Autumnwatch!

Don't know about you folks, but, the trees around here are not wanting to give up their greenery. Horsechestnuts seem to be in autumn mode, but, most trees are hanging on to this mild weather, and keeping their leaves. Soon be November!!

The same thing here! Very very strange.
We are having a bad storm today, so maybe the weather is shifting to a “normal” autumn.

I was thinking the same thing today as I was driving around the neighbourhood - it's almost November and there shouldn't still be green leaves on trees and shrubs???! We've had overnight frost for the past week and one day with a high of -1 or 0°C but now it's warming up again (high aroudn 5°C today) ...... This has been the mildest fall I can remember! Ofcourse there are many trees that are almost bare, but still unusually many "holding on" to their foliage.

rannveig if that's a mild fall, then our winters must be warm! Those day time temperatures I would consider on the low side for winter, we had a lot of that last autumn, winter and spring and I don't like it!

My Horsechestnut tree hasn't lost many leaves yet, not big ones anyway, but many of them are changing colour. Oaks are always a little later. It often takes a frost to knock the leaves off, but I am surprised they have held so well when we had such a hot, dry summer. Other dry years have caused them to fall early, or se we believed. It can't have been so, it must be the temperature that does it. I think we normally get the leaves cleaned up just as the clocks are about to change back, and that is the last Sunday in October, this weekend.

I'm not complaining!

In the Forest the braken has gone brown and new shoots have formed (these will die off with frost). The Silver Birches and the Beeches are losing leaves and the holly has some lovely red fruits. The Heath and Heathers are almost all finished flowering, the Fungi are flourishing and the Sundews are disappearing, the hips and haws are out and the seasonal puddles are filling up again.

This is one side of a Round Barrow out in the Forest a week ago.

Well Janet, until last week we hadn't had any overnight frost to speak of (only two very mild with no damage) and that's VERY unusual. We usually have a killing frost by the end of September! Last Sunday was the official first day of winter - and I think it's the first time I can recall that winter hadn't long since arrived on that day!

Brrrr, our first day of winter comes a month later on Dec 21st with the winter solstice, but the sunrise and sunset times don't adhere to that

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/understanding/winter_solstice.shtml

It does seem odd too that the coldest months are January and February here, when the sun should be rising in the sky again after being at it's most southerly point from the North Pole. I think this has a lot to do with the heat held by the land having gone, come to think of it I'm now wondering if the hot summer has heated the land more, and has more heat to give up, that could be *one* of the reasons for such a mild autumn.

Of course once the sun is rising in the sky again it takes longer to warm the land, being a long way off and land being a poor conductor of heat, it's slow to warm, as it is slow to give up it's heat.. Interesting article on heat:

http://kr.cs.ait.ac.th/~radok/physics/j13.htm

Here we have so many influences from weather systems from all sorts of directions, warm winds from the south from North Africa, cold winds from the North Sea (and further above), rain laden winds from the west and the Atlantic Ocean, and icy winds sometimes from the frozen heart of Europe in mid winter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1103539,00.html

No real consistency here! But I have noticed some regular patterns on a yearly basis.

If your first day of winter is Dec. 21st, it's two months after ours (oct. 21st). January and February are usually the coldest, harshest winter months here too. But lately we've been getting warm spells at strange times, often in December and January, but February is most consistently cold. Our winter is very long : Oct. - March :-( We can get very nasty winter weather in March. April is usually springtime - that's when the crocuses usually start to flower.

It is colde in January/February here as well, especially February, hate that months.

Well this is something. There has been mild temp. here, even when there was the storm a few days back. Yesterday was around 16C in the day and 10-12 at night.
This morning it was freezing!!! The has been snow storm in many parts of the country. In my area there was a tiny little bit of snow, terrible winds. It seems as if we just jumped over autumn, and when right into winter!!! It has been a bit crazy actually, as it came as a surprise.

Janet
Some very interesting articles Janet, not finished reading them yet though.

Rannveig.
Is April as temperamental in Iceland as it is here?
It changes from one minute to the other, snow, rain, wind, sunshine or all of this things at the same time LOL

We were supposed to be getting Icelandic winds yesterday, it wasn' t too bad then but today is very cold. It was sunny and windy this morning but clouded over, now the sky is clearer and frost could be here!

The day before, Monday, was warm here too. Monica you seem to be a day behind us!

Next Tuesday it's expected to be 15C again here!

It's warmed up a bit here the past two days, up to 8C today :-) Very nice. Yes Monica, April can be warm or very cold. We often get nasty frosts in April ...... which are called "páskahret". I tried looking up the word "hret" but couldn't find it in English or Danish. It means a cold spell often accompanied by a snow storm. Páskahret means a cold spell around Easter. We get them every year without fail which is probably why we have a special name for it ;-)

Janet we cross posted - we're supposed to get some heavy winds and rain in the next few days but all from the south so it'll stay reasonably warm. Aren't those north winds just the worst? Hope it warms up soon :-)

This message was edited Nov 1, 2006 10:00 PM

Cold enough here, last night, to wilt the Gingers and Cannas. Won't be long now before those trees are bared of their leaves!

