We just had a very brief light rain shower in London. First precipitation I've seen in months! If I hadn't been in a meeting discussing the difference between margin and profit I'd have gone outside and done a Snoopy happy dance in it.
Eldest Beaky daughter and children are as I write being dropped by Husband Beaky at Gatwick airport to begin their LONG journey home to the Far North of New Zealand.
She is returning to a very difficult situation so saying goodbye has left me feeling anxious and in all honesty a little bit desolate.
But we have made some truly wonderful memories together as a whole family and for that I am very thankful indeed!
Trip to the town for hearing checks. Mrs Sioni in first at her soft-spoken daughter’s prompting(nagging). Turns out she does have hearing loss in the conversational frequencies, so another test for hearing aids in a couple of weeks. That should have been followed by my annual check, but someone arranged it for next Tuesday, so we shall be in town at least twice more.
Oh, and Mrs Sioni took a couple of rings to a jeweller, one for resizing (not cheap) and another for a new stone. The goldsmith will make recommendations so we could end up investing in rock.
Mixed sort of day here re: weather; I was woken by the rain rattling on the wheelie bins outside my window, and decided closed-toe shoes and a raincoat would be a wise idea. By the time I left for work it had more-or-less stopped, but started again around lunchtime. I didn't need to go out, so I didn't, and by five o'clock it was once again Very Wet. It didn't come to much though, so I wasn't as drookit as I might have been. Very warm though: 22°!!
Supper was haddock Kyiv with potato salad. I must do some grocery shopping tomorrow; I'm running out of things I can chuck together and call it "cooking".
The leitmotif of my ongoing treatment seems to be repetition. So, three surgeries: now, CT scan as prep for radiotherapy - not satisfactory. So back to surgery, to drain wound, then another scan before that can be rescheduled. Also tomorrow to see oncologist about another treatment which was supposed to happen already, but administrative balls-up. At least I hope that's what it's about.
Jigsaw has been started and one draw decluttered ahead of the new storage units I ordered last night arriving. Husband and I now agree we probably should have decorated the room first, but as I'm still dithering as to what colour I'd like maybe that can wait till later.
None of the rain promised , except a few drops this morning, has materialised.
Although we are ten minutes from the centre of our town, we’re right on the edge with lots of fields nearby. There is certainly rather a niff in the air.
Sains delivery man, just after 8am said it was trying to rain. I said I didn't think it would come to much, going by what we've experienced up to now.
About 15mins later Mr RoS went outside & shouted that it was "pouring with rain".
Not having seen any through the whole of July I stepped outside to experience it for myself,
but whatever rain there had been was already just a trickle, and the only evidence of rain on the ground was individual spots surrounded by obviously bone dry paving. The sun came out shortly afterwards, plus a blustery wind, and it has stayed like that ever since.
This morning I visited my sister in her care home. She was on good form, so much so that she talked about moving out into a flat. Obviously that is not going to happen ( she has been in residential care for over 25 years) but is a sign of how well she is feeling that she imagines she could cope.
This evening I am eating out with a choir friend, so I am looking forward to that, a rare event.
It absolutely poured rain on our way to the supermarket this morning. We got wet as we got out of the car. Had a laugh with another soggy customer as we got our trolleys. Such fun!
Quite a bit of cloud here and very windy but no rain. I went walking with the Ramblers this morning, a shortish walk in the local area but I walked to and from the start of it so in the end it was about six miles. This afternoon has been fairly lazy, but I did finish my jigsaw.
The new storage I ordered has arrived but we're thinking of leaving it in the garage until we've painted the study. I can't decide between dusky pink or sage green.
Mostly grey weather here today, with a side order of bluster. As I was coming home, there was a bloke shovelling sand beside the pavement (not sure why - maybe mixing cement?). Whatever, in the wind, the sand was making a bee-line for my eyes, which I only shielded just in time as I went past.
It's cooled down enough that I've just closed the sitting room windows for the first time in weeks.
