Where we live we tend to miss all the extremes of weather. However, today we are in the centre of it all. I love thunderstorms and this one is a good one. We had about an hour of strobe lightning making us feel we were in a film like Close Encounters or War of the Worlds. This short video was just before the rain started, which became torrential.
Then the rain hit for about half an hour flooding everywhere.
Since then we have returned to strobe lightning and are about an hour in. According to the Met office, we will be having these storms until late Friday. I’m not complaining as I love this weather.
I keep meaning to do a post, and then something comes up, and later I realise that I didn’t do my post, and think I will do it now, but manage somehow to get myself sidetracked and BOOM! Forgot to post again. I do not know what is going on with me. So, forgive me for my tardiness!
Fish…
Since last we “spoke” as it were, I finally got rid of my large tank in the lounge. Part of me was glad to get rid of it, and part of me was sad to see it go. The fish love their new smaller home and my Cameroon shrimp seems happy too. Although it was a great tank it took up quite a lot of room, being so massive. We have a unit that we moved into one of the halls when we got the tank, so that is now back in the lounge. My thoughts for getting rid of the tank was to move the smaller tank onto the said unit and get another small tank and finally do a nano reef tank. However, the cost of doing a reef tank is high. I have found a nano tank I like which is £150, but then I need a skimmer and a heater so that’s another £90. Add sand, live rock and all the other bits I need to get it started and I am close to £500 without even adding fish or coral. So, before I take the plunge I have downloaded and printed a book on the subject and intend to read it in full before I decided on what to do. Having spoken to a few people the jury really is out. Some say it is easier than tropical, some say get a large tank as a nano can have problems being small, and others rave on about nano tanks, so there is no real help chatting to others LOL.
I bought an external 12-litre canister filter for my other large tank which works like a treat, but today I added on an extra 2-litre filter canister to that. In essence, water is drawn out of the tank to the small sub canister then passed into the large canister and finally put back into the other end of the tank. I did manage to make a bit of a watery mess as I had not fastened one of the inlet pipes properly oops! I had lost a few fish over the last few weeks, so thought the canister filter would help sort the water quality out. It has UV inside so sterilises the water as it filters. The lighting I have on the tank also decided to die, only 6 weeks after it being exchanged after the first one died after 4 months. Thankfully the aquatic centre where I get most of my equipment and livestock were very understanding and spoke to Fluval who admitted there was a problem that they have now sorted out and to exchange it for me.
Dogs…
Harper with her Birthday monkey
It was Harpers 5th Birthday on Sunday. As always we took them to McDonald’s for hamburgers, then to the pet store so Harper could pick a toy, which this year was a rather large monkey, and two packs of balls. Needless to say, they both had a great time.
Knitting…
Thought about it, even mentally made a pattern for a hat for winter, but that was it, but it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it?
I was reading The Massacre of Mankind which is a sequel to War of the Worlds and in the end, I gave up as it was so slow and the author was trying to write in the style of H. G. Wells but failed page after page. As most of my readers will know I love classical literature, so have no problem with ancient writing and old English, but this bad, if he had written it in current English it would have been a good read.
Outings…
I went to a joint Christening and Communion party a few weeks ago, got very drunk and had a ball.
Last week we went to Delamere Forest again, which for some reason driving there we managed to take all the wrong turns. I came off the motorway/highway onto the expressway in order to go over the Mersey Gateway Bridge, which when you get to the end of the expressway is straight over the roundabout, however, when you follow this, you end up in an industrial estate and nowhere near the bridge. It would seem the directions for the bridge do not exist, and when you get to the end of said expressway you turn left and ignore the signs. But as I managed to turn the wrong was we ended up back on the motorway heading in the direction of home. Time though was on our hands. My satnav said we would get there at 11:15 when we left home and although I managed to go on a long diversion of 20 minutes we got there at 11:22 thus proving that time travel can be achieved.
Education…
The degree is now on hold. I was so undecided about doing it that I thought it best to put the thought to one side until I was 100% committed to doing it.
General…
After returning from Ireland I had tests and a cardiac assessment done. My blood results came back reporting a lack of vitamin D, which is about right living so far north and the general lack of sun. But I also did not have enough of the good cholesterol either, but this could be due to coeliacs disease. The doctors’ office suggestion was to take vitamin D tablets and eat more oily fish etc. Luckily I found a company that sells vitamins on Amazon and they do a vitamin D that is 4000iu, and when you buy a product they thank you by letting you pick another one for free. I decided on Hemp oil tablets as they are for omega 3 and 6, so that’s the bloods sorted.