I just managed to put the bubble plastic up in time in the greenhouse. We had a slight frost on Wednesday night and a really keen one last night. All the dahlias are black and the nastirtiums are flatened. It even went down to O degrees in the greenhouse - must turn the heater up.
I had brought the Cannas in and potted them up just in time.

It has been a funny autumn with only a few trees turning red and golden and most of them are just dropping their leaves while still green.

The Mahonia x media has been flowering for a month now, the Viburnum Bodnantense is out and the Winter Jasmine is covered in flowers. My neighbour has a Snowdrop flowering too, all a bit early.

It was down to 0C in my neighbour's greenhouse, the door open a little, must have been a bit lower outside but I didn't get anything frozen. Luckily too, I have plenty of things out still, and my Dahlia imperialis must flower first!

The leaves are still on the trees, the tall hedge and the house must have kept frost at bay. My species dahlias are still flowering. It was very chill today as dark approached, but I'm sure it has warmed up a little, hoping anyway! If we can get through the next couple of nights it's supposed to warm up to 7 or 8C at night until the following Sat. at least.

I have a Weigela florida in flower, Viburnum bodnantense Dawn has a few but it's supposed to flower over winter. I planted some Abutilon vitifolium in the new bed, I grew them from seed and they have really started to move this autumn, one has a flower bud on. They can get big so I only put two in, both have different leaves, I'm wondering if one is a white. I hope I get to see!

Woke up to –8C this morning, then I had to cycle for 20 to get to the train station, it was very cold!!!!! But if I don`t cycle I don`t get my exercise, and I really woke up :o)
The hole thing came as a surprise yesterday, my oxalis were still out !! Got them inside yesterday afternoon as soon as I got home, good thing as everything out side is dead today. The cosmos were flowering beautifully this morning, but the cold got to them at last.
There has been problems with to much water as well (evacuations, and so on because of the storm)

Janet,
yes I agree with you we are about a day behind. But as long as the cold comes from your wonderful island it is ok. It gets really bad when it comes from east or south east (getting chills just thinking about it LOL)

Rannveig
Ahhh will remember that; never go to Iceland in april LOL
Don`t know what you would call that kind of storm, but it sound terribly cold.

Sigh…. photo of my tittle garden taken today, it looked so beautiful yesterday and this morning

Wow Monica , -8C?? That is harsh - your poor flowers. It's always hard to see them go. All the annuals are long gone here - but it's been warm for the last two days, got up to 12C yesterday, but windy and wet. It's 8C at the moment and overcast.

Janet and Pat, sure seems that you still have a lot flowering. Are there really shrubs that flower in the winter ???? Your winters must be really mild!

Cold eh? There was MTV music award in Copenhagen yesterday, they were freeeeezing.
Imagine it is colder here than in Iceland! Who would had thought that LOL

I only know of a plant that flowers in the winter (january), it is a yellow flowered jasmin. It looks so beautiful, at that time of year we are really wanting to see life once more :o))

Viburnum bodnantense Dawn, there are others. They start October thru to March in mild spells. They are also strongly scented.

Beautiful :o)))

I second that - Gorgeous flowers! Nothing in flower here from October to March (or late February if it's mild) ..... the snowdrops are the first to flower.

10C today - but raining and getting very windy, we'll be getting a storm tonight :-(

This message was edited Nov 4, 2006 6:37 PM

Weather down here has gone crazy! We had a really warm afternoon yesterday, which brought out several Red Admiral butterflies, and my Callistemon (bottlebrush) is coming into flower.

The storm's over, the strongest winds since 2001. It's cooling down, only about 4C today and a light dusting of snow in Reykjavik.

Prophet - must be nice to get such a warm spell this late :-)

http://dagskra.ruv.is/streaming/sjonvarpid/?file=4284370/5
a link to a story from last night's news about a british couple who ran into trouble on hwy 1 in the NE. The driver's and passenger windows on one side of the car were smashed by flying rocks in the storm, they were rescued unharmed. The interview with the couple is in english, the rest of course in Icelandic, but they footage is pretty good :-)

This message was edited Nov 7, 2006 7:14 PM

~What an awful storm. It was very windy here at the weekend, but not so bad, and it is quite warm for the time of the year. There are still lots of leaves on the trees which is unusual for mid November. The roses have all started flowering again and look lovely.

Trees are looking distinctly bare down here. We've had some high winds and heavy rain today. For the first time, this year, I've put a roof of shade net and fleece over all my 'hardy' tree ferns. One of them has been fooled by the unseasonably mild weather and is producing a large number of new croziers. Even a slight frost would blacken these and they'd all die off. Fingers crossed it doesn't get too cold yet!

