I like to know what is coming. Like all farmers I study the weather sites and stare up at the sky looking for action. I don’t like surprises. I need to be prepared. I am like TonTon who barked at the basement door yesterday because he could hear the water overflowing in the laundry. And there is a kind of companionship pattern forming in our weather – have you noticed that? It has become apparent to me lately that I can almost predict my weather from your comments on my blog. Here is how I have worked it out so far. 
Linda in Colorado gets the cold and beats it up a bit. Then Audrey says watch out it is coming your way.
And in it comes to chicago john, Kristy and Yummy and the Farmy (100 miles south of Chicago). There are a few more of you in Chicago but the cold has got to my brain.
Then after us Marie in Rhode Island gets wacked. Maybe Jess? Where are you in my weather map? My geography is terrible. Ksenia, are you after us. Jaz, you are before us?
Then does the weather fly across to Kate and Mad in England or Viv and Roger. Or is that pushing it just a wee bit too far. I need to put pins in a map. Because the parallels are fascinating. The weather is our constant. Isn’t that interesting! Women and men have been discussing the weather for thousands of years, since language even began.
And here we are using the latest technology known to man and still discussing the weather with horror or glee. And next summer will we inherit the heat that Eha is experiencing, or the long hot summer from NZ?. A fascinating and rather terrifying thought.
It is ZERO degrees outside this morning. (That is -18C). When dawn appears it will drop even further. So far the milking pump has kept up, we will see what happens this morning.
Good morning. There are a few of us readers and writers in and around Chicago who are thinking of meeting next month in the windy city for a ‘Chilly Cheer Up’ cup of tea. ChgJohn has kindly accepted the role of Local Knowledge and Guide though we are not terribly sure where yet or exactly when. It rather depends on how big our little group gets. We are still in the planning stages.
So The Matriarch and I will come up to the big city about the middle of next month and do a bit of drift netting. Right about the time we cannot bear the winter one moment more. Nothing fancy or clever. I cannot bring Daisy on the train or pack Kupa into my handbag but if you are interested do let me know. Just a cup of tea or maybe a cocktail somewhere nice. It could be fun. No prizes or silly games, just a wee gathering of like minds. There will probably be talk about the weather!! (laughter!)
OK I have put it off long enough. Off outside I go.
celi
Is Bulgaria too far awy to pop in for tea? Guess so! Here the weather today is bright sunny and warm .the temperature is 20 and my dogs have been laying out in the sunshine. This is wonderful compared to last year when it was -20 and very cold and I had to cope with the donkeys on my own.
Enjoy your tete-a-tete!
Wish I could join you but it’s a little far from London….(the UK one, not Ontario) It’s pretty cold here too but of course nothing like what you are experiencing. I’ve been giving my chickens Weetabix for breakfast to warm them on these cold mornings. Enjoy your gathering and thank you for a wonderfully written blog. Maeve
Lucky you, and what a marvelous idea. Although I lived in Chicago (the way to spell Chicago is “chicken in the car and the car won’t go.”), as they used to say, I think a plane ride would be a funny way to grab a spot of tea.
I wish I could join you, though! It is freezing in NJ and getting colder every second.
I am to the south, and always get your leftovers. It is 7:00 am, and 23 degrees.
Sorry I’m so very far away. Your meetup sounds like fun!
Midcoast Maine here at our little farm. We tend to get your weather pretty regularly! It’s 15F here this morning and going to get colder as the week goes on. Fed my critters in their greenhouses this morning, trying to keep them out of the worst of the wind!
It’s 8ºF here this morning in southwest Ohio. That is way too cold, imho. As my mother used to say about such things: “It’s not fit weather for man nor beast.” Here’s hoping that the thought of a cup of tea in the future will keep you warm today!
It says we’re at 12F this morning but it feels more like zero with the breeze. We’re in WV and usually get the weather two days after you with a slight warm up. And yep I look at what your weather is doing as an indication of what’s coming our way.
