Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

I've now checked the weather map, our thunderstorms  left the Charente late this morning heading north.  The village employee, we only have one, has been clearing all the straw that got washed into the gutters 2 days ago.  It's a bit ironic, most of it is being transported to and from the farm that the current mayor and 3 other members of the 7 person council, are connected with. The mayor of course directs Oralie, the said employee.

 

Jamie

[PhilJ W]

Update on the Stonehaven accident, three confirmed dead including the train driver. Thoughts are with their families and those injured.

[TheQ]

Hot afternoon awl, 

Sitting in a traffic jam after some traffic lights, I hear a Big Bang,  looked up to see a BMW mini hurtling towards me,  in a cloud of smoke,  it then brakes heavily,  pulls of onto the verge in an increasing cloud of smoke with an increasing puddle oil beneath. 

I'm Guessing he hoofed it at the lights ( it's two lanes into one)  and blew the engine... 

 

Then after visiting the orange shed I'm at the lights leaving,  and spy a lace curtain with no pettycoat beneath, it was definitely all on show... 

 

The rest of the journey home,  was uneventful except for long queues behind bicycles and tractors. 

 

Oh mask count 100% in Block and Quales  establishment,  0% in Effin clown town,  as the grockles went into or out of shops. 

[The Stationmaster]

Ah, the weather forecast.  eEarlier today we were forecast thunder & lightning for the hour 18.00-19.00 - that is no longer forecast.  in fact we aren't now forecast any until tomorrow morning.  Which probably explains why there is currently thunder all around us and a nice wind blowing, the latter usually being a portent of rain of course.  Strangely the pretty moving map thingy on the Met Office site predicts instant inundation in the coming couple of hours but the analogue (well it is just numbers) forecast says only a 10% - 20% chance of rain.  

 

I'm not sure if I'm confused but clearly the recently harvested crop of seaweed in Exeter must be well and truly bladder(ack)ed..

[Chris116]

Yesterday the seaweed readers said we would have thunderstorms around noon and 6pm. By noon today that had changed to 6pm and 9pm. Having got to 6pm the thunderstorms are now due at 9pm and midnight.

 

I wonder why I don't have any faith whatsoever in our weather forecasters and haven't had since the famous hurricane that was not going to happen but saw all the local trees lying down the following morning!

[The Johnster]

16 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Richard II had a not too good stay

He had a marvellous time, enjoyed it so much he never left...  serves the right, we’ll have none of this ‘serfs you were and serfs you remain’ nonsense, thank you.    Not that the usurping bast*rds that followed him were much better, mind; at least he never actually murdered anyone...  

 

[Ian Abel]

Thoughts with NHN and the family and newborn, sounds like it's on the recovery mode though - thumbs up.

 

Afternoon...

Well, the basement "recovery" continues, looks like the insurance will cough up too, so that's a bonus!

Minor water issues at Trevor and Meagans house also so we ran over there with a few items to help.

Sounds like a large number of folks have water issues in the area after the downpour, and we've got more storms rolling through now also.

 

Will be out for dinner tonight, will be a welcome diversion, especially since the fans and dehumidifiers running in the basement are rather LOUD!

 

15 first thing, raining now and a high of only 20 expected today.

 

Carry on.

[Coombe Barton]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

Effin clown town

I'm sure that by reading past posts I'd find out where this is.

But, please, where is it?

[New Haven Neil]

Baby Grace has PPHN:

 

https://www.gosh.nhs.uk/conditions-and-treatments/conditions-we-treat/persistent-pulmonary-hypertension-newborn-pphn

 

A serious condition that can lead to developmental issues for children, in 25% of cases.  We remain hopeful.

[Barry O]

Fingers crossed Neil..

 

Baz

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Cold dinner tonight, quiche and salad. Fingers crossed for little Grace. Now to watch Repair Shop. 