Supper was pasta with prawns, mushrooms and tomatoes.
Things are a lot more comfortable temperature-wise in the Wilds of Wiltshire, with a lively breeze. When I went out just now to get the washing in it was Actually A Bit Chilly. Can't remember the last time I felt any sort of chilly. We had a smidge of rain this morning - just enough to pepper the ground with a few brief damp patches.
I hope your appointment with the oncologist today went ok, or as you were expecting, @Firenze .
Very weary this evening - no real reason why, as I've just been hanging around the house waiting for certain deliveries and people coming to inspect the new solar system installation. The latter is generally Mr Nen's department but he had to be out at an all-day meeting. It's nearly 10pm so I reckon I can decently crawl into bed with my current comfort re-read - The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge.
Very jealous of those getting rain - I think there's been an occasional few drops here and there, but generally still bone dry around here. And we really need the rain! I think the bands of rain got buffeted away from us by the Isle of Wight.
Very jealous of those getting rain - I think there's been an occasional few drops here and there, but generally still bone dry around here. And we really need the rain! I think the bands of rain got buffeted away from us by the Isle of Wight.
We find that promised rain from the south-west usually makes it as far as the Isle of Wight, but somewhere between there and Brighton it heads up towards the north east and, even if it manages to rain on Brighton it loses any inclination to move further along the coast.
Of course, when it does get past Brighton we usually get absolutely drenched, and a day or two of that would be welcome at the moment
What is this thing called Rain™ of which you all speak? There's been none in Arkland the Parched for weeks, and my car is so dusty that it looks as though I live in the Gobi Desert or similar...
ION, I've booked the ferry to Orkney next week, and when I posted about it on Farcebark, the Cathedral organist replied asking me to sing with the choir while I'm up.
I have never actually visited Scotland before, despite strong links with Scottish people/residents via SCM - having always lived in the English Midlands or further south, it's always seemed just a bit too far away when France is nearer. The heatwave has made me determined to visit more Northerly Climes in summertime rather than sweltering on the South Coast.
Come to Scotland and experience Autumn! Chilly, cloudy, yellowing trees - we have it all. Though I notice some folk dress by the calendar - It's Summer! T-shirts! Shorts! Sandals! Others by the actual weather.
Very hospitalish week. Short-notice appointment on Tuesday for a CT scan, ahead of radiotherapy. Unfortunately unsatisfactory because of fluid from the last surgery. Wednesday the oncologist, plus another morning call to go to the Breast Clinic. In the middle of that appointment- which was to drain the fluid - yet another phone call from Ward 1 (outpatients) which ended up with me getting the missing treatment that I'd been seeing the oncologist about - with me so far?
Home eventually- and another call. So going in this morning for repeat CT. Turbo NHS.
The new storage I ordered has arrived but we're thinking of leaving it in the garage until we've painted the study. I can't decide between dusky pink or sage green.
The new storage I ordered has arrived but we're thinking of leaving it in the garage until we've painted the study. I can't decide between dusky pink or sage green.
These are lovely together 🙂
Yes, they really are lovely when used together.
My architect/ designer son-in-law used them in their utility room and hallway which are the accessible approach into grandson Huxley's bedroom and it looks very fetching indeed.
Very jealous of those getting rain - I think there's been an occasional few drops here and there, but generally still bone dry around here. And we really need the rain! I think the bands of rain got buffeted away from us by the Isle of Wight.
We are on Flood Alert ( the lowest of the three levels of warning) and a couple of areas nearby have experienced localised flooding.
I am co-organising a Heritage Walk next Wednesday, at 7. I've been round it, doing the trip hazard risk assessment etc, but the thing I didn't risk assess for was the risk of a partial solar eclipse! We'll be under streetlights, although at a couple of points the streetlights might be quite far apart.
I can't envisage what impact a partial eclipse might have. (78 % here at its peak at 7.13.) Anyone got any experience? Do I need to re-do my risk assessment, paying attention to the streetlights?
