It's Autumn 2017

What a difference a day can make, from yesterdays grey, wet and dismal day to glorious Autumn sunshine today ... and apparently much warmer weather for some coming soon ... unless you live in parts of the UK that may be battered by storm Ophelia

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hurricane-ophelia-due-to-hit-uk-on-anniversary-of-the-great-storm_uk_59df37b1e4b00abf36467191?utm_hp_ref=uk-weather

If you are unlucky to catch the storm ... put the kettle on and enjoy a cuppa  

All the best Jan

Has been a tad windy at times, but I've made the most of the sun.

My Virginia Creeper has been magnificent, but not for as long as some years before dropping its leaves. Some of the others around the area have gone over already. My golden dogwood is at its most lemony yellow and there has been a mass reflowering from one clump of Japanese Honeysuckle, which smells delightfully of marmalade. Elsewhere a lot of field and other maples in the hedges along with haws, hips and bryony berries. Haven't yet seen or heard any winter thrushes though there has been a bit of an increase in Starling numbers.

Squirrel with nut stuffing, must be low carb.

Yesterday was totally weird, I took the car in for its service in the afternoon and had intended to walk down the road and up a back lane, but the sun went in. I thought it was because the garage had tinted windows that the sky looked strange, but when I went out the sky actually was brown and the sun actually was malevolent orange, and I could smell smoke. Allegedly that was from the fires in Portugal, plus sand from the Sahara, all brought north on the hurricane that mercifully this time left us untouched. I was in Sussex for the Original Hurricane, and most of the woods I knew there and in Surrey were wrecked, except for some undamaged pockets.

Yes, the weather recently has certainly been weird with very unusual colour skies ...did they blame that on Orphelia?

Last night we had very strong gusts of wind and today the weather forecasters are talking about a 'Weather Bomb' about to hit certain areas.

Descriptions of weather are certainly different to how they were years ago!

More details about the forthcoming weather here

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/storm-brian-to-drop-70mph-gales-weather-bomb-on-saturday_uk_59e9c07fe4b0f9d35bc9d0f1?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D-56659430_uk

Take Care and Keep Safe

All the best Jan

Well I barely had the car back for a day, nicely valeted, when a Rook with a massive arse crapped all over the windscreen and bonnet.

Think I'll have a word with the gamekeeper who lives in the next street

http://www.shootinguk.co.uk/recipes/rook-pie-recipe-15406

Beautiful sunny day so I washed my winter woollies from when I ditched them in spring and put them on the line to blow dry. Went to the farm shop, and a walk on the common, and a drive around on the way home, then forgot to fetch them in and they got drownded. Ah well, they've had an extra good rinse now and can finish drying indoors, I have the heating back on.

Our weather sometimes differs from what was predicted - when it's coming from the west it runs up against the sea breeze from the east and stalls. Currently it's very still and I'm sure I saw stars earlier but it's clouded over again. Sounds like tonight/tomorrow may not be totally pleasant. Am I fussed? No, I have food. And Twitter. I might even get around to paying some bills.

Can't say I'd seen a rook recipe until now!
Like the addition of grated carrot and celeriac, and I'm sure there could be a lower carb version to this recipe
We had so much rain last night, pleased we were in the warm.
Surprised to see some nice Autumn sunshine this morning. Weather forecasts can be great and helpful, but a good look out of the window sometimes works well too.

May just have to put my walking shoes on later ... of course I'll be back in time for Strictly! LOL!

All the best Jan

It's Autumn, and this tree provides us all with magical childhood memories ...


Poignant memories of playing conkers may have contributed to the Horse Chestnut being crowned the UK's favourite tree.

The tree, which was introduced into Britain from Turkey in the 16th century, won over 25 per cent of the vote in a poll of 2,500 people carried out by the Royal Society of Biology (RSB).

