Tag: weather

What a beautiful noise..

Just as Neil Diamond serenaded us in 1976 in the middle of a summer heatwave, it was the first song that came to my head when I awoke around 06:30 this morning.

A nice amount of water above us

It was raining. The UK, or at least our little bit of it up here in the East Midlands has been under heatwave conditions for a few weeks now. We haven’t seen a good rainfall for a couple of months now, only the occasional spot of rain, but not sufficient to fill a hollow tooth….of a mouse.

It has been proper raining today, and it reminds me that in one of the upper gutter systems i have a joint that needs attention as it leaks a constant metronomic amount of water on to the downstairs conservatory roof, giving a constant, tap, tap, tap that is somewhat comforting to listen to. My water collection butts around the house are all nicely filling as a result with good fresh water that the plants and baskets love and crave.

It’s a beautiful sound.

I know there are parts of the world that probably only hear or feel this kind of weather on very rare occasions, and for those people, when it does finally arrive it must be super special and spectacular.

But they manage.

Where as here in the Uk or any other part of the so called developed western world, a week without rain and the whole nation starts to panic, water companies that are ripping us off with their inflated prices are telling us to cut down, and then the nanny state kicks in with its list of things you must and mustn’t do. It’s crazy, we’re in a crazy world.

But my part of that world just lays here quite content, I have my metronomic drip to comfort me, I have a cup of tea beside me, and my whole world lays beside me in a comfortable and cool slumber, totally unaware of the weather situation developing around us. She will be happy when she awakes. The plants are happy, the birds are content and for a brief moment the world is good.

Then the weather report comes up saying we are in for another heatwave next week. Oh well, that didn’t last long did it. A brief reprieve from the intense heat was nice, but I can’t complain at seeing the sun, as to be honest that will soon be gone and we will go through a long autumn and winter all praying for its swift return. We can’t have it all, can we?

But it is an absolutely beautiful noise isn’t it?

Have a super day, enjoy the rain, sun or whatever you have in your region. Just stay safe.

Spring is here

Uk. It’s early April and spring is in evidence all around. My favourite time of the year as I have previously discussed. The garden is starting to awaken and is gradually starting to show all its beauty that it has been hiding throughout the winter months.

The birds are vocal and we are very fortunate to have a large community of them around our small garden on the outskirts of the dirty old city. Blackbirds with their beautiful song, the small but lovely sound of the blue tits and robins, and then the raucous 40 cigarette a day sound of the “Chav” of the avian world the Magpie. Not to mention pigeons who’s soul purpose in this world is to sit upon any structure and have a good shit. 💩

It’s nice in a structurally unsound way.

Weather has been behaving itself during the day, it’s been lovely sunshine up to about 16 degrees Celsius only to fall to freezing overnight. The swing in temperatures has been immense for us, as the central heating is not yet dormant.

I’m saying this is spring but as usual it could just as well be summer here in the UK, we could well have had our quota of sun for the year for all I know.

Even the postman is confused. Normally the shorts he wears only come out for summer, and that used to be a good indication of the weather about to turn for us. Now he wears shorts all year round in all weathers so we can no longer use him as an indication of better weather approaching, it’s confused us equally.

It’s that time of year when your brain kicks into “Things you forgot about, but now need to attend to” mode. And for some unknown and unexpected reason I’m now very aware of a maelstrom of things that need my attention. It doesn’t help that the wife’s brain has done the same thing and she has now doubled my workload with the things she now wants me to do.

Did I say this is my favourite time of the year?

Yeah, it is and I love all this activity, it’s as if we humans are doing the same as the humble hedgehog and about to wake up from our hibernation, shake ourselves down and crack on with the summer. (Oh and I am awaiting the arrival of our first hedgehog 🦔 friends, who should be arriving anytime now)

Who wouldn’t love the world awakening.

Have a great day.

Bloody Weather

Being a fully paid up member of the whinging Uk, I have the god given right to complain about absolutely everything that i can, constantly.

