Or, on not trusting the weather forecast
Published at 9:17 pm on March 11th, 2021
Filed under: Dear Diary.
The wind truly howled last night. The storm came in and the rain battered hard against the windows, keeping me awake half the night and making me almost believe we had been magically transported up into the mountains. Every so often I would hear a scrape outside as someone’s bins went past, or a For Sale sign from further down the street, and I wondered idly if, by morning, we would have accumulated a harvest of poorly-secured neighbourhood trampolines in the garden.
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Keyword noise: winter, weather, seasons.
In which we take a battering
Published at 9:23 pm on February 16th, 2016
Filed under: Dear Diary.
So it didn’t snow. I was back on the railway yesterday, and everything went rather well. None of the equipment failed, I didn’t do anything stupid, and I didn’t drop any tokens, which is always my biggest worry. It was a relatively quiet shift; I sat in the big armchair with the coal stove roaring away next to me, handwriting a diary piece about how sitting in the big armchair with the coal stove roaring away next to me and the clock ticking on the wall reminded me of visiting my grandmother’s house on winter Saturday afternoons when I was small. I was the first person to arrive at the station; and by the time I left all the station staff had already locked up and left too, it was getting dark, and all the lights were on. Although it didn’t snow, it felt all day as if snow was potentially on the menu.
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Keyword noise: winter, weather, snow, The Children, volunteering, childhood.
In which pulling on one thread untangles a whole mass of knots
Published at 10:00 pm on February 10th, 2016
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Most of the intractable problem I was slowly chipping away at at work was solved, today. I suddenly realised that the vast majority of all my unsolved problems - and another, urgent problem, that an outside contractor had asked me for help with - were in all likelihood all just different facets of the same thing. It wasn’t, it turned out, the sole cause of all of them, but it was enough of a hint to clear most of them and give me the boost of encouragement I needed to sort out the rest.
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Keyword noise: coding, weather, winter, snow.
The temperature was minus 4 when I left the house today: not cold by global standards, but cold by my standards. When I left work to come home again it had risen to plus 3, but most of the buildings around, especially the big dull office buildings, had roofs still covered in rough, powdery frost.
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Keyword noise: winter, weather, ice, frost.
In which things aren't as nice as elsewhere
Published at 9:37 pm on January 17th, 2016
Filed under: Dear Diary.
The rest of the country has snow, apparently, and we have drizzle. I consoled myself by thinking that, by 10am, everything elsewhere was slushy and grey.
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Keyword noise: Bristol, Fishponds, overheard, weather, winter, drizzle, snow.
In which we have a trip out by train
Published at 5:50 pm on June 1st, 2010
Filed under: Dear Diary, Geekery, Trains.
Never mind “Spring Bank Holiday”: it’s June, and it feels like it’s summer already: last weekend, we had a day at the beach, and both ended up horribly sunburned. As shorts aren’t an option for work, I winced every time I moved my legs. Yesterday: a bank holiday weekend, and beautiful sunshine again, so we went off for a cream tea and a steam train ride.
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Keyword noise: Buckfastleigh, countryside, Devon, railway, River Dart, rural, seasons, South Devon Railway, Staverton, steam, steam train, summer, Totnes, travel, weather.
… you start talking about the weather.
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Keyword noise: art, arts trail, Bedminster, Birnbeck Pier, British Gas, gas bill, merchandise, seasons, South Bristol Arts Trail, Southville, Terry Williams, weather, Weston-super-Mare.
All that snowy weather we’ve been having – almost all gone now, apart from the enormous pile of snow cleared from the office car park – reminded me of the holiday we took a couple of years back, to Rīga, Latvia. “Make sure you wrap up warmly,” said The Mother. “Get proper thermals. Lots and lots of layers.” “You’ll need to take sunglasses, too,” said Dad, “or you’ll get snow-blindness.”
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Keyword noise: Baltic, cold, Europe, February, grey, holiday, Latvia, photography, Riga, weather, winter.
In which we analyse a police suggestion
Published at 7:14 am on January 6th, 2010
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Ah, snow. You can’t beat it for sending people a bit mad and panicked. Yesterday the roads were gridlocked for half an hour at lunch time, because of the number of people who rushed home at the fall of the first flake. Last night, the news was full of dire warnings. Don’t travel if you don’t have to. Stock up your car. Make sure you take a shovel, blankets, a flask of tea, a flask of soup, sandwiches, cakes, a propane stove, three woolly jumpers and the complete works of Proust, because you never know when you might get stuck. Make sure you have a propane stove and not a butane one because, as all hardy campers know, the boiling point of butane at standard pressure is only around freezing, so in cold weather butane stoves get sluggish, give up and go to sleep.
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Keyword noise: cold, driving, frost, frozen, ice, police, snow, weather, winter.