The Horse Chestnut beat 14 other trees to the top spot, including the Elder and Ash.
The Silver Birch came in second place with nearly 15 per cent of the vote, while the English Oak was third with about nine per cent.
Speaking to the 'Telegraph', St John Burkett, an organiser of the annual World Conker Championships, in Northamptonshire, said: "The Horse Chestnut is a beautiful looking tree and people associate it with the countryside, although it is found everywhere.
"People think back to their childhood and collecting conkers, which is magic - they are just absolutely beautiful things."

There are over 470,000 Horse Chestnut trees in Britain. Highlighting the importance and beauty of trees, Dr Laura Bellingan FRSB, the RSB's director of policy and public affairs, said: "They provide us with cleaner air, building materials, food and fuel, flood management; they are home to a wide range of wildlife, from insects to mammals; and they are beautiful.

"Urban trees can brighten up our cities, whilst many woodlands are beneficial and relaxing environments for thousands of visitors."

Have you a favourite tree?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/22/horse-chestnut-crowned-uks-favourite-tree/

All the best Jan

Oh yes I used to walk in a wood, going right back from the early sixties to the start of this century.

During that time there were a lot of changes, some of the commercial forestry was felled and replanted and quite a lot got blown down in the Original Hurricane, but one constant was the Horse Chestnuts that lined the ride from one end to the other. They were very photogenic in spring as the leaves and then flowers emerged from the "sticky buds", and even more so as they coloured up in autumn. I should scan some of my old slides.

There are some crackers hereabouts too, including the main streets of some of the villages, but in recent years they've been hit by some disease which turns the leaves brown early so they aren't as picturesque as they used to be.

Out locally earlier and the roads and pavements seemed to be covered with falling leaves ...
Looking up at the trees - still more leaves to come down.
It's a never ending job for some gardeners at this time of year

Keep fortified with a nice cuppa - or perhaps something a little stronger

All the best Jan

It's mid-week already !

Such a lovely sunny day at the moment ...

Hope you're having a good one.

All the best Jan

I realised I hadn't walked the beach at Walberswick since the car park stopped charging at the end of September. It was surprisingly mild, except for the breeze which for once was coming from the south and was less on the beach than landward. There were huge numbers of kids with their families crabbing off the bridges. One cute little girl told me with round eyes she had caught 84, and her even cuter mother said that recently they'd caught 147!

An expected number of gulls around but not many birds, like no Turnstones - probably the huge quantity of people and their dogs on the beach was keeping them away. I spotted a few flocks of Brent Geese flying south, some almost skimming the top of the waves, and a big flock of larger geese too far away to identify flying upriver to the estuary.

Trees and hedges are continuing to colour up. There was a flock of Starlings parking on the TV aerials and swirling around the rooftops catching insects of some sort, later replaced with some Black-headed Gulls. Fortunately whatever they were catching wasn't coming into the house, but there was a magnificent Peacock (butterfly) in the garden.

I'm getting really confused trying to remember what I did on which day, and what I ate afterwards.

chris c wrote:

I'm getting really confused trying to remember what I did on which day, and what I ate afterwards.

LOL! I know the feeling, yesterday I was thinking it was Friday.
I can't remember what I did on Wednesday
And of course tomorrow we alter the clocks
More confusion ...

All the best Jan

A couple addressed me by name walking through the town.

"I recognise you but I can't remember who you are"

"We're your neighbours from just down the street"

"Go home so that I know who you are!"

I sometimes do the same with other people I know when they aren't in their shops. Actually I remember everything, it's the recall that is shot, I have to scroll through pages of things I don't need to remember but can't forget, until I get to the relevant stuff.

I routinely forget people's names, then remember them when I meet the next person whose name I've forgotten.

Autumn often brings fog - but today it's radiation fog!!!

'Radiation fog' descends on the UK as Met Office issues severe weather warning

Britain is set to be hit by 'radiation fog' and a severe weather warning.

The dense fog moved in overnight, sparking several crashes on the nation's roads.

The Met Office has warned motorists to show extreme caution while it lasts.

