The weather forecast hadn't looked conducive to walking, but after the excitement of last night's stormy weather, this morning was sunny, and the BBC was promising nothing more than "light showers." So off I went, although in a concession to last night's drenching, I decided to stick to paved surfaces. I even planned a route that would bring me ( Read more... )

Months are an arbitrary thing, named by mankind. Why, then, does it seem so much stranger to be walking to work in a t-shirt and sandals, and feeling too hot while doing so, on the first of October than on the last day of September? I'm not complaining, but it doesn't seem quite right - and it makes me very confused that, despite the heat of the ( Read more... )

How goes the progress of spring in various parts of the country? I'm always curious to compare, and am constantly surprised anew by the differences that only a hundred miles of northiness can make. I also want to record these things so I can compare things next year ( Read more... )

This morning was foggy. This morning was so foggy that I could barely see next door. It was even more foggy up on the Downs road, where road signs were invisible, the car in front was a vague ghost, and side roads remained vague rumours until you were right on top of them ( Read more... )

Today I found myself with an hour to kill on the south coast, in between storytimes, so stopped en route to look at some of the changes the recent weather has wrought. I couldn't get to the big things: the big cliff falls, the collapsed sea walls, and, worst of all, the stretch of main road - full of houses - that has half disappeared. ( But I did get a few pictures of the somewhat less drastic things: )

I've just been checking the local newspaper's compilation of local travel related tweets, in order to find out if the route we plan to drive later is still closed by floods and/or landslides. I came across this nice encouraging tweet from the police ( Read more... )

Checking the local paper's website for the latest news on storms/floods/storm surges/WE'RE ALL DOOMED! I see that the latest travel-related announcement is this:

"There is a lot of cauliflower on the road in Canteen Road, Whitely Bank. Please drive carefully."

Oh no! We really are doomed ( Read more... )

We were out dancing today in what our Squire promised us was a "two hour weather window," only for the window to be slammed firmly shut one hour in, complete with thunder, lightning and the most torrential rain imaginable. It was the sort of rain that drenches you even to your underwear within half a minute. As I was driving home, peering ( Read more... )

I am Confused. I walked about 30 miles yesterday, and while my clothes were rather unpleasantly sodden throughout, it was bearable. Now I've just strolled for 10 minutes in the graveyard, without a rucksack and without two layers of socks on my feet, and I found it far worse. Yes, I'm a mile inland here, whereas yesterday I was on the coast and had ( Read more... )

I've never seen such enormous conglomerations of white stuff falling (or, rather, drifting very lazily) from the sky! They're easily two inches across. No mere snow "flakes," these. I think some heavenly dog has been a BadDog with a heavenly eiderdown. If deities have eiderdowns, and I don't see why they shouldn't. Unless heavenly eider ducks are ( Read more... )