In Sweden we are thought to have 3 mill. Christmas trees indoors (15-20 % of them less than lawfully gotten ...). If they are all diligently collected, they will heat 1200 one-family houses for one year.
Mine is dropping its needles; said to have around 0,5-2 millions. But forest scientists also say that with the tree you bring in company: a couple of 10 000 insects, mites, creepy-crawlies, of up to 50 species. It is -15 outside. So the tree will probably stay some more days.

Burning books??
I have to wonder how many homes are now equipped to burn anything - most have central heating and no open fireplaces. It must be possible, somewhere.

Liis, I hope your extra visitors from the tree are not troubling you!

Jo UK wrote:Burning books??
I have to wonder how many homes are now equipped to burn anything - most have central heating and no open fireplaces. It must be possible, somewhere.

Liis, I hope your extra visitors from the tree are not troubling you!

Source. It is the kind of news that news desks love to pick up, of course.
Visitors are well-behaved: not visible, and keep to the Christmas tree. But last year's tree was own-cut and fresh, and I grew rather fond of my herd of mini spiders.

Glad to hear it is a little better now Jo. I was just hearing about the ice in Minnesota -- sounds like they could use some kicksleds.

I did not notice any friends with my tree but my dad has requested my tree as habitat for birds in his yard -- lots of the little ones like to hide in bush piles.

Sensible Dad, Alice. The birds will enjoy it.

Our snow and ice has gone, washed away by rain and temperature of 8C
I went for a walk and saw Winchester cathedral. About 2 pm today.

wow! this looks very much "spring like"...aah, still 2 months to go here...
would it be too early to ask for "spring topics"

By some fortuitous oversight, anyone on this forum can start a new topic, so when you feel spring has sprung in your area, please start a Spring in xxx topic. I will start to look for signs of spring in this part of UK and be ready to announce spring when I see it. I hope others will do the same, please.

We don't have to wait for March 21 st, the equinox. Spring happens when nature says it is happeneing!

I noticed your trees do appear to have a little budding to them.

It really does feel almost like spring here -- maybe a little bit early, BUT it would be quite within the norm to have an ice storm in late January or mid February so I feel I might be tempting fate if I "called" it spring -- after all our winter is rain, rain and more rain.

Jo UK wrote:It is a delicious cake and husband is eating some now.

All that Benedictine I poured in - it tastes marvellous!
It usually has a more professionally polished look to the decor, but this year is different.

Jo, I have come to the sad conclusion the postman ate the cake you surely must have sent me, because I never got any!!!

Aah - that's sad, Helen! I hope the postman enjoyed it. There is not much left now!