The scarecrow festival came and went, and I managed to take exactly zero photos of it. I mean, what is the point of having a great camera, living in the country, and having festivals if I do not record it? Answers on a postcard, please!
We bought new garden furniture, namely a table, chairs and a parasol, just in time for the monsoon season to hit us. Yes, my luck/timing really is in at the moment.
I have managed to have a few barbeques lately, between showers that is.
I finally took the leap into meditation after dipping my toes off and on into it over the last few weeks. I have joined Headspace for a year, and am finding it quite good and just have to add it into my daily routine.
In other news, I had a puncture in one of the rear tyres on the car.
I don’t know how many UK readers I have, but I am sure if you live in the North as we do, you are sick of the rain by now.
We live on the coast, and we also have our own microclimate, however, for the last three weeks, we have had nothing but rain, rain, and did I mention? rain! We have had so much that we have managed to fill up the large water butt in the garden by putting out a few buckets to catch the rain. The butt is full, a 50-litre bucket is full and so are 6, 10-litre buckets, and as I look out the window, I see it is raining still. The garden has flooded and needless to say, the dogs are not happy at all.
We managed to get them out in some light rain for 20 minutes this afternoon, and yesterday evening for another 20 minutes. Whenever it slows down to a light shower lots of our neighbours and the village are out trying to walk only to be thwarted ten minutes later by a torrential downpour. Harper hates the rain, so as soon as it starts she is dragging me towards the car or home depending on where we are. Mazikeen, on the other hand, does not care and is happy to get wet, muddy, filthy, and all in all messy.
We have been told that we have had 2 months of rain in a day, which explains a lot. Sunday afternoon was the only time we have managed to see the sun, and it was very hot, and didn’t I look pink after sitting in the only sun for all of half an hour. The rain is set to carry on for the next few weeks, but will we get to see Aquaman? or is it too wet even for him?
A few years back the UK took on that much rain that looking at England from a plane it looked like we were thousands of island, that summer was cancelled, and it looks to be the same this year. I think we need to move it Italy, sun, good food and let’s face it, what is not to like there!
I love the snow, and each year we have to go and look for it, and this year is no exception to the rule. The whole of the country seems to have snow, be it think 12″ or just a smattering of the white stuff, but here, in our little microclimate we do not have a drop, not one flake has fallen, and as I look out at the sky whilst writing this in my office, I see blue sky with some white clouds, well quite a lot of cloud, but the point is, I see blue sky. I can see my twitter stream flying by on the side of the screen and everyone is posting about #UKSnow but not here in our little village.
Yesterday I went to the next county to get produce from Booths, and it was snowing there, only 9.5 miles away, there is a market town which is only 8.2 miles away from my house had snowfall, but again we missed it.
The last time we had snow here was in 2010, and the whole country had it and no one escaped, and that was such fun. Our car was buried under 2 foot of snow, and we had temperatures in the night of -18° c with daytime ranging from -5°c to -10°c. We went for a very slow walk in the village and met so many people all chatting and having a really nice time of it, enjoying something that is rare here. At the time we only had Lilu, and she loved it, although I did have to make a pathway in the garden for her and it quite literally buried her when she went out in it.
I have checked with the Met office and so far we are going to miss all the snow again. Talk about Bar Humbug!
Here are some Pictures from 18th December 2010 when we last had snow.
The Beach
My car is somewhere under that.
Lilu having a great time in the snow, she always loved playing in it.
I actually managed to get some knitting done yesterday. I say some, and that could sound like a lot, but it was part of the sleeve for my sweater, and when I say part, I actually mean 5 rows of 50 stitches. Yes, that was indeed it. Mazikeen was having a sleep, Harper was watching TV with M, yes, I did mean that, she watches quite a lot of TV for a dog, So I grabbed my knitting and off I went, but as you would suspect, it didn’t last long. I really do have to get a move on with this sweater too as the temperatures are dropping fast, we have had 2°c and add to that frost, hail, and fog. Oh well, I will have to snatch time here and there as I need this sweater.
Stuck in Sydney posting old photos taken with various camera phones on my world travels. Posting in arty Black and White and includes witty commentary 🇦🇺
Stuck in Sydney posting old photos taken with various camera phones on my world travels. Posting in arty Black and White and includes witty commentary 🇦🇺
Mr Knitter 