Friday, December 21, 2018

Baby, it's warm outside

Today is the winter solstice. That means that the earth's northern hemisphere has reached its maximum tilt away from the sun. The days will stop getting shorter and, not long from now, will start getting longer again. Phew!

There are still grapes in certain vineyard parcels. These are on the ground, but all around them there are grapes still hanging from the vines. Weird.

The weather is not great. We're having a wind storm with rain that will last through the day. Yuck. But it's not cold. In fact, it's unseasonably* warm. This morning's low is around 10ºC (about 50ºF) and the high is expected to get up close to 15ºC (about 60ºF). The French have an expression for just such an occasion: Noël au balcon, pâques aux tisons, which means "Christmas on the balcony, Easter in front of the fire." We shall see.

*Update: I just checked back through the blog and noticed that it's been warm like this for the past four or five years. So I suppose to say "unseasonably" warm is not quite right...

11 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday! Enjoy your steak but not on the balcony.

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  2. Hippo Birdie Two Ewe!
    And Avagoogun!!

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  3. Happy birthday, Walt! We're the same age-ish... either you're just turning my current age, or you're ahead of me by 6 months... is there a 0 or a 9 on the end of that birthday age number?

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  4. Happy Birthday! Enjoy your special steak au poivre.

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  5. You sly fox. You didn't mention in "Newsiness" that today is very special. It's your birthday, so enjoy your special lunch.

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  6. Ha! And we complain when it's 15 during the day. Our day today was almost summer-like. 20ish. Tourists out in shorts and tank tops!

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  7. Happy Birthday, Walt! May you and Ken enjoy many more years together in happiness and companionship, Roderick

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  8. Thanks to all of you for your warm wishes! :)

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