Yesterday I was far too smug about the weather, pointing out the lovely sunshine we had enjoyed and comparing this with the snowfalls elsewhere - particularly in the south east. Should have kept quiet because the white stuff has been in evidence here today. Not that it has amounted to much but it is nuisance value one can say making things a little treacherous underfoot. Walked up the hill to the station in the early evening to meet a friend off the train and discovered that it had been bright and sunny in Exeter! It would appear that the showers plaguing my area today were mainly affecting West Devon and East Cornwall. The wind has dropped which is good from the point of view that the snow hasn't drifted; the downside is that today's showers have hung around rather than quickly passing through.
It had been my intention to go to the Wassail at Cotehele this morning but with the bitter cold I have to say that I chickened out. I'm told that there were lots of people there and that they had snow as well. Last year 'The Rubber Band' and friends led the (musical) procession up to the orchard but I can't imagine their instruments being happy about being in the snow so I don't know how they managed today. Wassails traditionally I think take place early in the new year - I suspect that the timing of this one has something to do with the National Trust's commercial considerations. Christmas is an important time for them at Cotehele because the main hall in the house is open so that people can go in and see the magnificent garland of dried flowers that is hung there every year and of course participants in the Wassail just might make some Christmas purchases in the Trust's shop!
I am wondering now if this winter will be like the last one, rather colder than the mild damp ones that have become the norm in recent years. I said in a recent post that I am undecided over the question of man made climate change but if this winter is cold overall and we have another summer lacking in sizzling temperatures then whatever government is in power will have one heck of a job convincing the population that 'global warming' is here. The sceptics will be very much in the ascendant.
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COPENHAGEN [AP] – Shocked and shaken by the theft of the Auschwitz sign, the world community must now "take note" of another midnight action. This time its a deal brokered by US President Barack Obama at the largest and most important U.N. meeting ever on fighting global warming. The new deal, which abandons the most vulnerable of nations along with the world's biologically rich tropical forests, continues a pattern of what international representatives call a "real lack of transparency" by the White House. Obama dismissed the UN's criticisms of his unusual and undemocratic negotiating process as "cynicism" while declaring his unbinding document an "unprecedented breakthrough". Obama's document promises to funnel up to $100B a year through the UN Development Programme, widely known for its corruption. "The deal is a triumph of spin over substance," said Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International, it "kicks back" on the issue of "climate cash". Like the Nazis sending "6 million people into furnaces" in the Holocaust, Obama is condemning the world to wide-spread global warming deaths, other leaders pointed out. Meanwhile, outside in the cold, hundreds of European protesters chanted and carried signs of Obama with the word "shame" pasted on his face.
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