In which we go to Glastonbury
Published at 10:29 am on July 3rd, 2009
Filed under: Photobloggery.
Talking of summer storms: we popped down to Glastonbury the other month, for a poke around the bookshops, and for a walk up to the top of Glastonbury Tor. As we did so, the heavens opened, and we, and all the other tourists making the climb, got soaked.
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Keyword noise: Glastonbury, Glastonbury Tor, photography, Somerset, storm, weather.
In which things get sweaty
Published at 10:27 pm on July 2nd, 2009
Filed under: Dear Diary.
I had hoped that a thunderstorm would clear the air, get rid of some of the humidity, cool things down a bit. Unfortunately, nothing changed. We had the thunderstorm, and half an hour later the ground was dry and the weather was still hot, muggy, and sticky to the touch. Oh well. Summer isn’t nice when it’s too hot to think.
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Keyword noise: art, Ashton Gate, Bristol, Bristol City, Easton, Easton Arts Trail, heat, hot, July, seasons, summer, Tesco, weather.
In which I don't like the weather
Published at 5:01 pm on May 31st, 2009
Filed under: Dear Diary.
No, really. I never thought I’d say that, and the regular readers all probably thought they’d never hear it too. But, yes, the past couple of days have made me glad to be British?
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Keyword noise: heat, seasons, summer, sun, weather.
In which spring is arriving
Published at 1:55 pm on March 30th, 2009
Filed under: Dear Diary.
The weather does not know what it wants to do at the moment. As spring comes in, we sat by the harbour, eating ice cream, and felt uncomfortably cold and hot at the same time. The sun shone brightly down, as a sharp wind nipped up from the water. We shivered, but were too hot to wear our coats.
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Keyword noise: equinox, seasons, spring, weather.
In which we celebrate a milestone
Published at 1:38 pm on March 17th, 2009
Filed under: Dear Diary.
It’s nearly six months, now, since we moved house, and we seem to have made it through the winter. By next week the days will be longer than the nights; and this morning, when we left the house, the sky was blue and the sun shone down on us. Astronomically we might be at the start of spring; outside, it feels as if spring is already verging on summer.
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Keyword noise: anniversary, equinox, seasons, spring, summer, weather.
Another day with no morning bus services, and the roads gridlocked. I walked K to work, taking the camera with me, and watched a lorry get stuck on the hilly part of Bedminster Road. Trying to get towards Ashton, it stopped in a queue of traffic, then realised it couldn’t get started again without risking sliding back down the hill. It sat there, impotent, with its hazard lights flashing, as everyone else tried to drive round either side of it.
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Keyword noise: Bedminster, Bristol, carriages, Class 67, falling, falling snow, First Great Western, ice, night, Parson St station, photography, railway, snow, weather, whiteout, winter.
In which we consider historical weather and historical labour disputes
Published at 9:54 am on February 5th, 2009
Filed under: In With The Old, Political.
Incidentally – while the weather is still cold and the snow is deep again – I should point out that, on this day in 1978, the weather was pretty much the same as it is today. “Country in grip of freeze” all over the papers, and that sort of thing.
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Keyword noise: Cod War, fishing, Grimsby, ice, Immingham, Lincolnshire, Lindsey Oil Refinery, news, North East Lincolnshire, racism, snow, strike, weather, winter, xenophobia.
In which we resist the temptation to make a snowman
Published at 9:09 am on February 3rd, 2009
Filed under: Photobloggery.
We didn’t think that this part of the country got much snowfall. Indeed, compared to elsewhere, it didn’t; and it was late, when it started. But by yesterday lunchtime it was coming down thickly, although not so thickly that I was dissuaded from wrapping up in hat and gloves and going down the street with the camera, hastily pulling it out from under my coat to take a shot and shoving it back away before too much snow melted on it. This morning, still, there was the telltale glow from behind the curtains.
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Keyword noise: Bristol, February, photography, snow, weather, winter.
In which I consider the seasonal cycle
Published at 9:22 am on December 21st, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary.
The night is drawing in, as I draft this post.* The sky is darkening, and the lamps are lit, to brighten the house and drive back the winter darkness. It’s a time to light candles, and fires, and stare into their hearts. We still have a visceral response to fire, glowing embers and flickering, crackling flames.
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Keyword noise: seasons, solstice, weather, winter, winter solstice, Yuletide.
In which things get hot and sticky
Published at 9:06 pm on July 31st, 2008
Filed under: Meta.
Was I saying how nice summer is? I’m regretting it. It’s hot, sticky, damp and humid, with a constant light drizzle which isn’t at all refreshing. Every so often there’s a flash of summer lightning in the sky, so far away the thunder can’t even be heard. The world is quiet, and I have the desire to do something creative but not the energy to do it. I can picture any number of opening scenes in my head, but lack the power to describe. Time for the third cold shower of the day. I can picture a closing scene, but don’t know how to reach it.