Any Elf 'n' Safety experts on board? It's a group of women, most / all of whom are over 50 and several are over 70.
Remembering 1999 and 2013ish, you will really notice the change in light level, and the change in temperature, but it won't be dangerously dark unless it was already a dreich day. Think just before the sun dips completely below the horizon.
It has been very pleasant in the Scillies - ideal weather for the little men's first bucket and spade holiday. The family are here until the weekend, at which point I'll be taking the boat to Ireland.
Very jealous of those getting rain - I think there's been an occasional few drops here and there, but generally still bone dry around here. And we really need the rain! I think the bands of rain got buffeted away from us by the Isle of Wight.
We are on Flood Alert ( the lowest of the three levels of warning) and a couple of areas nearby have experienced localised flooding.
I am co-organising a Heritage Walk next Wednesday, at 7. I've been round it, doing the trip hazard risk assessment etc, but the thing I didn't risk assess for was the risk of a partial solar eclipse! We'll be under streetlights, although at a couple of points the streetlights might be quite far apart.
I can't envisage what impact a partial eclipse might have. (78 % here at its peak at 7.13.) Anyone got any experience? Do I need to re-do my risk assessment, paying attention to the streetlights?
Any Elf 'n' Safety experts on board? It's a group of women, most / all of whom are over 50 and several are over 70.
AIR from an eclipse a few years ago - not totality, but a pretty high percentage - the effect was not darkness but an odd light murk. Pretty much like a summer twilight.
I'm waiting for my co-leader and the leader of the group we're taking round to get back to me.
We do have Public Liability Insurance, but I have no idea what it says about Partial Solar Eclipses (or indeed, what it says about anything. I just know that we've got it. My co-leader organises it.) We don't do evening walks Oct-April because it's "too dark" and I fear that the eclipse will push us into "too dark." Apparently the light will start to reduce at 6.20, be at minimal lightness at 7.13 and then will continue reduced until 8. So pretty much exactly co-inciding with our walk which is from 7-8.30.
As Firenze says a partial eclipse is pretty much like a summer sunset. Except in winter when it's overcast you don't need a lot of the sun to provide light to see by.
I don't think we're likely to see much of the eclipse down here in Arkland the Desiccated - or are we? I remember the total eclipse of 1999 - a most eerie and unnerving few minutes as the light failed, and the birds (along with pretty well everything else) fell silent...
The usual cocktail of Sun-Shine and Cloud here, and not too hot. 71F, but forecast to rise into the 80s over the weekend. I'm having a quiet day, just pottering about the Ark, and enjoying some nice LAMB CHOPS for lunch.
I'm awaiting delivery of a new tin of Paint, which I hope will be the same shade of Red Oxide as covers a good deal of the Ark, but out of which I have run. It's by the same manufacturer, a tin of Red Oxide from another firm having proved to be slightly lighter - not that it matters much in the general World Order of things...
It was the silence of the birds that made the greatest impression on me at the time, and is the first thing I think of whenever a solar eclipse is mentioned.
Can't say I was particularly impressed by the view I got with my pinhole viewer!
It was the silence of the birds that made the greatest impression on me at the time, and is the first thing I think of whenever a solar eclipse is mentioned.
Can't say I was particularly impressed by the view I got with my pinhole viewer!
Yes, it was the silence, together with the weak quality of the light...
I was working that day, and IIRC the eclipse was at its best (?) mid-morning, at least in Kent. There were lots of people gathered outside our local hospital (many of them with pinhole viewers), and they, too, were strangely hushed. An eerie experience.
I wonder if the North East latitude will make a difference to how you perceive the eclipse. I'm typing this about 140 miles south of you, at 8:15 at night, and it's still daylight.
I should be boarding the ferry to Orkney when it happens, and I'll be interested to see how it goes.
I was in Belfast for the 1999 one; it was cloudy, so maybe not as dramatic as it might have been. More like what Northern Isles folk call the Simmer Dim - that sort of twilight when it doesn't get properly dark.
