Friday 8 August 2014

Is Bertha coming on a visit?

Is Bertha calling in on us, or isn't she?   Seems it depends which newspaper one reads (although the news is so dire in them all at the moment that you can be excused from reading any).   But the general theme is that Big Bertha, the Caribbean Hurricane recently downgraded to a 'mere' Tropical Storm, might conceivably 'clip'the South East of England some time on Sunday (can somebody reading this explain why, when Bertha is approaching from the Atlantic, she will clip the South East corner rather than the South West).

And so we are promised - rainfall of more than 2 inches, coastal gusts of more than 60mph, and heavy Spring tides (in August?)

Isn't it always the same here in the UK?   Just as the plums, apples and pears are ripe, a gale arrives to blow the fruit off the trees.   Just as the Combine Harvesters get their pyjamas off ready to tackle this year's crop of wheat up here in the North, wet weather arrives to postpone the day.   And just as the farmer sharpens his new grass cutter to cut second-crop silage, it looks as though that will be postponed too.

Well, I for one will show my contempt for the weather.   I shall have a bowl of English strawberries, with English cream, for my tea and I shall sit this evening and eat the Victoria Plums I bought on the market this morning, when I shamelessly squeezed every one and picked out a dozen which were all fully ripe and ready to ooze their juice straight into my open mouth.

Crops seem to have been good everywhere,but runner beans in our garden, notoriously late arriving up here, are just beginning to grow and are now to be battered by strong winds if the forecast is to be believed (that is all they need), and the single apple which has grown on our apple tree and which we have been watching with interest as it visibly swelled, has outgrown its strength and split from top to bottom.   Well you can't win 'em all - our sweet peas are lovely (even if we can't eat them).

12 comments:

Heather said...

We should be used to having weird weather by now, yet it all seems to take us by surprise.
I remember an August about 40 years ago when my son and I had to wrestle the runner bean poles back to an upright position after a summer storm had all but flattened them. It was so cold too.
Enjoy your strawberries and cream, and whatever other fruits of your labours survive the storm.

Rachel Phillips said...

In August 1912 the sheaves of wheat floated down the fields in the floods in Norfolk. When I was growing up one old boy on the farm still talked about it. I see when I googled it just now it is talked about as the tsunami that hit Norfolk! I hope it isn't going to be that bad. Enjoy a drink and a plum!

Sue in Suffolk said...

They've harvested the wheat all around us and baled some but it will certainly come to a halt if it's as bad as they say.
I'm squeezing plums too, but they are on our tree, I wouldn't dare in a shop!
Better go and batten down some hatches!

angryparsnip said...

Well it seems if I plan for something it doesn't happen. So I hope you get ready for Bertha and it goes somewhere else.

cheers, parsnip

Amy said...

oh no I hope big bad bertha disintegrates and doesn't hit you guys. We just had two bad storms here, mind you we came off lucky cos all we got was fallen trees but the sand dunes at the beach are almost gone so thats the sad part.

Maureen @ Josephina Ballerina said...

Good grief. Have gone through several hurricanes and tropical storms in my day. El Nino seems to be pushing them away from east coast US and toward you. On the other hand, Hawaii is scheduled to get hit by two hurricanes this week.
Reminds me of the old Bible verse: Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.
Uh, yeah.

Rachel Phillips said...

I spoke too soon. Cambridgeshire and parts of West Norfollk flooded.

Cro Magnon said...

My apples are falling, but still plenty on the trees. The plums are still not ripe, I suppose they're a late variety; we have loads.

A Heron's View said...

Spring tides are especially strong tides (they do not have anything to do with the season Spring). They occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line. The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides. Spring tides occur during the full moon and the new moon.

The Proxigean Spring Tide is a rare, unusually high tide. This very high tide occurs when the moon is both unusually close to the Earth (at its closest perigee, called the proxigee) and in the New Moon phase (when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth). The proxigean spring tide occurs at most once every 1.5 years.

The Weaver of Grass said...

Shortly after I put on this post we had the most horrendous storm. Read about it in my next post! Thanks for popping in.

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Our summer has been unusually warm and gorgeous - I think we have collected all the nice summer weather and kept it for ourselves. We usually have cooler and damper summers - this one has been spectacular - and I'm taking advantage of it by painting my dining room chairs and now painting my kitchen cabinets. I can set up the painting station on the deck and work on the cabinet doors a little at a time - with all this continual sunshine - I do hope you survive the coming storm, and I feel sad for the one lone apple.

Terry and Linda said...

This weekend we are having another super moon! I love a full moon night, don't you?

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com