Storm Ciara

Well, as I'm sure a few of you have noticed, it's been a wit windy in the UK over the last 24 hours.

It started getting really blowy here about 10pm last night, before the rain started. It peaked overnight, and was still going strong at lunchtime today, making it sound like Asda was being pelted with marbles when I went shopping.

All my garden pot plants were all over the place, but no damage.

A lot of old tall trees have been brought down overnight here; near my family home someone was probably woken up by a load of thickset boughs crashing into their windows, but luckily no-one here has been hurt. I took a couple of photos as I walked home from cricket practice, where I was all a bit average tonight.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.02.20

In Rainbows

I have had a very busy week at work and it has rained virtually every day, so I have very little nature wise to show you.

I do have a gorgeously vivid double rainbow that dazzled above the unromantic setting of the car park for you however. I apologise for this being a shot through a window, bizarrely I ran outside and it had already faded markedly in the space of about 20 seconds!

Nature is a very ephemeral thing, you have to be so fast! My phone isn't fast enough these days.

Neither is my running, although tonight I felt a little better as I plodded about town on an evening as gloomy as the lowest deck on HMS Victory. 5km in 32 minutes, which seems to be about the average at the moment. I was wearing my tight leggings, but no admiring glances from anyone, sadly.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.09.19

Threatening Skies Again

This is actually from a few days ago, we've had rather more settled weather the last few days and I've been too busy at work to get out at lunch for a look around. Few queen red tailed bumbles have been about, but not many other insects in the cooler weather.

Around the streets, the bird song is  incredibly loud, with great tits and chaffinches now piercing above the more melodic songs of the robins and blackbirds. Over at Rumbles Cafe, their bird box has had blue tits checking it out.

It is the season of love, evidently.

Me I'm keeping as busy as I can to stave off the usual troubles, but feel very bloated and overweight. I've been trying to make some dietary changes and cut out carbs, and it helps, but there's other stuff going on.

But, fun visits upcoming.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCRackeredNature 05.04.19

The Weather Vane

Again, our dear Sugar Factory.

We have northerly winds today. I know that for two reasons.

The first is that you can smell the sugar factory, the rich, organic and earthy sweet smell of roasting / refining / whatever the hell it is they do sugar beet. It lies to the north of the town, on The Great North Road, a retro looking mass of belching pipes and chimneys, and when you can smell it, you know the wind is from degree zero.

The second is that as I sit at work, watching the twilight behind the dark clouds of smoke it emits as I plan my journey home, I use it as a weather vane. When the smoke blows to the left, it means it is indeed a northerly wind, usually a cold one although not today, and will not be into my face.

Every day in autumn and  winter I check it, until the campaign ends in March, when warmer weather means I fear the wind less.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 11.01.19

A Day of Soakings

Well, we have clearly angered the weather gods because last night we had howling gales and rain.

This morning we had a beautiful morning, which I  took advantage of by going to the park and having a cup of tea, and a quiet read of the news, and a walk around looking at the sun shining over the civil war fort, while listening to angry parents shouting at their kids playing football at the other end of the park.

Living through their kids, lol.

Then on the way into town, I got rained on, cycling with my shopping like something out of a Syd Barrett song. That wasn't too bad but when I cycled out to work to check on something briefly, I was rewarded with a drenching I haven't had the likes of for a long while.

Of course, on both occasions I was already in mid ride and didn't have a chance to get my waterproof trousers on. Worse still I was wearing jeans, which along with my not as waterproof as I thought jacket, both of which weighed 76 tons when I got back to my flat and got the water on for a bath and put on the Nordic slipper socks I wear only as a last resort.

Tomorrow a children's Christmas party for work colleagues's kids. Which I am dreading helping to organise.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 08.12.18

Weather Fronts

Well, after yesterday's mild conditions, we've had a real change with heavy rain this morning giving way to Northlerly  winds and much colder conditions. With weather unsuitable for cycling, and my foot still giving me a lot of bother, I only had a couple of small walks  into town in order to buy a balaclava and neck warmer for my increasingly cold cycling commutes.

I look forward to looking like a murderer.

The skies looked rather murderous at  times today as well.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature

Rain is Coming In

I've had an entirely restful day where I haven't done much apart from go the park for a cup of tea, listen to the radio and watch the various weather fronts come over.

I'm still resting my heel and I'm happy to report that it seems to be a bit less painful today,especially without having to traipse all over our huge work campus. My neck and shoulder are still troublesome however, so I'm having to be careful.

We will see how I feel tomorrow.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 10.11.18

Polish Commemorations

A day of two outside sessions; a very much 4 seasons in one day kind  of visit to Sconce Park where warming sun and chilling  rain alternated at 20 minutes intervals, and then a 6km twilight  run around the lakes.