Supper chez Piglet was chicken and mushroom orzotto.
I remember the 1999 eclipse. We lived in the Chilterns and climbed the hill for a vantage point. We made a pinhole camera to project the sun's image onto some paper. There were some smudges that I tried to rub off, but they were stubborn. It took a few minutes to realise they were sunspots.
Then there was the quiet and the cold. Nobody ever mentioned how cold it would get.
I was working in East London during the 1999 eclipse. We all stopped work and went out to experience it. The birds starting to sing again as it passed over was the thing I remember most.
I met up with my lip reading class for coffee this morning and have been for a walk this evening. other than that I haven't done much.
No nearer deciding on room colour. I know what colour green I like but can't decide on the exact pink shade. Farrow and Ball do one called Sulking Room Pink, but you can't chose a colour on the strength of the name
I remember the 1999 eclipse. We lived in the Chilterns and climbed the hill for a vantage point. We made a pinhole camera to project the sun's image onto some paper. There were some smudges that I tried to rub off, but they were stubborn. It took a few minutes to realise they were sunspots.
Then there was the quiet and the cold. Nobody ever mentioned how cold it would get.
Comments
Each to their own, of course.
It's stopped now.
She is returning to a very difficult situation so saying goodbye has left me feeling anxious and in all honesty a little bit desolate.
But we have made some truly wonderful memories together as a whole family and for that I am very thankful indeed!
Oh, and Mrs Sioni took a couple of rings to a jeweller, one for resizing (not cheap) and another for a new stone. The goldsmith will make recommendations so we could end up investing in rock.
Mixed sort of day here re: weather; I was woken by the rain rattling on the wheelie bins outside my window, and decided closed-toe shoes and a raincoat would be a wise idea. By the time I left for work it had more-or-less stopped, but started again around lunchtime. I didn't need to go out, so I didn't, and by five o'clock it was once again Very Wet. It didn't come to much though, so I wasn't as drookit as I might have been. Very warm though: 22°!!
Supper was haddock Kyiv with potato salad. I must do some grocery shopping tomorrow; I'm running out of things I can chuck together and call it "cooking".
None of the rain promised , except a few drops this morning, has materialised.
Although we are ten minutes from the centre of our town, we’re right on the edge with lots of fields nearby. There is certainly rather a niff in the air.
About 15mins later Mr RoS went outside & shouted that it was "pouring with rain".
Not having seen any through the whole of July I stepped outside to experience it for myself,
but whatever rain there had been was already just a trickle, and the only evidence of rain on the ground was individual spots surrounded by obviously bone dry paving. The sun came out shortly afterwards, plus a blustery wind, and it has stayed like that ever since.
Hopes dashed again!
This evening I am eating out with a choir friend, so I am looking forward to that, a rare event.
The new storage I ordered has arrived but we're thinking of leaving it in the garage until we've painted the study. I can't decide between dusky pink or sage green.
It's cooled down enough that I've just closed the sitting room windows for the first time in weeks.
Supper was pasta with prawns, mushrooms and tomatoes.
I hope your appointment with the oncologist today went ok, or as you were expecting, @Firenze .
Very weary this evening - no real reason why, as I've just been hanging around the house waiting for certain deliveries and people coming to inspect the new solar system installation. The latter is generally Mr Nen's department but he had to be out at an all-day meeting. It's nearly 10pm so I reckon I can decently crawl into bed with my current comfort re-read - The Dean's Watch by Elizabeth Goudge.
We find that promised rain from the south-west usually makes it as far as the Isle of Wight, but somewhere between there and Brighton it heads up towards the north east and, even if it manages to rain on Brighton it loses any inclination to move further along the coast.
Of course, when it does get past Brighton we usually get absolutely drenched, and a day or two of that would be welcome at the moment
ION, I've booked the ferry to Orkney next week, and when I posted about it on Farcebark, the Cathedral organist replied asking me to sing with the choir while I'm up.
