Get Those Woolly Hats Out

Last night I watched British Isles, A Natural History, new series just started on BBC1. Presented by Alan Titchmarsh, he explained how little things that we see every day give clues as to how the British Isles used to be. One of the most obvious ones, we I've never considered before was the fact that seal pups are born white on the islands of Scotland, long before there's likely to be any snow and shows that years and years ago the islands must have been covered in snow and ice.

Another highlight of the program was the ingenious way of getting across how many different types of rocks there are.... by sampling bottles of whisky that have been made using water from different sources which had been filtered through the different kinds of rock. They all had their distinct flavour and aroma, all down to the source of the water. Some people get all the best jobs!

After a slight rise in temperature over the last few days, it does seem to be dropping away again and the forecast at Winterhighland.com shows the drop in temperature expected through the rest of this week with wintry showers forecast over the weekend in the mountains. The fifteen day forecast for Aviemore at Online Weather is currently showing a marked drop in just over a weeks time and with The Weather Outlook suggesting early snowfall is possible even at lower levels in the second half of October, it's all getting quite interesting.

The last week hasn't seen so much snow falling in Europe but that's now changing and I've noticed it's snowing in Norway today and the latest webcam shot seems to suggest they've had quite a bit already in the mountains. It's also currently snowing in parts of Slovakia, Sweden and Greenland.

Michael In The Mountains

Sitting here coughing, sneezing and wheezing, I’m really looking forward to feeling better and also a new series staring on BBC1 on Sunday night called Michael Palin: Himalaya.

I’ve enjoyed all the other series that Michael has fronted so far and nothing sounds better to me than good old Mick hoofing it around the Himalayas getting to know the yokels. Maybe even an exclusive interview with the Yeti, then again, maybe not, but even without a tall hairy monster, it will still make for some very interesting telly. The BBC obviously think they’re on a winner and are already flogging it here.

Paul Hudson, on Look North, our local news & weather programme was, I’m sure, touting a new DVD of his called Extreme Weather which is about unusual weather in the Yorkshire area over the years. I can’t find any mention of it on the BBC web site though, maybe I’m starting with some kind of hallucinating syndrome. If anyone else saw this DVD waving about in Paul Hudson’s hand, can you let me know so I can cancel the appointment with my therapist.

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Arrrrchoooo!

I've been struck down with man-flu, it happens every spring and autumn as the weather changes and in recent winters, with the temperature being all over the place, I've had a second dose over Christmas. I'm just praying that it gets cold and stays cold this year, I really don't want to be struck down again just before the wedding.

Apparently you should feed a cold and starve a fever so I'm tucking into a couple of lovely corned beef butties :-)

Granddad's Holly Bush

It’s been a bit warmer today so I thought I’d refrain from mentioning the ‘S’ word today. Instead, a spot of gardening….

The above picture was taken at Grandma’s today, it’s a holly bush planted there by my late Granddad many years ago.

I took the picture because of the large number of berries that are just starting to turn red and that usually means lots of s…., s….., s….., shit, I nearly said snow!
 

First Dusting Of Snow!

I've managed to find a picture of the first dusting of snow on Ben Nevis last week, I'm so exited I could crush a grape ..lol..

Big Drop In Temperature

Well I didn't see any snow in the Scottish mountains yesterday and today's forecast has been downgraded to wintry showers, hey ho. That's the thing with snow watching, there's lots of anticipation, lots of disappointment and occasionally the forecast is right and it actually snows.

More often than not though, even monitoring all the resources available on the internet from weather stations to weather charts, it snows when you least expect it and that's what makes it such fun.

Whizzing round the blogsphere this morning, I came across this post. Thank you to Lancashire Lass for giving me a mention on her lovely site. Apparently, the Siberian Crows have arrived in Amsterdam, signalling the onset of winter, I think I trust the crows more than the forecasters here ..lol..

The temperature plummeted last night, yesterday morning it was 12.8c in the back yard and today at dawn it was only 6.2c, quite a drop and quite chilly when setting off to work. I think the thick coat is going to have to come out from it's summer hibernation.

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Too Heavy Man

We've got some 'speak your weight scales' at work, normally used for weighing packages, I hopped on this morning and was told I was 14 stone and 1 pound, it's gone up! I'm drinking less and putting on more weight, that can't be right, I'll try it again next week after a few more days not drinking and see if it's gone down a bit.

Debbie's had a couple of comments about the background on her blog making it hard to read. Well if people will insist on trying to read blogs with pissed vision then they've got to expect problems. Anyway, Debbie reluctantly agreed to let me change it slightly last night for the benefit of everyone that likes a tipple now and again.