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Keyword noise: hot, humid, summer, thunder, weather.
In which we are not as wet as we might have been
Published at 10:31 pm on May 29th, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Last weekend, feeling like we needed a holiday, we went away and pitched the tent. And it rained. The tent, fortunately, didn’t leak, but we ended up with great puddles round the door, a wading trip whenever we wanted to go in or out. Our last morning, we looked out to see ducks sitting and paddling in the water.
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Keyword noise: camping, Cheddar, ducks, flooding, holiday, rain, Somerset, weather.
In which we remember how cold it was in Wales
Published at 9:01 pm on April 3rd, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary, Photobloggery.
All of a sudden, this week, summer seems to be on the way. It can’t just be that we’re doing everything an hour later than we were a week ago. There’s something particular about a cool summer morning, or a drowsy summer evening, that this week has in spades.
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Keyword noise: Blaenau Ffestiniog, Caernarfon, Eryri, Ffestiniog, Llechwedd, Afon Menai, Menai Strait, Cymru, Gogledd Cymru, North Wales, photography, rain, seasons, Snowdonia, Wales, weather.
In which we’re weatherbeaten
Published at 9:54 pm on March 27th, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Yes, typical. I write something about how unreliable the long-range weather forecast is, and what happens? It’s right for once. And the short term forecast – no snow in Wales – was wrong, too. We had a weekend of rain, sleet, snow, hail, wind. When I started to put the tent up, and was engulfed in a cloud of hail, I should have known it was a bad sign.
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Keyword noise: Cymru, tywydd, camping, hail, holiday, rain, snow, Wales, weather, wind.
In which we worry about the weather
Published at 10:49 pm on March 19th, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary, Geekery.
In which we're warm on holiday
Published at 12:26 pm on February 17th, 2008
Filed under: Dear Diary, The Family.
“Ooh, how are you going to cope with the weather,” everyone said, when I told them I was going to Riga. “You’d better get some warm clothes.”
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Keyword noise: climate, clothing, cold, holiday, Latvia, Riga, shopping, travel, weather.
In which we think about flooding and chance
Published at 10:56 pm on January 21st, 2008
Filed under: Geekery, Political.
In the summer, we had big floods up here, worse floods than anyone in this village could remember. It was, apparently, a once in fifty years event.
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Keyword noise: climate change, flooding, Hull, probability, rain, statistics, weather.
In which we can see the weather coming
Published at 3:22 pm on August 10th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which sometimes things can be too successful
Published at 11:53 am on July 21st, 2007
Filed under: Linkery, Unbelievable.
In which I have nothing to say for once
Published at 6:04 pm on July 10th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary, Feeling Meh.
In which there is a flood, and the flood sirens stay silent as per specification
Published at 8:51 am on June 16th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary, Political.
A few months back now, the famously low-quality Local Council decided to spend lots and lots of money on flood warning equipment. They picked the most advanced flood warning system they could find, and erected enormous, giant-scale towers around the town, with large banks of speakers on top. They published maps of the town, with circles spattered over them, looking rather like those 1980s maps of nuclear blast radius,* so everyone knew which areas would be able to hear the flood sirens.
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Keyword noise: alarm, flood warning, flooding, Grimsby, Lincolnshire, North East Lincolnshire, rain, siren, weather.
Or, postcards from Cornwall
Published at 1:35 pm on May 28th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which summer breaks through the fog
Published at 6:32 pm on March 27th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
When I write posts on here, I normally write the title first, then ramble on about it.
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Keyword noise: driving, British Summer Time, daylight savings time, fog, Hull, Humber Bridge, seasons, summer, weather, Yorkshire.
Or, I think I've caught something
Published at 7:32 pm on March 20th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which the weather gets cold again
Published at 10:32 am on February 10th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Now, I know we haven’t seen the slightest bit of snow here in the Forest this week. But even so, I don’t see why it’s a major news story just because it happens in London. I suppose, as Diamond Geezer pointed out, there’s a good chance this will be the last time London ever gets heavy snow, so I suppose they should all make the most of it.
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Keyword noise: snow, weather, winter.
I wish I carried my camera around with me everywhere. I don’t, because it’s too large and heavy and valuable to take it everywhere with me. There are so many pictures I wish I could have caught, which I’ve missed. I used to keep a sketchbook with very rough sketches of some of them, all far better photos than any of the ones I’ve taken.
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Keyword noise: dawn, fog, ink polaroids, landscape, mist, winter, weather.