(This is Written in Sarcasm font and is just an observation…. Apparently)

No to be honest I don’t think we, (me included) complain enough. We tend to accept our lot and just get on with it. Maybe we should all put our hands up more often and let our voices be heard.

Now though, when it comes to weather, that is a totally different kettle of fish. We all have an opinion, and surprisingly in this island nation it’s the one thing we all seem to agree on. Bloody awful weather. It’s a constant topic of derision.

Have a great day.

March – Springtime

What’s your favorite month of the year? Why?

I put up with the cold and miserable weather as most people do, but for us in the Northern Hemisphere March bears the new shoots of life and a much needed promise of better times ahead. The flowers are awakening and getting ready to put on their best show, the birds are being more vocal and we are starting to put away the winter clothing and bringing the summer wardrobe back on display.

Butterfly

Yes we can still have some cold spells, but at least there is sunshine, hope for a better day, and a positive attitude to go forward.

I love springtime and therefore March is my favourite month, I’m even looking forward to it now more than I do any holiday season. As far as I’m concerned in March we have come out of the dark and into the light.

Have a great day everyone, stay safe. Peace to all.

Spontaneity

We had a lovely lunch out yesterday, it rained as it always has of late, it was so damned wet that we didn’t get to look around the 38 gardens at Barnsdale created by Geoff Hamilton off of BBC Gardeners world.

As we were pretty miffed at this we made the spontaneous decision to bugger off to Devon a day early so we could benefit from an extra day on the coast.

We left the East Midlands about 16:00hrs and arrived at our destination at around 20:15, a good journey with the only real traffic experienced as we circumnavigated Birmingham’s rush hour.

My god, it’s dry!

It was obviously dark on arrival, very windy and you could hear the waves crashing on the sea walls, the hotel is comfortable and we have had a cracking nights sleep. Just had our first cuppa and the sun is rising, it looks gorgeous out and guess what….it is dry!

Hallelujah

Have a great day all…

Journal – Post two

Good morning all and i trust you are well. For the second instalment of this riveting read i will bring you up to date with what has occurred in the last few days.

We have advanced from Summer to Autumn, we still have ridiculous amounts of rain fall, and to top that this morning we have had a hardy spread of frost. I’m really surprised about the weather to be honest, as normally at this time of year we are holidaying in Cyprus and when we are there they always seem to have a heatwave back home. This year seems to be an exception to the rule.

The usual discussion of “Should the heating go on” is high on the agenda at the moment, with the wife staunchly stating that it’s not going on before mid October. We live in a 1930s house with the rear of it facing North, to say its sometimes cool is an understatement, it leaks heat like a bucket with a hole, but in the heat of summer (if it ever happens) its as cool as you like. Great Mediterranean architecture design’s shouldn’t have been a consideration of builders in the 1930s UK.

Tabs house

I’ve mentioned about the feral cat we inherited when we purchased our house all those years ago, we call her “Tabs”. Well a couple of days ago the wife decided as the weather was still turning that she was going to buy Tabs a house. During the winter months she lives either under the covered garden furniture on the decking or in the next door neighbours garden under a lean to. It’s been fun watching the wife trying to coax Tabs into here new home, she will go in if we put treats in there but she firmly leaves her rear end poking out of it….she still needs convincing. We have had disagreements regarding its siting, i say it should be down the garden but the wife insists it should be near the back door. Time will tell. I lay money on it that our resident Hedgehog community will visit and check it out before too long.

Work has been gearing up to probably the season we hate most and that is leaf fall. It’s fast approaching and we will no doubt have trains slipping and sliding all over the network before too long. It’s a real challenge to get sites treated before this happens and it’s a busy time for us on the ground. People may laugh and scoff, but just don’t understand the issues that we face. It’s real, and it’s a real problem.

We are both suffering the holiday blues after a wonderful small break away in Norfolk, hence we have now booked all our holidays for next year. We didn’t go abroad this year as we knew our dog Alfie was unwell and we had decided our priority was him and looking after his wellbeing, we had a beautiful holiday with him this year in Devon that we will forever cherish. We still have a couple of small breaks this year, one is for a 60th birthday in Devon and the other is down in the Twickenham area of London to meet with a friend of the wife’s for a few days who is struggling with her health.

