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Friday 17 December 2010

They've been lying to us!

When we had snow during our first winter here back in 2004/5 they told us that this close to the coast it only happened every 25 years or so and dug up photos for us to see of 1979 when it last snowed.  The following 4 winters were more 'normal therefore with hardly any frost even.  Than last year we had snow shortly before Christmas and now this!

This is Eddie seeing snow for the first time:


After and initial sniff at the strange white stuff he went running around it like mad, chasing snowflakes.  This is the last photo he stayed still long enough to actually be in the photo!




Here a few more snowy impressions of our village:


Before the snow we had a few days of dry sunnt weather.  We were hopeful of getting a second harvest of our olives in.  But alas the clear skies also meant quite severe frosts inland where the olives are and what remained on the trees never turned black properly, but just shrivelled.  So no more olives this year.  However we did get some more firewood off the olive grove and off a large pear tree we pruned.  Very needed now we have this cold snap.

I'll leave you with a photo of the Christmas lights in our village:


and a sunrise before the snow arrived:


21 comments:

Jan said...

Heiko I think the whole of the world's weather has gone peculiar (and we know the reason for that don't we), as these last two years there's been a lot of snow where there wasn't much before in all sorts of countries. A sign of the times.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous photos Heiko. We've even had a few flurries down here but nothing has settled yet. I think such a long summer must make Italian's forget about cold snaps. We were chatting with a guy who lives 2kms away and he says you never get snow in Puglia; only in the mountains. I showed him a photo of the heavy snow we had a couple of years ago and it still didn't jog his memory :-)

jann said...

We even got the white stuff down here in Sicily (where I was told it never gets cold in winter...ha!).

Mr. H. said...

Well it sounds as though you will have a white Christmas again this year. The important thing is that Eddie got to run around and play in it...our dog just loves the snow too.:) We are supposed to get more snow tonight they say. Stay warm.

Veggie PAK said...

I can relate to your plight as we got 3 more inches of snow in Virginia yesterday. The high today is supposed to be 32 degrees. Oh boy! I can't wait.

Your area is beautiful! I like the slopes and the town positioned on them. Very picturesque!

chaiselongue said...

It looks very pretty - but very cold too. We found that some olives left on the tree because they weren't ripe when we picked the rest had shrivelled too, because of the cold, I suppose, although I didn't think that would affect them.

We had snow in our village last March and everyone says it was the first time for 50 years - so if it happens again this winter I'll be very annoyed!

Heiko said...

Jan, I am certain we have an influence on the climate, but it's far more complex than we are led to believe. There's weather and climate and a multitude of influences on both.

Contadina, I think you are right on that too. Last year when we were wading through the snow some of the old guys said they hadn't seen anything like this since 1979 when we had seen this in 2004.

Jann, it certainly doesn't feel like the Mediterranean around here!

Mr.H there's forecast for more precipitation to come, so I wouldn't bet against a white Christmas. As far as Eddie is concerned he's requested snow for every day from now on. I'm having trouble convincing him to come indoors!

Veggie PAK, we are very lucky with living in such a beautiful area. After it stopped snowing we had an uninpeded view of 100 Miles of snowy landscape.

CL, let's hope it's just a 2 year blib and things go back to what they should be. But then you never know...

Michael M said...

Small world department. In 1990 we looked at two other properties before buying in Ameglia. One was a rustico apartment down the (now improved) sidewalk shown in your photo. No wonder you hike! You live at the starting point for many.

The Google word verification for this comment is 'rearipoo'. Are they trying to tell me something?

Mike

Heiko said...

Michael, rearipoo is a word I should use much more often! Indeed, we are on the crossroads of many well marked trails in all directions, including of course the Via Francigena.

Ayak said...

The climate everywhere has changed hasn't it? We still had summer until a week ago then it changed to winter literally overnight. No snow here though. We used to have snow in Cappdocia from November through till March or April. Beki absolutely loved it as I'm sure Eddie does!

Stefaneener said...

Beautiful, even if it's strange and bad. Eddie looks veritably noble. Stay warm.

WeekendFarmer said...

I cant believe you have our own olive oil!!!! So lucky...Good for you. Just coming back from from Spain...where we saw millions of oilve trees and olive oil mills...I can relate. Sorry about the less oil content. I actually didnt know that could happen. Very interesting!!

Heiko said...

Ayak, the weather pattern is strange. Let's hope that it will settle down again to something more normal, whatever that may be.

Stefanie, today the sun is out, but oddly it's not warming at all, so the snow is staying put, which makes it even more beautiful looking. We shall bake some Christmas biscuits today to warm the kitchen nicely.

WeekendFarmer, good to see you back in the land of the settled. Like with everything in nature, there are good seasons and bad seasons for every crop. It initially looked a good year for the olives with a plentiful and healthy looking crop, but alas no more oil than last year despite double the work effort...

Ohiofarmgirl said...

i'm getting caught up, sorry for being out of touch. pigs and all...

wow! snow!? i see the White Death is upon us all..boo snow! booo! this winter is either going to blow over.. or its going to last a long, long time.

stay warm!
:-)

Heiko said...

Ohio, I fear it may be a long cold one this year, blah! Mind you, it is pretty...

Anonymous said...

Dalmatian coast got some snow too last night and they almost never get it.
Your village looks very pretty, lovely pictures!

Anonymous said...

They lied to us, too, Heiko; we were told that in Rapallo it snows only once every 5 years. It has snowed every year of the 10 we've been there - this year in November! The weather is hinky all over, that's for sure. But your photos are gorgeous, so that's a plus of the snow coming to you.

Heiko said...

vrtlarica, I saw the pictures on TV of Croatia in the snow!

Farafalle, it's been snowing EVERY year in Rapallo. Now that IS strange, it's not all that far away from here.

Anonymous said...

Quite a few scientists are predicting a Maunder Minimum event (caused by extremely low solar activity). The last such "event was between 1645 and 1715, which coincided with a mini ice age.

A dip in present-day solar flare activity, suggests we may be heading into a new Maunder Minimum period and a possible 30-odd years of f-f-freezing winters !!!

Heiko said...

Contadina, well on the plus side, this may correct some of the effects of global warming and give us a bit more time to save the planet. What am I saying? It's not really the planet that will need saving, just our continued prsence on it!

Ohiofarmgirl said...

merry merry, dear brother!