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Post by nikkortorokkor on Jun 27, 2009 17:10:53 GMT -5
A welcome splash of winter colour in our garden: Kniphofia Uvaria - red hot poker or fire lily. Minolta XE-1 Tele-Rokkor PF 135mm/f2.8 Fuji 200 Print It's a miserable winter down here - wishing I could head north for a while!
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Post by nikonbob on Jun 27, 2009 19:45:21 GMT -5
Can't be that bad a winter if you have flowers as pretty as these growing in your garden. Here in the north a photo of my garden would make a white screen.
Bob
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Post by nikkortorokkor on Jun 28, 2009 1:13:38 GMT -5
I know Bob, It seems churlish to grizzle 'bout the winter when I live in a temperate climate. But sometimes temperate just means grey and wet - & I used to live in the subtropics (in Queensland, Australia and in China), so I've been spoiled.
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mickeyobe
Lifetime Member
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Posts: 7,280
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Post by mickeyobe on Jun 28, 2009 3:35:51 GMT -5
I look at your beautiful picture and am convinced that the world has been turned upside down.
Flowers growing outdoors in the winter! Could Al Gore possibly be right?
Mickey
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Post by nikonbob on Jun 28, 2009 6:51:02 GMT -5
Michael
That temperate climate classification must cover a lot of territory as we are also in that class, I think. Yes, it is all what you are used to and those were some warm places. Grey and wet sounds like BC winter weather here and it can become depressing. All things considered, snow and sunshine is not a bad combination.
Bob
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Post by nikkortorokkor on Jun 28, 2009 17:32:52 GMT -5
I too prefer snow and blue skies. Oddly, the Wairarapa, the inland basin to which we've just moved, is known to be frosty and blue over the winter, which is what I grew up with in a similar basin in the South Island. But this year, just lots of rain. The main problem is our love for the Californian Bungalow. here's our one, built in 1930, and similar to thousands of such houses around here: They are pretty little houses, and I enjoy the craftsman touches, but they were built with no insulation whatsoever. No central heating, just log fires and, originally, coal ranges for cooking (most, like ours, have long since been removed). Our first big expenditure on the house will be to pump foam into the walls and insulate under the floor. By comparison, North American and European houses are far better equipped for the weather.
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Post by olroy2044 on Jun 28, 2009 21:48:27 GMT -5
Tell ya what Michael--You e-mail me some cool. and I'll send you some heat! (106F+ for the third day!) Roy
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Post by nikonbob on Jun 28, 2009 22:04:54 GMT -5
Michael
Very nice looking bungalow you have there. Our house was built around 1947 so it also is not up to the latest standards but at least it does have some insulation and central heating. At our age we would never recover the cost of up grading the insulation so we just live with it.
Bob
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Post by nikkortorokkor on Jun 30, 2009 21:45:17 GMT -5
We're in luck, Bob. The Government has just rolled out an initiative where it subsidises a 3rd of the cost of insulation work. Banks have also come to the party. It as finally been realised how much our poorly insulated houses are costing in productivity and health. There are going to be a lot of houses to do though - we had no real insulation standards before 1978.
Roy, I'd gladly e-mail you cold for heat. I think we need to enlist the help of Dr Evil or Space Man Spiff to overcome the technical problems.
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Post by nikonbob on Jun 30, 2009 21:58:23 GMT -5
Michael That is good news for you and I hope you have more luck the we did over here earlier on. First they subsidized us to up grade and then subsidized us again to remove it. What a fiasco it was. Here is a link to the culprit www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/co/maho/yohoyohe/inaiqu/inaiqu_008.cfm , if you are interested. Bob
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