Friday 21 December 2012

Weather the storm!

"If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm" - Frank Lane

This is why I haven't ventured out for a couple of days

storm, harbour, stormy weather, sea, ocean

That is the North Sea Coast in Wick town obliterating the Sea wall, flooding the streets and by the looks of things demolishing 2 'Simpsons' lorries.
Luckily although Wick is the nearest town to us it's 15 miles away and although we live close to the sea there is a couple of fields between us and it followed by a cliff of about 100ft - we're relatively safe!
Today however I have to venture out into Wick because I have the car booked in to replace all 4 tyres which currently are bordering on illegal - I should be more vigilent in checking these things but luckily the local mechanic spotted it while the car had a bulb changed.
Anyways I will have my camera at the ready for whatever happens to...........well.........happen!


So today I decided to check out what hardiness zone we are in here in Caithness. I've never actually bothered with arming myself with such information simply because I wouldn't know what to do with it and I'm the type of gardener that plants whatever I want and hopes it survives.
BUT I've had  a couple of people ask me what the hardiness zone is here and rather than continue to admit I haven't a clue I decided to do the real gardener thing and check it out.
So according to this we are zone 8:-



So now I know our hardiness zone but I'm still none the wiser as to what this actually means or what I'm supposed to do with the information. I suspect I'm going to have to do some research on the matter - it doesn't do to know half of something does it!


 

4 comments:

  1. Hey I've learnt something there: The Cairngorms are not a good place to grow tomatoes!


    And guess what? Edinburgh is in the same zone as Altnaharra.

    the West Coast visibly seems to benefit from the Gulf Stream

    ps Thanks for your comment on my blog. Toby was only 8 (although we got him when he was already a year old from the dog rescue centre). Very strong, he mysteriously went blind a year ago, but that didn't put him off at all. He went wherever we went.

    ReplyDelete
  2. pps The Trinkie is a bit swamped! What a great picture!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just to confuse you even more - the RHS have issued new hardiness ratings for the UK this year ;)
    I hope the weather is being a bit better to you this weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I best check out those new ratings then. Not that I think I'll use them much but I guess it's something I should know.
      The weather today has finally slowed down and I've been out surveying the damage, which isn't as bad as I thought it'd be :)
      Thank you for your comment Angie.

      Delete

Thank you for popping by, if you'd like to leave a message that would be awesome and I try to respond to all messages :)