[simontaylor484]

Its hit the early 30s here late 80s in old money been and sat on decking the heat coming out of the bricks is unreal 

 

Fingers crossed for Grace 

Edited August 12, 2020 by simontaylor484

[brianusa]

After reading all the weather problems, I feel bad relating that today will be a max of 24C and 12C or thereabouts tonight and no humidity, in fact early this morning I turned the heat on for a while!  However its going to get hot for a couple of days next week; A/C weather!  I'm always surprised that its still not more prevalent back home especially with the prospect of continued global warming.  We're glad of it right now!  Otherwise chaos reigns in the good ole US of A as usual, covid adds to the strife.  Bars and restaurants open and close every few weeks, no sports this year supposedly, which is no big loss!  Our leader is lost and his potential replacement takes on a controversial deputy, but hopefully there will be some improvement to this country's standing in the world for a few years to come and peace returns to its cities.

       Brian.

[Coombe Barton]

... and Kerry joins her kennel mate for eternity ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/08/12/postcards-from-the-periphery-2020-18/

[tigerburnie]

Evening all, after the early morning bin run, I eventually surfaced at the back of 8 and thought the railway was quiet, presuming there would be some sort of weather related problem as the monsoon was as bad as I have ever seen here, not knowing what had happened at Stonehaven. From the images on the tv, I don't know exactly where the incident is, but from Muchalls bridge down to Stonehaven is mostly bridges and either deep cuttings of very high elevated track, the trains almost look air borne it that area, very close to the sea and quite exposed to the elements. I haven't actually travelled on the train north of me, only south to Edinburgh or west to Glasgow, we usually drive to Aberdeen, I used to work in Aberdeen and travelled there every day at one time, not a place I visit that often.

[AndyB]

Evening all from North Tigerburnieshire.

There was a fair bit of rain overnight and this quickly filled up the big river hereabouts. Today's walk was a forest stroll across a local estate culminating in this waterfall.

 

Tennis this afternoon in a muggy 30 deg C was a tad tiring.  

 

Thoughts are with baby Grace and her parents. 

[polybear]

Bear's Report for the Day:

 

Spent the morning working in the (south facing) back garden doing a woodwork job - a small (un) modification to one of the ikea kitchen cupboards in the railway room; the cupboard being previously modified to house a desktop pc, printer and scanner.  I ended up absolutely soaked, it's so effin' hot.  At least it's done now.

The afternoon's fun involved scraping out the contents of about half (56) of my war stocks of those little heart shaped Marmite pots that are available at the more discerning Hotels at brekky time; I've been collecting them on business trips over the years - but now I've banged out that little perk is sadly gone Don't worry - the contents went into the Marmite jar - nothing wasted.  Best before dates?  Best not to ask, though I did note one was 2015 - though I'm sure they go a lot further back than that.  The older stuff is darker and thicker, but taste seems unaffected.  I find them particularly useful for taking on holiday with me, but since that little perk is very doubtful for the foreseeable due to the Big V I thought I might as well transfer some of my reserves to a more user friendly format.  I've easily got another fifty or more in the cupboard though.....

 

As for tomorrow, I've somehow been conned talked into fitting a new macerator in my mate's house next door, while he & his wife spend the summer at their flat apartment in the south of France.....

There is method in my madness however; he's a pretty handy guy when it comes to DIY jobs and I plan to be fitting a new kitchen late this year, early next year.  Whilst doing the kitchen isn't an issue for me (famous last words.....), there are always some jobs where two pairs of paws are much better than one - such as hanging cupboards on walls.  He's already mentioned "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" without prompting, so hopefully Bear isn't so mad after all..... 

 

Oh yes, and a close encounter with Twix flavoured crunchy chocolate spread thickly on toast was deemed necessary....

 

[Dave Hunt]

Got home from house/animal sitting for our friends three hours ago to find the shed/workshop/railway room flooded to about half an inch deep, which is a great amount of water in a building 35ft x 20ft. Because it is built on a slope, the entrance is in a small well below ground level with a soakaway by the door. Last night there was apparently the mother and father of all storms here and it appears that the soakaway was blocked by debris  leading to the well flooding to a depth of about eighteen inches so even though the threshold of the door is about eight or nine inches above the ground the water flowed in. We've just finished baling out, brushing and mopping up the water and the dehumidifier is running full belt. The only problem now is that it is thundering and tippling down again in biblical proportions so I'll be going to check how the flood defences are holding up soon. 

 

Until tomorrow.

