Great British Summer

Great British Summer
Originally uploaded by Snowbabies

It's a good job we went for a walk round Langsett in the morning, the heavens opened just after we got back!

Very Damp Day

The rain is pouring down here today, hopefully it won't be anywhere near as bad as it was last year.

Paul.

Blowing In The Wind

It's been a little bit on the windy side here for weeks but yesterday it really huffed, puffed and tried to blow our only remaining tree down.

It's still hanging on though, the bird table seems to be saving it from toppling all the way over. I'll see if I can rescue it over the weekend, it would be nice to keep this one, it doesn't lose it's leaves and it's nice to have near the table for the birds to perch on.

Paul

Is Winter Finaly On The Way?

The Weather Outlook forum is getting busy and that can only mean one thing ..... there's a chance of some snow!

It's early days weather forecasting wise but it was mentioned on GMTV this morning so it must be true ... mmmm... well maybe. The charts do seem to be hinting at a colder interlude on Wednesday and then again from late Saturday for a couple of days. I don't think we'll be getting snowed in or anything, more like a dusting of snow here and there but at least it looks like we're in with a chance of seeing our first snow of the winter.

Paul.

Wild Weather Continues

It's been wet and extremely windy round these parts for what seems like months now and there's no sign of any end to relentless wild weather.

Every time we open the back door, we find that the wind has blown something else all the way down the garden.

I've lost count of the number of times one of the bins has gone over and there also seems to be a secret plastic flower pot convention outside our door every morning. The watering can was a first though, we've not seen that since the summer.

While out in the garden today we noticed loads more snowdrops flowering and Debbie reckons that the grass has started growing again. We're supposed to be seeding that again this year but we weren't planning on doing that in January!

Paul

Gloomy Weekend

The weather this weekend has been totally none descript, we managed a tiny amount of sunshine while we were out shopping for more clothes on Saturday but on Sunday, it stayed grey and gloomy the whole day. Having a hangover the size of the Emire State Building, at least we didn't feel too annoyed at not being able to go out with the cameras and capture some of those wonderfull Autumn colours.

Paul.

Cold Winter Sunshine

If only we lived in North Yorkshire, then we might see a bit more snow from these pesky Northerlies and North Westerlies. It's snowing today on the east Coast but here inland we're sheltered from the North by the Pennines.

All I can do is watch from afar, the snow falling in Scotland on Traffic Scotland. Still, second best to snow is glorious winter sunshine and it's looks as though it's going to be like this all day, although it's still bloody freezing!

Paul.

The Day After Tomorrow

I remember watching the disaster movie, The Day After Tomorrow last year and thinking, maybe it's possible but it must be quite a way off yet.

However, we've already had a record hurricane season this year and today I caught this headline - Ocean changes 'will cool Europe'.

It's a fascinating read, suggesting that in 10 or 20 years time, the day after tomorrow might actually be today.

I'm off to buy a sledge while they're still cheap as chips!

Paul.

Indian Summer

Here I am trying to do an honest bit of snow watching, I mean it's not unheard of at this time of year, we had snow earlier than this last year, what we didn't have was temperatures forecast to go into the twenties!

We're supposed to be looking forward to huddling round a big fire next week, scoffing piping hot baked potatoes and chestnuts, not watching a firework display in t-shirt and shorts! The Met-Office is apparently predicting a very cold winter, yet we've not even had a frost here yet this autumn.

The headline in one of the newspapers today is "Big Freeze Will Cripple Britain, Coldest since 1963, Gas could run out". At this rate, the only thing that's going to run out is sun cream!


Paul

Bang!

Debbie has gone back to work today, we think it might have been flu but we're not sure, whatever it was, it knocked her for six over the last week or so and she's still far from one hundred percent.

Lolly's doing well since being neutered and has for the most part left the stitches alone so hopefully they'll be able to come out this weekend. Also this weekend, I've got to get those pesky wardrobes built because our new pine bed is coming the week after, thankfully that will be built for us!

