Snowman

A snowman built by some of our neighbours.  My daughter says it is meant to be the Japanese cartoon character Totoro.  The hole in its stomach contains baby Totoros.

Cold

Following on from the heavy snow of the night before, last night the temperature here dropped to -8.5C, that is, according to the Reading University Atmospheric Observatory live weather data.  According to the Met Office Latest Observations page the temperature last night dropped well below -10C in several places in England, Scotland and Wales.  The record seems to have been -17.1C recorded at RAF Benson, just 23km north from here:

This brings back memories of the winter of 1981-82. I was living in Guisborough at the time. One night in December, I was out in the back garden with my telescope, trying to follow some variable stars.  There was compacted snow and ice under foot and my fingers were starting to stick to the metal parts of the telescope. Then I noticed that the thermometer had gone off the bottom of its scale at -13C, and I realized it was rather risky for me to be outside by myself. I had no desire  to be discovered frozen solid with my eye still at the eyepiece the following morning.  So I abandoned my observing session and went back indoors.  I later discovered that a weather station at Wilton ICI, just 6km away, recorded -17C that night.

Update on Fri 2010-01-08 by Tristram Brelstaff

According to later reports, the coldest was -18C recorded at Woodford in Cheshire.  However that did not show up on the hourly temperatures for Woodford on the Met Office site.

Burdock Gall Fly

From back in mid-summer: a burdock gall fly, Terellia tussilaginis (Diptera: Tephritidae).  For a an earlier post on these flies see here.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-22.

Snow

Last night we had the heaviest snowfall I have experienced since moving to Reading in 1988.  On the grass it was about 20cm deep.  This is quite unusual for the south of England; all the schools are closed and there is very little traffic on the roads.  The local shops are open but under-staffed; I don't know whether the shops in the town are open.  The forecast is for the snow to stay for at least a week or two.

It reminds me of the cold winters of 1981-82 and, further back, 1962-63.

This is the Royal Mail pillar box at the junction of Addington Road and Alexandra Road.  I somehow don't think this will be emptied today.  The first pillar boxes were introduced to Britain following the recommendation of Anthony Trollope, the novellist, who worked for the Post Office (see here).

Photos taken on Addington Road, Reading, UK, on 20010-01-06.

Confidentiality Hinders Error Discovery

While reading this article from 2008 on the Hitler Diaries affair, the following paragraph caught my eye:

Trevor-Roper's main mistake, he told Knightley, had been to sign the confidentiality agreement that Stern had thrust at him in the bank vault in Zurich. By signing, he had deprived himself of the facility that every academic cherishes - the freedom to consult his colleagues.

Hugh Trevor-Roper was the historian whose reputation was destroyed when he was taken in by the forged diaries.  Philip Knightley was a journalist for the Sunday Times, the newspaper that published extracts from the diaries on its front page.