Today is the feast day of St Swithun (also spelt Swithin), the patron saint of Winchester Cathedral. He was the Bishop of Winchester for the last 10 years of his life and was buried in front of the west door of the Cathedral. He laid there for over a hundred years until a later Bishop decided that the new church he was building needed a patron ( Read more... )

Unless the weather changes drastically between now and August, the North West is in for a hosepipe ban starting on the 5th. It's going to seriously have to chuck it down non-stop between now and then to stop it happening though. I'm kind of not surprised in a way, given how little rain we've had since May. On the other hand, it is incredibly ( Read more... )

The weather warning has finally ended. The wind is still gusty although it should be easing off down to a more acceptable level by 5 o'clock ( Read more... )

So it's now the turn of the UK and Ireland to be hit by a hurricane - Hurricane Ophelia. I've been keeping an eye on the forecasts, especially as there's been a yellow warning for the Lancashire area. Initially it looked like the edge of the storm would be coming across the coast here but now it's moved slightly and is going more over Ireland ( Read more... )

The weather has been appalling today: strong wind, heavy showers and black skies. Good day to do some baking then! A few days ago, I'd randomly thought about some biscuits I'd made a few times which were always seriously yummy. I've not made them for ages, partly because of the gluten-free thing but also because the recipe makes a lot. It's not ( Read more... )

Ohhh, it is far too hot. Summer has decided to forgo the slow build-up and instead turned it up to eleven and gone on from there. We never get the gradual introduction of heat, it often seems to be barely into double figures and then without warning OMG SUN AND IT'S HOTTER THAN THE MED ( Read more... )

It has been quite cold this past week, but it's been particularly freezing today. It's currently 3°C but feels like -6, which is much colder than it should be at this time of year. Just to really prove that point, there's also a yellow alert for snow in place at the moment too. Rain around now-ish will be turning to snow later on tonight and ( Read more... )

I've noticed there's been a definite chill in the air in the mornings this weekend. I've actually had my quilt on at night for the past week or so. The days have certainly been mixed though. It was nippy this morning but warmed up this afternoon and then just before tea, we were treated to torrential rain. And then hail! It seems far too early ( Read more... )

I went out this morning to run errands and on the way home, I saw something that I'm pretty sure was a lenticular cloud. It didn't appear until I was turning into the estate but it was really large and clear. I wanted to take a photo and knew I'd have to be quick before it started to disappear. I was really close to home so as soon as I pulled ( Read more... )

The weather decided to ratchet itself up to 11 a few days ago and we've had Summer with a vengeance. This is one of the problems with the British summer: it goes from mild to OMG HEATWAVE I'M MEEEEELTING overnight, gets stuck there for a few days and then finally drops back down to its baseline of 'meh'. It's like we get our entire summer weather ( Read more... )