We had someone round last night to give us quote for new central heating, the current system is a very old back boiler system and is about as controllable as Lollypop! We've gone ahead and ordered a new system which should be fitted in October. We'll have a new open gas fire, some lovely new radiators, a smart little combi and best of all, a thermostat that looks more like a hand held computer, works from anywhere in the house and in the future we'll be able to call it on the mobile to get the house toasty warm before we arrive back home on cold winters day!

While the chap was measuring up last night, the heavens opened and we had the brightest strike of lightning I've ever seen followed by an almighty clap of thunder which made us all jump out of our skins, especially Misty who shot upstairs faster than the speed of light!

Paul

Recording The Heat

During the house move something happened to our thermometer sensor, it stopped talking to the thermometer and any attempt to make them speak to each other over the weekend just resulted in a lot of beeping, both from the thermometer and from me.

I can't live without knowing how hot it is outside, or more to the point, how cold it is in winter, so yesterday I went out and bought a new one which looks a little bit more reliable than the old one. I had it on in the office yesterday and we reached 30.9c by home time, too warm by far.

It was horrible overnight, 22c in the house when we went to bed but was dropping outside, this morning, it was down to 14c outside and managed to fall a whole half a degree inside to 21.5c, no wonder we got little sleep! Today looks like it's going to be hotter, I can't wait to start recording temperatures of -2c again :-)

Paul

Lovely British Weather

Things weren't looking too good on Saturday morning, we we're out shopping for BBQ stuff until midday and it rained the whole time. With the fridge loaded with fresh meat and a pile of beer to drool over, we set about putting up the gazebo. The rain wasn't for stopping and we both got thoroughly soaked while we struggled with the cover in the blustery wind. Ringing wet through, I then set of to pick up Dad and little Brother, the sky looked like it might be clearing and by the time I got to Dad's there was even a hint of sunshine. Sadly, Grandma wasn't going to be able to make it so my Aunt and Uncle will bring her over as soon as she's feeling up to it.

Just as we set of back home the rain started again and kept on going until about 3.30pm which just about gave me enough time to put the BBQ together and get it lit. The rain stayed away for the rest of the day and the event was a roaring successes with the music playing and the drinks flowing. However, after running round like blue arsed flies from dawn till dusk, we'll not be doing anything on that scale again in hurry! We've got a few friends coming round for a BBQ next Saturday but it should a little bit more manageable this time lol.

On Sunday, we we're undecided on whether to go and order our new bed and do some other shopping or stay indoors and do nothing. Not being able to shake off the hangover, doing nothing seemed like the best option! After snoozing all afternoon, we got all the left over meat on the grill at tea time and had a lovely early evening munching and drinking champagne in the garden.

We've still got the wardrobes and drawers to set up, we'll try and get those done this week and then sometime over the weekend we're off shopping for a fish tank which we'll get set up straight away ready for us to go and get some tropical fish the weekend after.

Paul

Thunder & Lighting

Yesterday afternoon we took Dad out for a Father's Day meal at a local pub hoping to escape the oppressive heat for a while but alas the pub didn't have air conditioning or any fans so we continued to melt away! The food was lovely though and was worth going through a box of napkins wiping our foreheads every two minutes ..lol.. By the time we'd finished and retired to the beer garden, the clouds were building and the sun took time out for while and the temperature dropped very slightly.

After dropping Dad off we headed home, it got darker and darker until the heavens opened, drenching everything with lovely cool rain giving us some much needed respite from the heat. The showers continued on and off all evening and we had some of the loudest claps of thunder we've ever witnessed. The temperature inside the house refused to budge though and we had another hot and humid night. Still, we should be thankful that we didn't get washed away like the poor folk in North Yorkshire where flash floods caused havoc yesterday.

It's much fresher this morning but the sun is out so it won't be long before everyone is melting again, thank goodness we've both got air conditioning at work!

Paul.

It's Snow Joke

After the rain yesterday afternoon, can you believe today the weather forecasters are warning of snow! It is much colder this morning and I'm guessing there might have been some snow over the Pennines already today.

It looks like getting even colder though the day and into tomorrow before getting warmer again over the weekend. It's hard to believe I was in t-shirt and shorts less than three weeks ago with temperatures into the twenties!