The first warning ran from early on Thursday morning and another has been issued for Thursday night into Friday morning.

The burning questions for most of us then are how long will this last and what's caused it?

What's causing the fog?

Max Box at the Met Office confirmed Britain has been experiencing radiation fog - but don't be alarmed, it's nothing to do with radioactive material.

Read more about this here
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/radiation-fog-descends-uk-met-11459412

All the best Jan

Hmmm, seem to have missed that. We often get a "sea fret" which can drift quite high along the coast while it stays fine inland. Once we drove all the way down to Bawdsey in thick fog, but only a mile or so inland it was wall to wall sunshine.

It just can't make its mind up at the moment, a sunny day will suddenly cloud over, then clear again just as the sun goes down, like today for example. I left my laundry out to finish drying, crashed out briefly after my sausages and broccoli and a glass of Malbec, then when I woke up it was pissing down. Oh well, part of the laundry stayed dry . . .

Do you think this morning was the coldest morning of the Autumn?
I'd say yes ...
Lots of frost everywhere and windscreens being scraped - or de-iced!



All the best Jan

I slept in too late to see the frost but I'm pretty sure I felt it. The rest of the day was, well let's say bracing. Shouldn't be surprised really, the general mildness of most of the autumn means I haven't yet realised how late in the year it actually is.

Donkey Tree (Stag's Horn Sumach) has gone from its usual stained glass window effect to almost naked quite fast. I need to get a tree surgeon in to demolish it, and also the apple tree which has rather outgrown its space. The problem is that even editing it, as I've done before, causes masses of suckers to shoot up out of the roots, in the lawn, through the bottom of the pond and even out in the edge of the field.

The oaks are currently colouring up, about a month earlier than last year.

Do you know ...
I'm never too sure when Autumn ends and winter starts!

"Meteorological winter season

The meteorological winter begins on 1 December 2017 and will end on 28 February 2018.
The meteorological seasons consists of splitting the seasons into four periods made up of three months each. These seasons are split to coincide with our Gregorian calendar making it easier for meteorological observing and forecasting to compare seasonal and monthly statistics. By the meteorological calendar, winter always starts on 1 December.

The seasons are defined as spring (March, April, May), summer (June, July, August), autumn (September, October, November) and winter (December, January, February).

Astronomical winter season

The astronomical winter begins on 21 December 2017 and ends on 20 March 2018.
The astronomical calendar determines the seasons due to the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth's rotational axis in relation to its orbit around the sun. Both equinoxes and solstices are related to the Earth's orbit around the sun.

Taken from here
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/seasons/winter/when-does-winter-start

Anyway it's been another chilly Autumn day made chillier when I went into my local Sainsbury's ...
Their heating wasn't working

All the best Jan

I've been known to drop into the Co-Op just to stand in front of the chiller cabinets for a while to cool down. This time of year, not so much!

chris c wrote:I've been known to drop into the Co-Op just to stand in front of the chiller cabinets for a while to cool down. This time of year, not so much!

This time of year I sometimes linger longer to appreciate the warmth

Got some lovely King Prawns to do a Thai Stir Fry tonight with cauliflower couscous ... oh! did I mention the bottle of Pinot that's chilling

All the best Jan

King prawns are one of those things I always have in my freezer, quite delicious and take next to no time to cook. I had them the other night in a stir-fry using coconut oil, along with some bacon (sometimes I use cashews) multicoloured peppers and chillies and garlic and a tin of crab. A splash of toasted sesame oil too, but I forgot the lime juice so now I'll have to have another one! Maybe with the avocado.

What a glorious morning we awoke to

Glorious blue sky and sunshine ... well yes, there was frost too, but I love days like these.
Just need a few more layers on when going out

All the best Jan

Was that the New Forest? Looks like the original tree blew down in the hurricane and its branches turned into new treetrunks.

Two days sunny but cold, interspersed with some surprising showers. It almost looked and felt like snow, but not quite.