I noticed in the cemetery that it was the annual Polish Commemoration of their war dead buried in a section of the graveyard. General Sikorski is no longer buried here, but his  countrymen still rest here and every year the local Polish community - quite a large one - light a lantern on every grave.

The candles will still be burning now.

It was a nice run actually, took it pretty smoothly and it was cool enough to make my running jacket wearable without it getting too boil in the bag. The gulls had already flown to their roosts, the ducks gathered under the trees overhanging the lakes.

It's been a pleasant, if cold, day.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 28.10.18

More Skies

This week sunset has put on an incredible display, high altitude crystals, Rayleigh Scattering, smoke from the sugar factory and power station.

The sky goes gold as the lower edge of the sun skims the horizon, then the dark violet band of the girdle of venus appears and the lower clouds go purple, and the higher ones go gilded orange; vapour trails from escaping jets leave temporary scars across the vault.

It's beautiful.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.10.18

Running Like a Mime Artist

The weather today and yesterday has been very very strange for any time of the year, let alone October. Temperatures have been in the  mid-twenties yet there have been hot 50 mile an hour winds blasting through the trees and ruining the composure of Ewalina's larger pot plants.

Despite Storm Callum having a good time out there, I decided it was still too nice to not go for a run so I picked a route that  would enable me to have a tailwind on the run back home.

Of course this meant I would have to run into the wind for the first half, and this resulted in some fairly comical struggles, with teenage girls openly laughing at me as I ran past making running style shapes, but actually travelling at less than walking pace.

I've no doubt I looked like Marcel Marceau doing a particularly bad "walking in the wind" mime routine, feeling like I had to almost swim strokes through the air to get anywhere.

It did get better, when I turned out of the headwind under wide open skies, but I was already totally knackered and came home very slowly indeed.

I cared not. It was 8km outside.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 13.10.18

Sugar Factory Sunset

So it has been my, gulp, 46th Birthday today, although I don't remotely feel that old either physically or mentally.

It's actually been a pleasant day at work, with kind gifts of rum, cake and chocolate, muchly appreciated too. I didn't even stuff myself too much, and most folk near my desk had a slice of chocolate caterpillar. Or "human centipede" as I referred to it.

If you don't get that reference, don't look it up.

The sugar factory, the town's Gotham City type most prominent landmark, is back on campaign, and the unmistakable earthy smell pervades the town again when autumnal winds blow from the north-west. When I'm out running or cycling in the countryside, the roads will be lined with the lumpy brown things, as Blackadder described the potato way back when.

I always find it odd that these most gnarly of roots end up keeping my cups of tea sweet.

The factory looked stunning, against the stunning sunset.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 09.10.18

Colours and Pollinators

So, a slightly livelier day for me today, with a decent walk to and around the park this morning, and a 6km run around the two lakes in the afternoon.

The sun was  out, but it was chilly! But finding a nice place to sit a Rumbles always helps; it does act as a bit  of a suntrap under a decent sun, I've quite happily sat out there in zero temperatures before. That's zero celsius by the way, not absolute zero. That would be stupid.

On my way back from there to buy a new exciting first for my home - a spray on olive oil spray thing - I came across a lovely white tailed bumblebee caught by one leg in a single strand of  spiders web.

I made a bit of a clumsy job  of freeing it, but that's what I did. Sorry spider.

Ivy is in full flower at the moment, much enjoyed by wasps who weren't keen on being photographed. However, a honeybee was are amenable.

The light then in the afternoon was lovely, and there was a friendly cat!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 07.10.18

Crepuscular Spectacular

Well, the  temperature has continued to rise today, resulting in a surprisingly sweaty ride home.

However, it was a beautiful one, because some curiously swiss cheese like cloud formations led to some incredible crepuscular rays as I rode home, bike lights shining for the first time this autumn.

Random alignments of sun and water vapour creating such beauty.

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 26.09.18

Farndon Church Run

It's been a four seasons in one day  kind of day, cliche cliche cliche, and in the afternoon I risked a drenching by running out to Farndon to have a look at the church there.

It always looks amazing this time of year, and today was no exception. I'm not talking about the church itself, which always looks a bit new and concretey for some reason, but rather the wildflowers that are allowed to grow unchecked in the small graveyard.

I love them. The pollinators love them.

Sadly because it was cold today, there weren't all that many, but I did find a dinky andrena type bee smothering itself in pollen on a dandelion, and there were plenty of hoverflies around.

I did avoid a drenching, but crickey it was a near thing. There were some nasty skies out there!

Si

All text and images copyright CreamCrackeredNature 25.04.18