chattius 2,536 Posted December 5, 2013 Share Posted December 5, 2013 Speaking about shoes: Remember that Saint Nicholas arrives tomorrow (6th of decembre) and puts small gifts in boots and socks at the door. So place a really big boot at the door before you go for sleep tonight. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas_Day German speaking countries St. Nicholas and his companions in Haunzenbergersöll, Bavaria (1986). In Northern Germany, Sankt Nikolaus is usually celebrated on a small scale. Many children put a boot called Nikolaus-Stiefel (Nikolaus boot) outside the front door on the night of 5 December. St. Nicholas fills the boot with gifts and sweets overnight, and at the same time checks up on the children to see if they were good, polite and helpful the last year. If they were not, they will have a tree branch (Rute) in their boots instead. Nicholas is often portrayed in Bavarian folklore as being accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht who inquires of the children if they have been saying their prayers, and if not, he shakes his bag of ashes at them, or beats them with a stick. Sometimes a Nikolaus impersonator also visits the children at school or in their homes and asks them if they have been good (sometimes ostensibly checking his golden book for their record), handing out presents on the basis of their behavior. This has become more lenient in recent decades, and this task is often taken over by the Weihnachtsmann (Father Christmas). In more catholic regions, Nikolaus is dressed very much like a bishop and rides on a horse, welcomed at public places by a large crowd. Typical in Germany for Saint Nicholas Day is the Stutenkerl, a pastry made of sweet leavened dough. In Austria, Bavaria and Tyrol (Austro-Bavarian speaking regions), St. Nicholas is accompanied by Krampus, represented as a beast like creature, generally demonic in appearance. Nikolaus-Umzug in Fribourg, Switzerland (2009). In Swiss folklore, the Christmas gift-bringer is known as Samichlaus (like Dutch Sinterklaas a corruption of the name of St. Nicholas). BTW: Weather storm with 110km/h Ordered kids to stay inside. Link to comment
chattius 2,536 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 Finally real night frosts. So my alarm rings at 3am to move trunks out of the forest while the ground is still frozen. The weather is dry and sunny. So without clouds the nights are real cold, cold enough to freeze the ground. Link to comment
Delta! 987 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 The weather her is still warm and sunny during the day, although we did have a few rainy/cloudy days in the past 3 weeks. but had sweltering days just before that. the wind is picking up at night, so much that I found our potted tree blown over one evening when I got home from work. Delta! Link to comment
Chrona 82 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 15° 8h/day sun last two days I was at the beach-> coffee and a book 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,073 Posted March 12, 2014 Share Posted March 12, 2014 K,all you guys with sweltering hot weather, beaches and lazy boy coffees...not gonna tell you about this massive blizzard we're in now in the middle of March oh wait, I just did gogo 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,073 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 yesterday just about did me in...I'm gonna cave, I need sun... super cold windy again two days ago, but we got a bright sun again today, must... hold...out... Shine on sun force! gogo Link to comment
chattius 2,536 Posted March 18, 2014 Share Posted March 18, 2014 Hope I can finish with the work at forest this week. Then a sales short trip to Paris, Tours and Brussels next week. Then some fun at a math's conference at the weekend. The weather: dry dry dry dry. Since we are not connect to the public water network I a ma bit worried about the amount of water in our fountain. Very strange for spring to have no rain or melting snow. Link to comment
Knuckles 904 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 I checked it once, checked it twice, yup it's now spring so why do I have a blizzard outside ? Forecast for 8-12 inches of snow and 60-75mph gusts (50 mph sustained) Usually winter is my favorite season but it's spring now, let it go winter, just let it go already You know it's a long winter when your kid complains about having yet another snow day (school closed). Link to comment
Delta! 987 Posted March 26, 2014 Share Posted March 26, 2014 The weather changed very suddenly, on Saturday it was still very hot, and on Sunday evening it started pouring down with rain, but the sun was shining the whole day... hope you guys up North will get warmer weather soon! (although that will mean that we will get cold weather in the South... Link to comment
chattius 2,536 Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 22C and sun and day, -4C at night. No swallows yet, but 4 'Grosstrappen' were resting for an hour nearby, probably erturning from africa. Grosstrappen (great Bustards) are the heaviest birds which can actually still fly long distances. Link to comment
gogoblender 3,073 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Beautiful looking birds.. Skies so gray here we got sleet and hail and ice and rain... Owch Gogo Link to comment
Flix 5,117 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Very rainy and dark in the the southeast U.S. today. However, it's also warm and muggy. Windows are closed to keep out the moisture and A.C. is running. Link to comment