 

Dave

[Gwiwer]

Good steaming evening all,

 

A right sizzler it has been and no mistake.  30-stupid degrees and thick misty humidity for much of the day.  The air smelled tropical; those familiar with tropical climes would probably understand.  That is until around 15 o'clock when my afternoon's lazing on the sofa (being at that time the coolest place) was interrupted by the return of Thor.  This time with his full entourage.  A very active cell produced a lot of noisy thunder, though little visible lightning and the sky turned a dark grey.  Moments later we were pelted with hail of a size I have never seen in London before.  Up to 2 cms round though most was more like half that.  And the wind ...... I was expecting trees to come flying over the horizon at me.  Then the rain hit.  A torrential downpour lasting quite some time and more than enough to ensure the garden does not require my attention tonight.  

 

While I was out capturing the hail on camera a neighbour arrived home and we briefly performed a socially-distanced rain-celebration dance whilst getting soaked and bombarded.  All good fun.  

 

It has cooled a little but the humidity which cleared with the storm is back.  More storms are forecast overnight.  

 

Best wishes to Neil and family; at least the diagnosis is made and there is a 75% chance of a good outcome based on the figure quoted earlier.  Everything crossed.  

 

You know it's humid when you have more showers in a day than mugs of coffee.  I'm off for another before bed.  Shower, that is.  Night all.  

[andyram]

Evening all. It has been a while! I have probably missed so much during my absence from this site. I note thoughts and good wishes certainly need to be sent to NHN and John (CB) from reading the latest page. I wish everyone the best and hope that you are all ok.

 

The reason for absence? That is a long story which I will try and summarise but it partly comes down to time and also the need to keep things private although I can share some of this now.

 

As for many people, lockdown was a stressful time. But it was also very busy. I am relieved to say that the shop did ok (not sensational, but ok). Working to keep things ticking along online was one major use of time and I did become good and contactless, socially distanced delivering. It has been a while since I last knocked on doors and ran away!

 

Secondly, there was the marking job. I think everyone started online courses in lockdown! My workload quadrupled and I could spend many hours on the computer dealing with students and their assignments. All good for income, not good for sanity or fitting in home schooling.

Then there was foster child who arrived shortly before restrictions. This another reason for staying offline. Now the placement is over I can talk a little about it. The child settled well at first but online contact during lockdown proved an issue due to parents’ internet connection failing. This, lockdown pressures and then the reaction to the different nature of school when they returned in June resulted in a regression in behaviour and the child telling some lies about us. The result a social worker with a power trip reducing Sarah to tears in a meeting. The placement has now ended and Sarah is not sure she wants to continue with fostering. That is a decision for another time.

 

But refreshed from a last minute break in Whitby and we are al feeling a little less stressed. Hopefully time will permit me to pop in from time to time.

 

Best wishes 

 

Andy

[simontaylor484]

Youngest (10) has been angry at the Exeter based seaweed twirlers that we havent had thunderstorms this evening. He has his windows shut fan on abd his ear defenders. He doesn't like rain or thunder he is autistic like his elder brother.

 

Although ne loved the lightening in the Dominican republic on holiday acouple of years ago because it was "proper film lightening" ie fork lightening not the sheet flash we get here.

Got to love the you tube algorithm i have no interest in tennis at all but on my reccomended feed it brought up Angelina Dimova playing tennis 

She is very nice looking 

Goodnight all 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[laurenceb]

Thoughts with little Grace & her Family

Night awl

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. The thunderstorms seem to be avoiding this part of the world, good thing that we don't get a deluge but bad as its still hot and sticky. Temperature indoors is still 29 c. despite the fan.

[Erichill16]

Evening All,

Heavy day with news on ERs. Sorry to hear the news about Daves flood and the terrible tale from Andy and lets hope Grace is in the 75% that are not left with medical issues. Thoughts also to people effected by the train incident in Scotland.

 

Meanwhile on a more trivial note as predicted not much done here. Visited Mil, she’s not been well for a couple of days and her husband with dementia is not helping . Then called of at dump it site with garden rubbish and finally called of at Bills and brought Syd to our house for a couple of hours. Nothing very strenuous.

Good night 

ROBERT