Next years agenda is like so: January back to Norfolk for a relaxing small break. February we are back to Iceland as we love it so. June we are back to Norfolk for a big family gathering and then to top it all we have treated ourselves to two weeks in Aruba in October. Never been there before, heard a lot about it so we are giving it a go. I should still have some days available after all of this that we will use for days out etc. We haven’t been this organised for years, and we both love having something to look forward to.

I’ve been back to fixing a few items but to be honest I’m not concentrating that well so my decision making whilst fault finding is a bit shot at the moment, I’ve stepped away for a few days to regain some composure then i will return.

Working late shifts at the moment 14-2200hrs and they are full on. I have a day off tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that as much as i would a holiday.

Look after yourselves and stay warm.

Thoughts 20/5/24

How do you feel about cold weather?

The beauty of Iceland

Cold has a beautiful aura to it. It also is a major pain in the ass so I mostly feel the latter towards it.

I love visiting cold climates and Iceland is up there with being one of my favourite places to visit on the planet. It’s set up for the cold, it works well and the locals are all prepared and work well in it.

Back home however we are not. A bit of cold that for some countries would be a minor inconvenience, for us becomes catastrophic and the whole country grinds to a halt. We are never prepared.

Cold brings on my arthritic aches and pains and I long for the summer months, however I am accustomed to the fact that like it or not, winter conditions have to be endured, so I do.

Yes I’m ok with the cold, but to be honest I really do prefer the warmer months.

Stay safe everyone.

The best laid plans and all that…Pt2

I’m referring you back to this blog entry I wrote on the 10th March The best laid plans and all that…

Here I was complaining about the weather due to a garden project I was undertaking and the time frame my wife has kindly put on it.

It was being severely hampered by the weather and on the odd occasional day I was able to do bits but the time scale was moving ever closer.

Well I finally managed to get the digging complete with a couple of inches more of mud removed and made as level as possible before more rain moved in.

Then I had an 800kg bag of MOT type one sub base layer delivered and this went down in a few hours and I was then able to hire a wacker plate to get it down nice and solid and even all over. I’ve put a wooden edge in as well that will eventually have some bare root Hornbeam hedging put in alongside it to form a softer border.

Sub base and wacker plate

But it rained again for days 🤷‍♂️

Pavers arrived

In the meantime myself and the wife went to a local garden centre and got an absolute bargain with the pavers, these were delivered the next day and I was able to place them roughly where I wanted them to be before cementing. Then guess what? Yes you are right it has rained pretty much from the 28th March right up to a few days ago the 11th April.

Pavers roughly in place

We’ve had some sun the last couple of days and the surface of the garden has dried off a bit. The patio area has dried off quite considerably so on the 14th April I was finally able to get all the pavers cemented into position, I was able to do a first rough cut of the grass and generally have a little tidy up. There was an awkward period when the works supervisor (Alfie, our dog and head of security) intervened and decided to sit on a paver I was cementing, but talks took place and strike action was avoided when a chewy treat was supplied.

Industrial action was avoided

I’ve ordered an 800kg bag of pea shingle to finish the job so I’m hopeful the time scale will be met. it was a good day.

Pavers cemented in place

This morning the 15th we have had torrential rain, hailstones and a thunderstorm, woo am I pleased I got that cementing done yesterday, you bet I am. I just hope it had time to cure to a state where the down pour hasn’t affected it too much. I’ll check it out later, and I’ll just have to refrain from using the pavers for another 48hrs or so.

Note: I’ve just checked and the cement has set nicely, I’ll leave it another day and it should be all good 👍 we now await the pea shingles arrival.

Fast forward to the 17th after yet more rain has fallen and I now have 800kg bag of pea shingle occupying part of my driveway. I have ordered far too much, however it means I will be able to prioritise a couple of other garden projects that I have recently put on the back burner.

