jtay

Snow, or no snow later, it's a beautiful morning out there.

Lovely day here. Ended up digging the patio ground in shorts and t-shirt. The trick was to keep working. Stop digging and you know about it. Finished for the day, just in time for the footie.

I saw it at about 6:30 and it looked fantastic. I tried to get some shots from the garden, but it needed the tripod really and I wasn't about to go scrambling around in the dark for it. It looks like it's trying to brighten up here. Sat24 looks nice to the East, but I've got to start digging out a patio, so I can't be chasing Sunshine today. Let's just hope it comes to us instead. ?️

I imagine @karlos1983 is bouncing off the walls at the moment, but not 'cos the ECM is offering more jam tomorrow. 2-0.

Agreed. I think it'll just be a cold wet mess for us on Tuesday. Whenever there's that much of Westerly component to the wind direction, it's just horrible. Might see a few flakes on the back edge though. You're better placed anyway, as you've got 60+ metres on me. I'm sure we'll be fine as we move through next week and beyond.

Including this one.

Wise words @jy Speaking of birds... If you travel up the A338, have you seen the flock of Lapwings just North of Downton. They're often on the wing, in a murmuration. Sometimes the starlings join in too.

This is much more like it. Should get a bit of light with the clear sky, for a bit of a wander after work at 5pm.

Yep, the old clearance just before it gets dark trick. Roll on tomorrow. ?️

Now, now @matt111. You should know better by now. I suggest that we all reconvene on Sunday. If mid-week onwards looks as good then as it does tonight, I might get excited.

Christ, I'm looking forwards to Thursday. Brief Northerly & .

I like the fact that the council have decided to leave the lights on the trees after Christmas. They look great at night. Although the cynic in me can't help thinking that they just don't want to pay somebody to take them down.

I'd ask for it to be a Saturday, Lym-M, so I wasn't stuck inside until it gets dark.

It's quite nice here. I'd be made up if the weekend ended up like this, but I doubt it will.

Drove back through Benson on the way home from a rare visit to the office. The sunset as I was heading towards Goring was something else.

Rotten day. Rotten weekend. Spent the day clipping the Wisteria, so burned the cuttings to cheer me up.

METO were promising another day of Sunshine from 10am, earlier. Could it be another chicken up, a la Thursday? Edit : chicken up.

Yeah. it's lovely. It would be nice to have the same tomorrow, but I think we've been lucky today looking at the Satellite. If you tell 'em it's cold, they'll tell you it's faux cold, which doesn't count, apparently. As long as the Sun shines, I couldn't care less. Anyway, it's dec down day in our house. The most wonderful time of the year.

Yeah, I just popped to Downton Brewery for a takeout and had to scrape the car windscreen before I went. Decent.

On the usual walk to the next village this morning, by a tributary of the Hampshire Avon, I heard an really unusual noise. It was a very quiet rasping sound and had no idea what it was. As I looked at the banked hedgerow, I saw a few leaves move, so assumed it was a shrew, or similar. When I moved closer, the same leaves moved and the sound continued. Next step, it moved again, but it wasn't getting away. I peeled back the leaves, to find this fella. He was hanging down the bank, reaching forwards, but had his rear left leg stuck in some thorns. I released the thorns, he tumbled down the bank, took a few more bounds and posed for a piccy. Hope he finds somewhere nice to hibernate.

What about the skew-t charts @Nick L? i.e. If today's suggest near saturation at low levels, wouldn't that ring a few alarm bells?

It hasn't gone unnoticed in the South West thread, Nick. Worse still, every METO update changes the current conditions from Sunshine to cloud, but promises it'll clear in the next hour and beyond. It hasn't and it won't.

Cracking start to the day, but it's clouded over now. Checking Sat24, it looks like the METOs forecast of Sunshine all day is bobbins. The OH has gone to Street for the day, where it looks much better.

The cloud did roll in rather early, so we headed for the coast where it was much brighter. Parked at West Cliff and walked to Sandbanks and back. It was heaving on the way back. Kids, dogs, beach bbqs. Great stuff.

Yep, cloud and murk are so last year. Sunrises are back in 2019!