I broke one water tub this morning with 3″ of ice! Kupa is looking splendid. Try to stay warm Celi!
We got two fluffy (and welcome) inches of snow overnight. I’d love to attend the gathering, but it is a bit far for me (New Hampshire). Just looked out the window to see the snow falling off the trees. I should get out there with a camera before it’s all on the ground.
Slightly warmer today in Normandy, but it won’t last – Jock is due to fly to UK on Friday and London Stansted Airport has been closed for days! He’s due to give the toast to the Haggis at a Burns Supper on Saturday – the only Scot his daughter knows who can recite all 8 verses by heart!
I’d love to come to Chicago – but no way would I travel in February – two years ago my daughter’s family landed in Chicago on their way home from 6 months in the tropics. It was minus 12 C and they had to raid the thrift shops for warm clothes. Another problem: I don’t think I’d get health insurance after the last little episode! You’ll just have to come here!!!!
That picture of Kupa is superb – Jock would like to do an embroidery of him but I don’t have a photo which shows him feet and all, specially with his tail spread. When the weather is more clement, please could you send me a few pix from different angles? I did a quilt of a peacock once (fantasy rather than real) which is now in a museum in an abbey in Sarthe.
I have just been in Helsinki where it was minus 25, so 9 degrees here in Bagni di Lucca is just fine. I am enjoying being away from the Brisbane summer temperatures of more than 35 every day, with 80% humidity….yuk.
see now! that is really really cold, how do they milk their cows over there!!? Italy sounds just lovely, are you in your new house? i shall pop over and see.. c
Hmm . . . let’s see.
A meet up in Chicago in February?
**Taps foot**
No.
Thank you just the same
Toronto, Ontario, Canada is where I am on your weather map; but I can gauge our weather from what you’re having.
Wish I lived closer, but a 9+ hour drive (in good weather) is s little much for a cup of coffee. Do take lots of photos, so we can pretend we were there with you!
Only 9 hours!? I must consider driving to Canada myself.. but you are quite right.. maybe in the summer!! c
i am east of you…where your butter churner came from! i get your weather a day or two after you. we are 5 here this morning. i am making a huge pot of chicken and dumplings for the shelter so my kitchen is toasty warm from cooking! we will be frigid for about 3 days.
yes the churn remembers its origins! chicken and dumplings sounds pretty good right about now, well now i feel bad about wishing the weather away as it comes straight to you!.. c
It makes me feel warm all over just reading how f..king cold the weather is where you are. I had a friend who lived in Chicago and I remember him telling me that he saw someone DIE at a bus stop from the cold. That’s just insane. You people have to think of the possibility of hibernation. Apparently the peasants in the Pyrenees, as late as the beginning of the 20th century, would just go to sleep with their animals for the winter. Read “The Discovery of France” by Graham Robb.http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/sep/09/historybooks.features
I shall read this book! Thank you. And goodness me, sleeping with Daisy would be nice except that I think she snores!! and I would die when she rolls over!! let alone the farting in bed!! c
Brrrrrr…..I am with you on this one as it is minus 6 this morning in Iowa without the wind chill. Ugh.
4 inches of the Snow That Won’t Stay Where I Put It in coastal RI, with the wind getting stronger all day long. 19 right now, with 8F for tonight’s low, and 2 tomorrow night…. Brr…
(The traditional Judeo-Christian view of Hell is a firey lake, but I submit that it just might be a maelstorm of ice-crystals instead)
Cecilia, I love to watch weather and I use a site called yr.no.com it is Norwegian I think yet they get predictions for us in SA better than out own people… you set in your city or nearest place and it gives you what is on the way for the next couple of days and even the next week… I have a whole lot of towns set into mine and watch how the weather is progressing towards us.. I even look at the world satellites and watch the whole worlds developments… highly intriguing…
With what is happening here now with major flooding of our rivers etc… I have been able to watch how it has slowly crept in and developed…
what an excellent site, I popped straight over and have bookmarked it.. it even gets right to our tiny tiny town.. and is well set out.. thank you.. c
Chicago is one of the coldest places I’ve been to! Today it is a sunny +30degC so I send you sunshine
and muffins, you sent me sunshine and muffins that were very tasty! thank you tandy..c
I’m in S. Colorado, it is 44 on my front porch this morning and we’re suppose to top out in the low 60s today! It is sunny with blue skies and windy and no rain nor snow in the forecast!
