Summer - It's Official

The weather certainly wasn't summer-like at the British Grand Prix this morning.
Cool winds and some rain - even Lewis Hamilton was wearing a 'Puffa Coat' !!!
http://www.puffa.com/

Glad to see he got pole

All the best Jan

graham64 wrote:Actually surprising as it may seem we do get better weather here in Lancs than they do in Cumbria the Lake District is a good example of that

Someone has to! Well everywhere has to really.

When I was doing distance driving it could involve going through several different kinds of weather just on a single journey. This year we just have to stay in the same place and several different kinds of weather come to us, last few days have been like April, which I don't think April itself was this year.

chris c wrote:

graham64 wrote:Actually surprising as it may seem we do get better weather here in Lancs than they do in Cumbria the Lake District is a good example of that

Someone has to! Well everywhere has to really.

When I was doing distance driving it could involve going through several different kinds of weather just on a single journey. This year we just have to stay in the same place and several different kinds of weather come to us, last few days have been like April, which I don't think April itself was this year.

I can recall travelling over Shap before the motorway arrived that was were you could get the real extremes of weather.

graham64 wrote:

I can recall travelling over Shap before the motorway arrived that was were you could get the real extremes of weather.

Oh yes, the motorway had arrived by the time I went there though. Used to love the northern end of the M6 and the M62 before it got all busy.

I remember once walking up a Welsh mountain, and just before we reached the summit a snowstorm came over the top from the next valley.

We beat a hasty retreat, and partway down we met the snow line, it was quite freaky actually. There was literally a line across the slope, and above it it was snowing, below it had turned to rain. That horrid particularly Welsh type of rain that got inside your clothes no matter what you did. By the time we got back to the car we all weighed about twice what we did when we set off. Another definition of "water weight".

Harvest is continuing, after a fashion. The next farmer over was in the rape. Got all round the edge of the field and stopped, and the engineer came out again. After a while it started raining again and they all drove back to the farm.

Strange, both combines are New Holland which usually have a good reputation, and both fairly new. A couple of small farms a way away have vintage New Hollands, 40 - 50 years old, which come out and do their thing every year with just the occasional snapped drive belt or broken knife. Not so sure some of the modern ones will last that long.

Today it was roasting again and he got quite a lot more of the rape in before stopping, maybe it was still a bit damp or not quite ripe yet, sometimes it is shedding at the bottom of the hill and they have stopped part way up and come back maybe as much as a week later to do the top half.

My thyroid has been playing silly buggers again, after a long period with an average Carbimazole dose of probably 17.5 mg it went off on one and I increased to 30mg, then 40mg for about a week, now it's suddenly shut down and turned me into a zombie again. I'm carefully dropping the dose back, hopefully I can get out further than just around the town/shops tomorrow.

Fortunately I had sausages, and beef, and liver and bacon, and did I mention the first local RUNNER BEANS? Yum!

Sorry your "thyroid has been playing silly buggers again" Chris - hope it sorts itself out soon.

Hey! You'll be ok with your first lot of "RUNNER BEANS" ... they go so nicely with lamb, sausages, beef, liver, pork, fish ... Enjoy

... after a nice dry, warm and sunny day, we now have thunder, lightening, heavy rain and strong wind ... the British summer you never know what to expect!

All the best Jan

Well the beans didn't take long to disappear, I wonder where they all went (belch)

Yes that was seriously ungood. I made it round the supermarket without getting too exhausted then walked down to the viewing platform at the Hen Reedbed and sat in the glorious sunshine. Not a great deal to see, just the Usual Suspects, and I was joined by a woman from Essex - the civilised end - and we did a load of reminiscing about how things were and how they have changed.

In view of the forecast I decided to eat early (sausages and broccoli) and get my head down, and the thunder woke me in the early hours. Unplugged the router and aerials and went and lay down in the downstairs bedroom, well away from metal objects just to be on the safe side while the storm raged. Typical Spanish Plume type storm, it was huge. Absolutely bucketed down with rain and there were huge lightning ground strikes and continuous thunder in all directions and all distances for a few hours, including some very close ones but as far as I can see no houses or trees were hit. It got the power lines a few times though. As often happens there was some pretty bad lightning including multiple strikes on the same point coming out from the tail of the cell.

Went back to bed for a bit and overslept and failed to get my recycling bin out in time. Oh well I didn't have that much rubbish, it can wait another fortnight.

The sun dried things out nicely, the rape field was finished and he got quite a way into the next field. I could see several other combines out, kicking up major dust clouds.

Mr Thyroid seems to have calmed down a lot, I only did 20mg Carbimazole so far, I'll probably do another 10mg before going to bed just to be on the safe side and by tomorrow I should have enough energy back to go round the town and the farm shop, and see if a friend has runners out in his roadside stall yet, and get a walk in somewhere. I still have no clue what sets it off, not diet, not heat, not daylength, not exercise. Theoretically it's autoimmune.