Paul.

I can see a Rainbow!!

Red n Yellow n Pink N Blue 

Unsettling Snow

Yesterday started well enough here with 4-5 inches of snow on the ground and still falling as we made our way into work. Astonishingly though, despite the temperature hovering just above zero for most of the day, the snow that continued to fall until late afternoon didn't even settle on any cars or cover any tracks made in the early morning. If all the snow that fell had stayed, we would have been under at least a foot of snow by the end of the day and indeed some higher routes around here had well over a foot of snow by tea time yesterday.

We were going to take the dogs out last night for a run in the field but with the snow getting all slushy and snow turning to rain, we gave it a miss and instead went to Meadowhall to get our Red Noses ready for the big day on Friday 11 March. The car Hair Fresheners are like gold dust again this year, they just don't seem to be sending enough of these out so I'm going to order those on-line instead.

This morning the fields around us are still looking lovely and white, the roads are clear with just frozen slush on the pavements. We've got loads to do on the house this weekend but hopefully we'll find time to take an hour or so out and pop up to Holme Moss where there will still be loads of snow.

Paul

Flash Floods

The sun was out again yesterday, the forecast rain didn't arrive until later in the evening, however, it's not been as muggy for the last few days, except for Sunday night when it clouded over at tea time and trapped all the heat in.

We needed a few supplies yesterday, so on arriving home last night we popped down to the supermarket, taking Lucy with us to try and get her used to being in the car as she's still suffering from travel sickness. It might have been a mistake going there instead of me calling in on the way home for the bread we needed, whenever we go shopping together Debbie always asks if I'm having a drink and I never say no. So, out we came with much more than we went in for, including a bottle of vodka.

Back home with a large vodka and coke on the go we spent most of the night on the computer chatting to a few friends for what felt like hours, however, when we finally shut the computer down we were surprised to see it was still only half past nine. Flicking through the channels on the telly, the best that was on offer was a music channel so we just finished our drinks and called it a night.

This morning, watching the breakfast news as usual, we were surprised to see the flash floods in Cornwall given that we've not seen much rain at all for the last few days. It must have been one of the worst floods seen in this country with cars and vans being swept from the streets and out to sea. It must be devastating for the people of Boscastle and our thoughts are with them.

Paul

More Rain & Fog

It rained nearly all day yesterday and the flood warnings started appearing for the usual suspects, River Air and River Ouse, thankfully not anywhere near places we need to go during the week.

Debbie left work on the dot yesterday and was already home which was a nice surprise when I pulled into the drive after work. She was making a start on our tea which was fantastic, pork chops in mushrooms and onion with a few spices thrown in. While tea was cooking, we were on the computer armed with a nice cold, strong vodka and coke each. We're really getting into using Firefox now and wouldn't be without it, the tabs thingy makes surfing around so much easier. After tea we just stopped on the computer and took on more liquid refreshment while perusing more blogs.

This morning it's foggy again and Debbie's been able to put her sporty front fog lights on for the journey into work. The office doesn't seem as warm today, I'm sure that will change as the sun burns through and heats everything up again before the return of the rain later.

Paul

Flood Watch

It's just keeps getting worse and worse here, just when you think it can't get any hotter and more humid, it does. We had rain most of the say yesterday but it didn't cool things down at all, it was the worst day yet in the office. Just before home time the sun came out again to just get things hotting up again, lovely! After tea it started raining again, really heavy this time and we were both upstairs watching through the window as the stream of water raced down the main road. The cars were spraying water high into the air as they went past, at one point they would have been better in boats ..lol..

It took ages to get to sleep, even with two fans a couple of feet way and we were hoping to get loads of sleep this week with no Big Bro to watch. Eventually, towards midnight and after a couple of cold beers, it did cool down enough to get some sleep.

This morning it's still raining and really heavy at that, but it's just as muggy as ever. We watched the news this morning to check the travel situation but there wasn't anything mentioned which was surprising, there usually a problem with the motorway even in nice weather. The forecast for today is for it to be hotter than yesterday with yet more rain. We're seriously considering moving to Iceland.

Paul