Huh, you are warm, maybe that is on its way to ME!! though not the 60′s bit I think.. c
Currently in central Ohio it is 6 degrees! I am not leaving the house unless I REALLY have to!
Ohio? Have I missed something. I must shoot over to your blog immediately and see whats afoot.. c
You don’t get any of ours.
Our fronts come in off the Pacific and slam into the coastal mountains and the weather systems that manage to life over get to slam into the Rockies next. But you get our Jet Stream! Oh, funny story: I left England in lovely, positively balmy spring weather and immediately it started to snow and now Robert is grumbling because he has to deal with it all by himself. (Snigger) Well, in all fairness he has Theo.
Poor fellow! Ah well!! Send a balloon with a message up to the jet stream, I will let you know when i see it float past! c
Checking in from central Texas (SSE of Austin), where it’s a mild 48F. Living on a ranch is all about the weather! We seem to get weather from all sides: the Gulf (warm & moist), the West (dry and windy), the North (freezing cold wind & wet). And we’re still very much in our drought… so every drop of moisture counts. I very much enjoy your farmy musings, they feel very close to what we experience here on the ranch, although we have way too many head of cattle to name! I’ll try & direct this delightful warmth up to y’all (it’s reaching the mid 60′s today).
Morning Virginia, wonderful to hear from you, did you know that i have never been on a real american ranch. One day i would like to ride out on a horse, twist in my saddle and look back across one of you big beautiful farms.. One day maybe.. thank you so much for reading.. mid 60′s sounds quite civilised! c
I am a tad bit south of you. Was up in LaSalle/Peru over the weekend, so was closer to your area (maybe). It was a balmy 2F this morning and I was grateful that I didn’t have any cows to milk. Been there/experienced that. Wish the darn clouds would go away. At least when the sun is shining brightly you can think warm. Will look forward to reading about the meeting in Chicago.
Celi, I am just on the border of South Western Vermont 5 miles to the border of Vt, 17 miles to the border of Mass, We are just entering a toe numbing cold snap; our high today will be in the teens…with snow expected. Little Andy is now wearing, 2 polar fleece vests, and a wind breaker (looking rather silly really) If I weren’t so far from Chicago, I would be there with you all in a heart beat….post lots of photos, won’t you.
J
Ah, we Minnesotans, we LOVE to talk about the weather, as you know from my comments and then my post this a.m.:
http://mnprairieroots.com/2013/01/22/cold-enough-for-you/
Temp was minus nine degrees F here in Faribault this a.m. when I arose.
Up here we look to the Dakotas for our weather forecast.
Audrey, in southeastern Minnesota
by the time i had finished milking we had dropped to minus three but minus NINE sounds extreme! Hope you are rugged up warm! c
Hi Cinders…everytime I complain about this dreary, grey weather here in the Northwest (western) Washington state…I just read about the frigid temps that you have to contend with and then I don’t feel so bad!! Most of the winter time, it is in the 30′s 40′s grey and rainy, although we are in an inversion weather pattern…a bit colder and very foggy, smoggy, etc. Just yuk all the way around!
C’MON SPRING!! I to am a wee bit too far away for a cup of tea but would really love to join you all…that would be fun, although I’m thinking meeting for cocktails would be even more fun!!
that would have been fun, maybe we should have tea in every state!! c
Downstate Illinois here….right across the river from St. Louis, Mo….Where is this lovely farm?
we are about two hours south of chicago.. central illinois.. not terribly far when you look at how vast america is.