I am an Inordinately Chuffed Piglet. 🙂
I have never actually visited Scotland before, despite strong links with Scottish people/residents via SCM - having always lived in the English Midlands or further south, it's always seemed just a bit too far away when France is nearer. The heatwave has made me determined to visit more Northerly Climes in summertime rather than sweltering on the South Coast.
Very hospitalish week. Short-notice appointment on Tuesday for a CT scan, ahead of radiotherapy. Unfortunately unsatisfactory because of fluid from the last surgery. Wednesday the oncologist, plus another morning call to go to the Breast Clinic. In the middle of that appointment- which was to drain the fluid - yet another phone call from Ward 1 (outpatients) which ended up with me getting the missing treatment that I'd been seeing the oncologist about - with me so far?
Home eventually- and another call. So going in this morning for repeat CT. Turbo NHS.
These are lovely together 🙂
Yes, they really are lovely when used together.
My architect/ designer son-in-law used them in their utility room and hallway which are the accessible approach into grandson Huxley's bedroom and it looks very fetching indeed.
We are on Flood Alert ( the lowest of the three levels of warning) and a couple of areas nearby have experienced localised flooding.
I am co-organising a Heritage Walk next Wednesday, at 7. I've been round it, doing the trip hazard risk assessment etc, but the thing I didn't risk assess for was the risk of a partial solar eclipse! We'll be under streetlights, although at a couple of points the streetlights might be quite far apart.
I can't envisage what impact a partial eclipse might have. (78 % here at its peak at 7.13.) Anyone got any experience? Do I need to re-do my risk assessment, paying attention to the streetlights?
Any Elf 'n' Safety experts on board? It's a group of women, most / all of whom are over 50 and several are over 70.
AIR from an eclipse a few years ago - not totality, but a pretty high percentage - the effect was not darkness but an odd light murk. Pretty much like a summer twilight.
We do have Public Liability Insurance, but I have no idea what it says about Partial Solar Eclipses (or indeed, what it says about anything. I just know that we've got it. My co-leader organises it.) We don't do evening walks Oct-April because it's "too dark" and I fear that the eclipse will push us into "too dark." Apparently the light will start to reduce at 6.20, be at minimal lightness at 7.13 and then will continue reduced until 8. So pretty much exactly co-inciding with our walk which is from 7-8.30.
The usual cocktail of Sun-Shine and Cloud here, and not too hot. 71F, but forecast to rise into the 80s over the weekend. I'm having a quiet day, just pottering about the Ark, and enjoying some nice LAMB CHOPS for lunch.
I'm awaiting delivery of a new tin of Paint, which I hope will be the same shade of Red Oxide as covers a good deal of the Ark, but out of which I have run. It's by the same manufacturer, a tin of Red Oxide from another firm having proved to be slightly lighter - not that it matters much in the general World Order of things...
Can't say I was particularly impressed by the view I got with my pinhole viewer!
Yes, it was the silence, together with the weak quality of the light...
I was working that day, and IIRC the eclipse was at its best (?) mid-morning, at least in Kent. There were lots of people gathered outside our local hospital (many of them with pinhole viewers), and they, too, were strangely hushed. An eerie experience.
I should be boarding the ferry to Orkney when it happens, and I'll be interested to see how it goes.
I was in Belfast for the 1999 one; it was cloudy, so maybe not as dramatic as it might have been. More like what Northern Isles folk call the Simmer Dim - that sort of twilight when it doesn't get properly dark.
Supper chez Piglet was chicken and mushroom orzotto.
Then there was the quiet and the cold. Nobody ever mentioned how cold it would get.
I met up with my lip reading class for coffee this morning and have been for a walk this evening. other than that I haven't done much.
No nearer deciding on room colour. I know what colour green I like but can't decide on the exact pink shade. Farrow and Ball do one called Sulking Room Pink, but you can't chose a colour on the strength of the name
O yes - I'd forgotten about the chill...