This morning when I rolled out of bed, it was clear that Raymond's Gut behind our home had ice on it.

The thermometer read twenty degrees. That is the coldest day I have seen here on the coast.

The good news was that the wind has stopped. When I snapped the picture last night, the wind has slowed only briefly. I suspect the cold clear air has something to do with the intensity of the colors in the picture.

Later in the evening when we pulled into the Bogue House along with several other folks from the area for a nice evening meal without any effort on our part, the wind was a serious part of cold.

I managed to walk in with just my sweatshirt, but when we went back to the car and discussed the possibility of going to the grocery store, it was quickly voted down in favor of heading home and relaxing in front of the fireplace.

Today I went down to Morehead City to get my NC driver's license. I was a little amazed to be taking a pencil and paper test in this age of computers, but I managed to get through it.

Fortunately I had found a neat website which had a much better study guide that NC's very boring driver's manual.

If you need a link to it, send me a note.

At least the weather had moderated a little so it wasn't so cold getting in and out of the car.

I have to be careful since I just talked to former neighbors of ours in Canada. Our farm in Tay Creek, New Brunswick was often snowed under.

Still I was surprised to hear that they have six feet of snow on the ground. Our friends reminded us that they had seen that much snow since the winter of 1976 which was our third year on the farm.

I think they can keep it. I am looking forward to those warmer temperatures that are predicted for Monday.

Tags: Weather

I did manage to stick my nose outside this afternoon.

Actually I think standing on the point at Cannonsgate is more than that.

It qualifies as sticking my whole body into the cold wind.

The good news is that this cold weather is only going to last a couple of days.

It was already 30 degrees Fahrenheit earlier in the evening so I expect a cold night.

The skies are a beautiful blue and the waters look pretty nice.

However, today has been the coldest day that I have seen since moving to the coast.

The temperature has not reached forty so our high is going to be in thirties.

On top of that the wind is blowing.

I am headed out to catch some sunset shots. A nice sunset always helps me forget the cold.

The knowledge that we will be have a warm meal including some of my wife's famous cornbread does not hurt either.

Hopefully I will have a nice shot to post later in the evening.

This morning we awoke to a blanket of fog. I have always enjoyed foggy days. We used to have many on the shore in Nova Scotia.

Fog seems somewhat rare on the Crystal Coast. I would guess that our Blue Ridge mountain home in Roanoke, Virginia actually experiences more fog than we do down here on the coast.

I suspect the reason we aren't fogged in more is that our coastal waters are never too far from our air temperatures most days.

It seems that we need a differential of twenty degrees or more between air and water temperatures before we get significant fog.

Later this week we are expecting a couple of days of very cool weather. That will let us see another coastal phenomenon, steaming waters.

This happened a couple of times last year. When the air temperatures got into the twenties while the water temperature was still in the fifties, fog or what I like to call steam would rise off of the water.

The weather is setting us up for a good opportunity to see some steaming water on Wednesday morning. We might even get a little ice on Raymond's Gut like we did last year.

Tags: Weather, Annual Diary