You are just darn near a neighbor of mine….We were just in Champaign visiting an old friend….so good to have you near! Stay warm my new friend!
Oh champaign is just up the road about an hour.. I shall pop back over to your blog soon, are you on the land? c
Incredible….how wonderful that we met? No doubt we may actually get to meet in person some day….I don’t know what being on the land means? Its got to be one of those cool New Zealand sayings….how have you adjusted to the midwest, it can’t be near as beautiful as where you are from
I wish I lived closer! I would come and have tea, too. Of course, it’s about 20 degrees warmer here, so that will be my consolation.
A consolation never the less.. we are all so far apart geographically! But not really.. c
I am green with envy that you are catching up with ChgoJohn… and think the Winter blogger get together is a wonderful idea
I wish I could feasibly jump on a plane to join in. In Sydney, temps are all over the place – mid 20′s C to 40+ but constant humidity – your posts and the comments give me the perspective to consider us fortunate. Oh, and clever TonTon… he’s worth his weight in gold, that dog 
I’m guessing you won’t want to know what my weather is like, but just incase….. a balmy 24.3 at 08.00am. Love the idea of a cuppa but again a bit far to travel from New Zealand. Have a fantastic time.
24.3 C
ah.. that is the perfect 75F.. a lovely temp, have a fabulous morning! it will be interesting to see what the weather is like around your birthday time!
Your peacock is so beautiful:) Happy Day on the Farmy!
I have a theory, if we are hot and dry and miserable in summer, then the land down under experiences the same, if we have cold and snow, then the bottom half of the globe has lots of rain. I also think that what we have in January will show up in July…cold January, HEAT July, snow January, rain July. Just a theory, mind you.
Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com
http://deltacountyhistoricalsociety.wordpress.com
aha, well we have people on the ground who can track the first theory for you.. I know my sisters farm (NZ) is getting no rain, but that is in an area that is known for its droughts! so we are having a dry cold January.. Hmm.dry hot july.. I am not sure I like your theory after all.. I wonder what will happen..c
I don’t like my theory either.
laughter!! c
When I saw the weather on TV this morning I thought “Hope C is dressed warmly and the barn cats snug!” Funny how right you are about the weather! (It’s sunny and 70 here near Galveston, TX…the cold is sliding east and missing us this time.)
The peacock picture is just wonderful.
If I were closer I’d meet you guys in Chicago – sounds absolutely wonderful!
I am dressed snug and warm! tomorrow will be better! c
I’m a fellow Illinoisian, about 500 miles south of Chicago, near Springfield…..so wha’do’ya’know? We’re practically neirghbors…LOL
Hoping for a big snow this week too….somehow snow makes winter more enjoyable…..Stay warmy on The Farmy!
I know how everyone says they hate the snow but like you I love it, there is something almost comforting about the snow.. none for us though i am afraid.. we are forecast to have flurries .. (Daisy spits in disgust.. Flurries!) c
How lovely to be able to meet up
and ps I hope Noone gets our heat from last week..46.4C, 115.5F…….panting
You are having such a hard time. i know that australia has always been hot but this has been REALLY hot.. 115 would floor me! c
it was certainly beyond reasonable!!!
Oh Cecilia! I would love to have a cup with you and your tribe of like minded readers!
Our farm is about 6 hours North and a little East of Chicago, on the northern edge of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I thought of you and Daisy this morning as I walked out to the barn: the wind chill factor was minus 25 F. I long for a milk cow, but my hands would not be able to withstand the bitter cold to milk her. I will be with you in spirit for that cup of tea! Faith.
Good morning Faith, you are even colder than we are, i cannot imagine milking in minus 25. A good choice I think. We should make a big list of all those who will be having a cuppa in spirit. The winter is really not a time for travelling! But it is a tradition for The Matriarch and i to go up to the big city in February! crazy!! c
And I get my weather forcast from you…knowing what coming a day and a half later. Many thanks for being my weatherman/woman.