Delta! 987 Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 I am in George, Western Cape this morning, and looking like a wonderful day. However my friends and I are not staying there, we are going to King Williams Town today and starting with the Amatola hiking trail tomorrow. It is the first multiday hike that I am doing(106km over 6days). The friends are Isabella and Theresa (both Austrian) and Tobias(German). The area there are famous for being majestically beautiful, and is known to have inspired J.R.R Tolkien to create the world of Middle Earth. Mountains, ancient forests, lakes, rivers, waterfalls and ponds are wonderfully mashed together to form a place of beauty... We looked at a weather forecast and one of them one said overcast weather with occasional rain... And the other one said dry and sunshine weather with some cloudcover on 2 of the days. We are hoping for the better weather but are prepared for the worst weather... I will be away from civilization and cellphone reception for a while. Don't miss me too much ? Delta! Link to comment
Gilberticus 374 Posted March 29, 2014 Share Posted March 29, 2014 In the U.S, I've lived everywhere from Seattle, to San Diego, Houston to Chicago......, and I have never seen such a teeter totter effect with the weather as I'm now seeing in the northeast U.S. Now granted, it's not bad, 5 to six inches of rain and snow is chump change, I've just never seen it go back and forth and back again from snow to rain so many times in a day before. On the way to work yesterday,I was thinking "Man, this is one of my favorite times of year, to watch Spring just start to open it's eyes and stretch from winter hibernation" when a whiteout hit that was so fierce that I had to pull over. As I was closing up shop for the day, they announced flood warnings. This morning, I slipped on my butt right next to the neighbor kid getting on the school bus. I love winter, but I think I've had my fill of it for a while. Of course as I'm typing this, I looked out the window and saw that I'm going to have to scrape off the Integra even though it was clear two hours ago. But with the weather the way it is here, it might all be slush by the time I close up shop. Link to comment
chattius 2,536 Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 4 days ago we had a forest burn 15 kilometres away. First test for our new water trucks. We were like 200 firefighters and the fire could be limited to an area of new oak siplings which grew out of a lot of dry high grass. Only 2 big trees burned. Normally we have rain together with melting snow at this time of the year and river floodings. But this year it is: no rain , no snow. My fountain (I am not connected to the public water supply) is only filled to a third. Link to comment
gogoblender 3,073 Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Tell u what Chattius, lol, you can have some of our precipitation here as a gift Today was a glorious day, lots of sun, and great clear sky with some warm temps, finally gogo Link to comment
Delta! 987 Posted April 5, 2014 Share Posted April 5, 2014 I'm back! We are still I the Eastern Cape, spending the day at Addo Elephant National Park. Already saw lots of elephants on the drive, zebras, warthogs, kudu, meerkats, blackbacked jackals, red hartebeest, ostriches, and the flightless dung beetle. The hike was wonderful. Had soo much fun and breathtaking moments of beauty and amazement. Will do 'n proper write up from the PC when I am home. Delta! Link to comment
chattius 2,536 Posted June 13, 2014 Share Posted June 13, 2014 Record Heat with 37 Celcius in shadows followed by record thunderstorm with fallen trees and lots of water. 3 days of clean up by now. 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,073 Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 No need for the gym with nature to keep the fitness going like that, what is done with all the fallen trees>? Plain ole rain here today awwwwwwww gogo Link to comment
claudius 104 Posted June 18, 2014 Share Posted June 18, 2014 We had an unbelievable storm. The sky was inhumanly dark. I wondered honestly if I had taken a nap (without noticing) and it were night. I have never seen anything like it and my city we get a lot of thunderstorms. 1 Link to comment
Timotheus 416 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Sun-clouds-sun-clouds-sun-guess what clouds again. Holland.... 1 Link to comment
Knuckles 904 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 My area just went under a Tropical Storm warning for Saturday...Not really worried about any probs with Arthur....just irritated that all the summer stuff I pulled out last weekend has to go back into storage before the weekend arrives. I hate having to do things twice Link to comment
gogoblender 3,073 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 wow, KNuckles is Arthur the name of the storm? I hadn't heard about anything happening on the East cost. Hunker down you...yer close to the water right? gogo Link to comment
Knuckles 904 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Yup Arthur is the hurricane just off the east coast down by the Carolinas right now. It supposed to pass well south of me but I live on the south side of Cape Cod very near the beach, plus I have wetlands/marsh surrounding 2 sides of my house so any tidal surge goes right through my yard. I doubt that would happen though, storm will be fast moving and relatively weak so it won't build up the waves on me. Still a pain to bring everything back into the basement or shed. 1 Link to comment
gogoblender 3,073 Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 emergency raft...activated! gogo Link to comment
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