Well, it's winter here now without a doubt. We've had temps down to -8C the past few days and yesterday was very windy too boot with winds around 15 m/s and -5°C - not a good combination at all. Everything is frozen stiff and I hadn't even finished putting up shelters for the winter ... Got my tender roses bundled up on wednesday night - almost froze my fingers off in the process.

I took this photo yesterday just outside of town.

We've still got leaves, and infact, when I got up this morning I honestly couldn't believe the beauty of the colour! Just spectacular russets and amber yellows still interspersed with some green. It is, or with the winds, probably was, one of the best autumns I can remember. My goodness what beauty. So lucky.

Laurie I noticed the same thing today. I couldn't remember having seen so much russet and amber yellows all at once, I hadn't noticed it yesterday so I was wondering if I just hadn't looked hard enough. If you noticed the same thing it must have happened all at once!

The winds have taken the leaves off the flowering cherry tree but the oak and horse chestnut have changed together with most leaves still on. The oak is usually last to change and loose it's leaves but the chestnut is later than usual.

Any photos you guys?? Sounds lovely :-)

Well, it started drizzly, the winds blew away the clouds to reveal some lovely blue sky with nice clouds. I put in some washing. THEN along came the rain! There probably won't be enough left by tomorrow but I will take some pics if there is.

Ahhh, Rannveig, I take the camera out, snap the picture - and then start digging.

I keep promising myself that I am going to figure out how to post to the site, and the I start digging again. I am going to put Picture Posting at the top of my 'too wet to dig' list. And then it will sink down again because on wet days I can go to the greenhouse, or wash plastic pots, or wash the dog. Don't know what it is about figuring out something on the computer that makes even the hoovering more appealing.

Onto the list it goes.

I should have taken some when I thought of it this morning when the sun was shining, but I did manage to get some just before the sun set.

A close up of the oak tree at the front of the house

The horse chestnut tree with some oak branches to the left in view, the tree is approx. 60 feet tall. And in my garden!

View down the road

Across the garden to the h. chestnut tree

Another road view

lol - Laurie - I have a few tasks like that that keep being bumped to the bottom of the list :-)

Wallaby - great photos - thanks! Nice to see such pretty colors - the show's over here and all the trees are bare. That horsechestnut is good-looking - so majestic! And a nice color. There are a few of them growing here in Iceland but they don't grow that big and usually don't flower. Never seen they're autumn foliage - they're few and far between :-) Very nice.

Temps today dipped down to -10°C!! I must confess I'm a bit worried about my perennials - I haven't covered any of the more tender ones up ...... usually don't need to until after Christmas! Don't have any Christmas trees to use as cover until then anyway .....

Janet - we cross-posted - That is a very nice looking road :-) And that grass looks very exotic - thought it lived in a more tropical climate - think I remember something similar to it growing in Florida when I lived there ;-)

This message was edited Nov 18, 2006 6:44 PM

Just to show there was sun I took a pic of the farmhouses on the hill top through a gap in the other direction, I can see this from my garden. It looked like a block of fire, glowing red-orange, but as you can see in the pic it is the sun reflection on the windows of the house. Strange really as there was no sunset colours in the sky, and the sun is low in the sky now towards the south but it must have been at the right angle.

There are beautiful sunsets through this gap when the sun is high in the sky in summer, the colours spread across the horizon for miles, not as big an horizon as many places but still lovely. There are beautiful sunsets at other times but the trees block a lot of it out, and cables get in the way.

rannveig, that is a pampas grass. It's fairly hardy but your climate might not suit it, it would take the lows you get though, you might not get the seed heads. No flowers on horse chestnuts would be brilliant! Pretty as they are they drop sticky stuff all over, then the conkers drop everywhere, and after that there are masses of stems that held the conkers drop everywhere. Not to mention all the leaves, great for compost though, I just hate cleaning them from the beds.

-10C is not good for this early, we had it last autumn to -9C quite early. We are still keeping above freezing, close for the next couple of nights but it should go up again a little. Days are colder, 8C today but should be up to 9 or 10C.

Pampas grass wouldn't grow here I'm pretty sure of that. That is a nice view through the trees! So that's what conkers are - I'd been wondering about that! I'm pretty sure they're no problem here even the few times the odd horsechestnut decides to flower ..... there are a few very old trees that have reached a pretty impressive hight of over 10 m in Reykjavik. It was one of those that surprised everyone by deciding to flower two years ago.

Oak trees only grow as small shrubs here - it's an accomplishment to just keep them alive - make very nice miniature trees that don't cast any long shadows. I really like the foliage so I'm thinking of trying one :-)

Oak trees that only grows as small shrubs, imagine that. Do they look/keep the shape of an oak tree. A tree of 10 m wow, is is a pine?
Saw pampas grass with my own eyes for the first time this year. Most impresive.