We missed all the heavy storms though not far from here there was some flash floods with thunder lightning, after a humid day on Wednesday with sunny spells we did have some overnight rain, today has been a decent day to 

Yes I worried about you and Derek a bit when I watched the TV news. Lucky you missed them.

The clouds looked to be breaking the other day so I got my laundry out and my walking boots on. Ten minutes later it started to rain and after a while it was hurling it down again, followed by a triumphant flash of lightning and a big bang.

Sod it, I thought, they're towels, they're used to being wet, and left them out overnight. By the following day's end they were blow-dried nicely.

Then I remembered one of those delightfully surreal conversations we sometimes have around these parts - known as talking squit.

I was in a shop when there was a sudden rain squall.

"Oh damn! I left my laundry out"

"I'll put mine out when we get home" said a woman.

"But it'll be dark!" her husband replied.

"S'allroit, it's a nightdress!"

It's been like sodding March. Cold enough that I was seriously considering fetching a winter woollie, and even when the sun's been out there's been a chill wind.

chris c wrote:It's been like sodding March. Cold enough that I was seriously considering fetching a winter woollie, and even when the sun's been out there's been a chill wind.

Yes the weather has been a lot cooler.

Talking to a friend the other day, she said she'd put her heating on

For me , in July,  it would have been an extra jumper or cardigan ... but each to their own

Anyway so far today we have seen sunshine, clouds ... just waiting for the showers

All the best Jan

Think we've entered the monsoon season   Set off on to go to town on Monday when the heavens opened made for difficult driving with poor visibility due to the heavy rain and spray, fast forward to Today and the same thing happened 

Summer it isn't !!!
Wind and rain and feeling chilly  
YUCK  !

All the best Jan

Oh dear even when raining leisure plans do not always work out as expected ...

With the grandchildren being on school summer holidays and this weeks weather turning wet and miserable, like many other parents our son and daughter-in-law thought an afternoon trip to the cinema would be ideal!

Only trouble was many others had this idea and the afternoon showing was fully booked !

Never mind they thought and spent time at home watching a DVD ...

Perhaps just as well, apparently the town that they had tried to book cinema tickets experienced a power cut and the cinema go'ers did not get to see the film!!!

... it's still not at all like summer is it, just looking out at the trees blowing in the wind it will definitely be jacket weather when I go out later

Hope summer is not proving too dis-appointing for you  

All the best Jan

It's looking like being a really crap summer just looked at the 16 day outlook and it's not good plenty more rain and low temperatures think global warming is passing us by 

We had summer back in April, now we're having April in July. Rain, wind, cold, thunder, sun, more rain, I can't keep up . . .

After a cloudy morning the sun came out   it was a bit breezy which helped dry the grass out so managed to mow the lawns 

Due to the weather of late I'm that far behind with the garden I could do with a dry spell to catch up

Seeing this on the news ...

"Parts of Europe are experiencing their most extreme heat in more than a decade as temperatures hit 44C (111F).

Several countries have issued health warnings as this week's record-breaking weather conditions continue to affect swathes of the continent.

Sweltering temperatures in Italy have sparked wildfires, and dozens of towns and cities are on the health ministry's maximum heat alert.
The heatwave has left some regions facing the threat of severe drought. "

More here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40825668

I'm quite pleased that our temperatures are cooler, of course those who are on holiday or doing their best to look after gardens, farms etc. may not be quite so pleased ...

Our nearby neighbours have once more got a fantastic bouncy castle in the garden so great fun has been had today and no doubt over the weekend. The kids are loving it ... fortunately the weather has not been too bad today sunshine and clouds, although a little breezy.

All the best Jan

For me the temperature today has been lovely 21C, which is about 70F. Perfect for being out and about enjoying a stroll around the local neighbourhood.

I noticed there were some very nice wild roses growing as well as the more formal garden varieties, I think it's been a good year for roses.

The bedding plants looked good to, lovely colour and I think with the more inclement weather not so much watering has been needed this year ...

Not sure what the weather for the coming week will be, as long as it's not too hot like some of the countries on the European Continent are experiencing, I wont mind.

All the best Jan

Well Monday has started cloudy and still cool ... certainly not beach weather, but maybe a walk with a light summer coat could be in order later !

Our three youngest grandchildren have been enjoying their summer holidays - have a look here for some summer fun and smiles

https://thelowcarbdiabetic.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/summer-fun-and-smiles-you-just-cant.html

All the best Jan

I can't keep up, the sun comes out and I decide after this coffee I'll go for a walk, but by then it has clouded over, the wind's gotten up or it's raining again . . .

Same here rain and odd sunny spells and cold more in keeping with October 

Not been bad here stayed dry with sunny spells still on the cool side though 

What a difference a day makes ...
All the rain yesterday and today sunshine and a few clouds - think you must have sent some of your sunshine down to us Graham ... thanks. LOL

All the best Jan