May I be a wee bit envious that I live too far to join in the meetup? I must instead look forward to a facinating post on how it goes.
morning honey. we are all so far flung. Isn’t it ironic that we all meet here in the comments section but will probably never meet in real life.. maybe this is our real life!! c
Meteorology was my darling dad’s biggest interest, so I grew up lying on the grass being shown how to forecast wind and rain:) ! Am still just as interested and yes, did realize where quite a few of your readers lived from their comments. What fun!! And I promise, absolutely promise not to send our wicked summer to you! Back to 39 C yesterday . . . Oh wish I had a genie to take me to Chicago next month!!!!!!
Alas, Atlanta is just a little too far away to drive up to Chicago in February, but it sure sounds like a fun gathering! After last week’s shorts wearing weather in the low 70′s we went down to 27 degrees F last night. Still not as cold as you…we get the buffer from the Gulf Stream most of the time to push those cold winds back north.
So I’m scrolling down to comment when I spot the word farting and have to scroll back up. Then I forget what I have to say, because I’m laughing about a farting farm female. Oh yes, Arkansas. 40s. 50s tomorrow. Way too cold!
Roger made me do it!! c
…and I thought it was just the English who were obsessed by the weather
I would say that over half my readers and I are also obsessed with the weather!! brilliant aye! so much in common.. c
Oooh, I’m game for a meet-up. In fact, I was downtown this week, checking out the Russian Tea Time. Let me know when you will be a-comin’ thru the rye — so to speak. (Whatever that means!)
Is it bad that although the frigid temps are here, I kind of want them to hang around for a bit and maybe see some snow. It just seems weird not to have snow yet. Thanks for the mention! =D
So funny! But it’s so true that there’s nothing like living in the country to turn one into a meteorologist.
Checking in from Virginia Beach. This is probably our coldest night yet, 19. The “S” word is in our forecast for Friday. It would be nice to meet for tea, but I’m not leaving the house until May.
I hope you have a wonderful day for travel and a great time together. Kupa is quite the handsome fella, just look at that plumage!
Well, it’s all out in the open now! It will be great to see who will join us. Well, if no one freezes beforehand. Right now, things aren’t looking good here. The repairman wil be here in about 2 hours. Gonna be a cold night tonight!
Funny you mention this as I have noticed this in the past: Our weather in Toronto seems to match yours! -20 today (bitingly cold) with lots of drifting snow earlier in the day. A real winter storm…what a change from last year! The kids were bundled and then carted in the double chariot off to school.
What a great idea to meet up! Enjoy!!
Our prime minister has just been to Antarctica, all muffled up in a padded outfit, probably not so very different from your clown suit. An Australian woman came over for the recent gathering I attended. She said that the heat in Australia was unbearable, and she wasn’t sure that her house would survive the bush fires. She also said that you can’t get cool from intense heat but you can always warm up when it’s cold. Your winter must seem so long, but the sun is definitely coming your way because it’s leaving us rather noticeably. So there’s another report for you: what we are losing, you are gaining.
Great little shots of the farmy animals. Our weather here in Hong kong has been about 23 C. However, don’t get too jealous of the warm weather as we have not seen the sun for days as the pollution is blowing in from the North at least you have blue skies.
What fun to have a meetup with John! I wish I lived a bit closer, I would definitely like to be there. It’s negative 1 here right now and our high for the day will only reach 9 degrees. It’s clear as a bell and gorgeous outside though (view from inside the warm house). There’s a little ice buildup on the inside of some of the windows this morning. I like to turn the heat down to 58 at night (66 during the day). Can’t stand to sleep hot! But I’m sure that’s what’s resulting in the ice on the inside of the windows.
Hope you have a lovely day, and stay warm! Beautiful photo of Kupa!
If you’re group is open…I would love to meet up with you all! What a fabulous thing.