Guess what? More rain but I’m not giving up until these stones are in place.

A couple of hours later I’ve put the shingle in place, first a layer that I’ve then stamped down and then another layer on top to bring it all up to level across all the pavers. I must admit it has come up quite well.

Pea shingle in place

I’ve finished it off with a small circular paver for the wife’s stone toadstool that has been a feature in any garden we have occupied since we first met, as well as some decorative fencing and lighting with 15 newly planted Hornbeam hedgerow plants. I have a vision of having a nice hedgerow line down here within the next couple of years as well as being a natural source of drainage for the this part of the garden, that naturally gets very wet due to neighbouring gardens being concrete wastelands.

Hornbeam hedgerow and decorative fencing

I’m very pleased with the result, it’s on time and the wife is now off my back, and she’s very happy, phew 😥

Thanks for following this little project, stay safe and stay happy.

Thoughts 23/3/24

What is your favorite type of weather?

It’s got to be rain hasn’t it?

No, I like sunny weather as much as the next guy but for some reason I think there is nothing better than sitting in a place outside or inside and just listening to the rain on the roof. To me it’s very settling and to be honest I’m probably more productive in my hobbies during such a period.

It’s a pain in the Ass right now as I’m trying to get in to the garden to finish a project I started a few weeks back, but this being the Uk what else can you expect but copious amounts of the wet stuff.

Spring time is lovely as you get a bit of both, a tester of the sunshine to make you look forward to those potentially balmy summer days, and then some rain and some beautiful rainbows to boot.

Rain for me. Though in a couple of months I’ll probably say sun.

That’s my problem indecisive.

Have a wonderful day y’all

The best laid plans and all that…

It’s just gone four in the morning, the birds are awakening and I’m stuck in an office in Leicestershire awaiting my next call out of this long night shift.

Despite weather reports being favourable it has been heaving down with rain for the past few hours , and it doesn’t look as if it’s going to let off at any time today.

It’s a rainy night in Leicestershire

This is pretty much a post about gardening, another activity I like to get involved in, and at the moment I have a project underway that was pretty much weather dependent.

I have begun the digging out of a small part of the garden in preparation for laying a small patio area. Our garden is pretty much clay based under the grass and to be honest as a result of that drainage is not brilliant. We never used to have issues with drainage due to there being 12 trees in situ that the previous owner had planted, he never looked after them and they became diseased. These sucked every bit of moisture from the garden and never gave us any issues with pooling water.

Turf removal
Digging out

Fast forward a couple of years and those trees had to be removed due to the aforementioned disease, right down to the roots. Now during the normal British rain season ( most of the year ) we have pools developing around the garden. We are replanting a number of smaller trees but it’s going to be some time before they are drinking the quantities of rain water we usually get here in the East Midlands.

I chose this week to do my digging as it was forecast to be the driest week in a while and there was a sufficient chance of me getting all the digging done and getting the sub base in place before any inclement weather arrived.

I sit here this morning cursing so called weather forecasts.

I have been doing work between night shifts spreading it out and was so pleased with progress thus far. I removed all turf yesterday and today started digging out to about 15 c/m and started to level the area out. All excess soil was being spread around the flower beds of the front and rear garden so nothing was going to waste at all.

I stopped work on the garden at about 4 pm yesterday, well happy with progress telling the wife I had about another 2 days of work to do on levelling before we could start to get the sub base in place and compacted prior to paving, hopefully the job would be completed by next Sunday.

That’s not going to happen.

Looking at my security camera in the garden I can see that the patio area has now taken on the look of a pond and later today I half expect to see a couple of ducks taking residence.

The moral of this story is , weather forecasts don’t work. It’s not yet an art despite all the technological advances over the years.

Check progress here: The best laid plans and all that…Pt2

And don’t tell the wife when the job will be finished as she’s now got me tied to that timescale and I know now that is not going to be achieved.

I am a fool

Stay happy people. You are so special.