[Leica] Snow

[lrzeitlin at aol.com]

One of the great mistakes of the Brits in settling the New World was in assuming that all locations at similar latitudes had the same climate.  They never realized that Maine, Canada and even Massachusetts were so cold in the winter that your breath would freeze and leave you with icicle mustaches.. In my military service I was briefly stationed in Fort Churchill on Hudson Bay, Canada. Polar bears wandered down the streets in winter.  Most mechanical cameras, including Leicas, would freeze up unless they were properly winterized. However when we lived north Wales at a similar latitude palm trees grew in our back yard, all thanks to the Gulf Stream. For years my wife tried to convince me that palm trees grew in Britain and Southwest Norway. Now I believe her. True, they were not the stately Royal palms of Miami Beach, but they are palms nevertheless with fronds and even small coconut like seed pods.

Larry Z

+ + + +

Yes, John. weather is bizarre. Here at 53.28 degrees north, it was saying 14 
degrees Celsius (56 ) yesterday and when I was in the sea it was 
10.5 deg C and bearable. Thank you Gulf Stream. I think it might be a bit 
colder in Kamchatka, Russia and on Hudson Bay, Canada which are on roughly 
the same parallel...

Douglas