In which we know it’s winter
Published at 10:27 pm on January 21st, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which the weather keeps the camera indoors
Published at 10:15 pm on January 13th, 2007
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Today was going to be a photo-post day, but with the continued weather it wasn’t sensible to go out with the camera, despite the beauty of the clouds over the Heath. A sky full of little scudders, each angled up against the plain of the horizon, each blowing across a dark background, far more regular than anything natural should have been.
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Keyword noise: clouds, sky, weather, winter.
Room 3B (the IT Office) lies deep inside the building. We never get fresh air, and there’s never any sign what time of day it is outside, or what the weather’s doing. Rain, sun, snow, whatever, nothing ever reaches Room 3B.
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Keyword noise: air conditioning, weather, wind.
The fog is thick all over the country at the moment, but it’s only now it is affecting The South that it makes it into the news. Up here in The Forest we’ve had thick fog all week, but it hasn’t troubled the press at all. I’ve been driving the Town route home rather than the normal Country route,* because a fog-bump at 30mph is a lot safer, to my mind, than one at 70.
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Keyword noise: books, children's books, Epiphany, fantasy, fog, literature, new year, seasons, solstice, Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising, weather, winter solstice, Yuletide.
No, that has nothing to do with the content of this post. It’s just a nice word that I’ve just discovered, flipping through the dictionary whilst chatting on the phone. Let me know what you think it means.*
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Keyword noise: frost, ice, seasons, weather, winter.
In which we sit back and don’t let other people stop us enjoying life
Published at 3:13 pm on October 31st, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary.
It’s not only Friday again, but it’s my last day in the office until July. Hurrah! Come Sunday, I’m off down to London for a week, to mooch around museums, go to a Shimura Curves gig, do some geek-shopping, and generally get up to nefarious stuff. I’ve already arranged to meet a few intimidating internet people, who, I suspect, are not to be trifled with; but if anyone else would like to stalk meet me, get in touch.
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Keyword noise: Big Dave, campaigning, camping, congratulations, gig, holiday, London, music, rain, Shimura Curves, travel, weather.
In which the photos are not the ones we had planned
Published at 8:56 am on May 1st, 2006
Filed under: Artistic, Photobloggery.
In which things get hot and sticky at the office
Published at 9:03 pm on April 25th, 2006
Filed under: The Old Office.
It’s still only spring, and it’s becoming rather clear that our new office was rather badly planned. It’s a two-person office, with lots of computers in it,* no windows, no air conditioning, and a door which, we’re told, must remain closed. The only concession to ventilation is a small extractor fan – the only incoming air is from the corridor. The fan itself was an after-thought, installed after the office secretary started campaigning for us.
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Keyword noise: airflow, buildings, cooling, heat, office, overheating, temperature, ventilation, weather.
In which we are over-optimistic about it being beach weather
Published at 10:29 pm on April 5th, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Driving to work this morning: the sun was warm, and the sky blue. Leaving the office at lunch time: the car was hot, and I zoomed along with the windows down.* “Lovely,” I thought, “why not go to the beach?”
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Keyword noise: beach, lunch, rain, sea, seaside, summer, weather.
In which we want to snuggle up by the fire
Published at 9:47 pm on March 27th, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary.
In which it feels like summer
Published at 9:23 pm on March 25th, 2006
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Went for a walk on the beach today, to try out a new camera lens.* I’m told that brisk exertion can be good when you’re feeling down; and struggling through the biting wind across the dunes always seems to leave me more cheerful than I was before. When I was too tired for the sand, I moved down and walked along the firm mud at the edge of the saltmarsh instead.
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Keyword noise: beach, cold, photography, Nikon, walking, weather, wind.
In which we make an intrepid trip to the office
Published at 9:41 pm on December 29th, 2005
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Driving in snow isn’t something I’ve ever done before, as far as I can remember. Today, I had to shovel a couple of inches off the windscreen before slowly trundling off towards the office.
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Keyword noise: driving, hazard, snow, weather, winter.
In which it feels like Yuletide for once
Published at 6:25 pm on November 26th, 2005
Filed under: Dear Diary.
Yesterday,* we had the first snow of winter. When I left the house in the morning it was cold but dry; ten minutes from the office a few flakes started to appear in the air, and by the time I was inside at my desk everywhere already had a good covering.
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Keyword noise: Yuletide, Christmas, ice, seasons, snow, weather, winter.
In which the city makes me think of music
Published at 3:21 pm on July 20th, 2002
Filed under: The Old Blog, Dear Diary.
Of course, in the end we didn’t discuss Festival stuff at all, just drank ate and gossipped. After that, we wandered round the New Town looking for ideal places for our next Picnic (next Saturday), and looking in people’s front windows.
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Keyword noise: Edinburgh, The Clientele, rain, weather.
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