Reading the reports at Winterhighland.com I've noticed that they had a covering of snow on the Nevis range two weeks ago and I missed it! The forecast for today and tomorrow is for snow showers so maybe all is not lost. I've checked this morning and it just looks very wet up there at the moment, I'll check back later and see if anything's turned white.

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Snow Moves Into Europe

I've found some snow in Europe! Yesterday it was snowing in Poland and today it's snowing in Slovakia and Romania. If you click here and then click on Go, you get a list of the places it's currently snowing and some have a webcam link into the bargain.

I think the tops of the Scottish mountains might have seen some sleet/snow showers over the last couple of days, it's still getting colder and the current forecast at Winterhighland.com changes from wintry showers to snow on Friday so I'll be keeping an eye on the Cairngorm webcams (from cairngormmountain.com) for any signs of the white stuff.

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A big thank you to To Philly, From Alaska, W/Love for linking to me

Turning Colder

It's a bit on the cold side in the office this morning, I think it might be time to switch the central heating back on even though it's only a couple of weeks since I had the fan on to keep cool.

The weather forecast for the Scottish Highlands looks promising this week, with the phrase "wintry showers" creeping in. I noticed also that Metcheck are tipping seasonal weather for the Christmas period so it might be worth nipping down to the bookies with a crisp ten pound note. Obviously, this also bodes well for our honeymoon in the Highlands just before Christmas, it would be a dream come true to see lots of snow up there. The down side would be that the travelling there and back might be a little bit tricky. We were joking about needing snow chains for the car, in reality we might actually need to go and get some!

Now With Added Snow

Having given Snowbabies and Buttercup a facelift recently, I though I’d have a dabble with the layout here.

The picture in the header is of the fields just across from here, near the Church where we are to be married in December and the picture of the pine trees was taken at the end of Stocksbridge bypass near Woodhead.

Can’t stop and chat , I’m off to make a brew before I get hit with a catalogue I’m supposed to be looking at!

Gibbering Wreck!

With Debbie taking an afternoon nap, I’ve been writing the post for Snowbabies with the help of the zoo. Lucy trying to jump on my knee every two minutes, Eric climbing up my back so he can jump on the keyboard, Toddy trying to destroy the window blinds, Misty singing for his supper three hours early and Zippy whistling down my ear.

The folks next door are getting Married today and happily the rain this morning has gone and the sun is shining on them. The groom was standing at his door when we got back home today, having a nervous puff on a cigarette waiting for the car to arrive. He said he’s been fine until today, but now he’s a nervous wreck, shaking from head to toe.

I think that’s how I’ll be, fine and dandy the night before and a gibbering wreck on the day!

Familiar Sounds

Last night we watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, well I did, Debbie spent most of the time on the phone ...lol... Anyway, getting to the scene where the tank appears in the desert, the sound track sounded familiar, very much like parts of Star Wars - Phantom Menace and when the tank fired over Indy's head, it sounded like a pod hurtling by. I wonder how many other 'Star Wars' sound effects originated from the Indiana series? I must admit though, at no point in the film did I hear any heavy breathing.

Shiver Me Timbers!

You're Will Turner - Lovestruck swordsman, funky hat, too pretty by far. You're loyal, honest, courageous... and a pirate. Lucky Elizabeth.

Which POTC character are you?

this quiz was made by alanna

Hay Slow Scan

I added Haloscan comments last night and it was driving me up the flipping wall this morning. Trying to leave a comment on the Haloscan system was like pulling teeth, it was just so chuffin slow! It seems to be ok now, it must have been very busy at 7.30am. I'm not going to remove it again, it's staying now, but it's reminded me why I originally took it off Snowbabies last year.

Silly Season

Today I've been seeking out my winter weather links from last year and copying them from IE to Firefox. My favourite ones for early winter were a group of five webcams in Lapland which can be found here. Today it looks very wet there but with a temperature of only around 6 Celsius, I think the first snow isn't usually expected until November but I'm not expecting this to be a typical year. I could be wrong but I'll be watching these webcams like a hawk from now on through the winter.

I've also checked out Snow-Forcast.com which shows where snow is expected to fall around the world. I've been checking this site for two years and it's very good for an early warning of snow but as with any other forecast, it can be wrong.

For more detail about where snow is likely in the UK, I use the good old BBC Weather site and for weather warnings the place to go is the MET Office which also provides lots of information on what to do during severe weather.

So, silly season is here and I'll be busy checking a whole host of web sites daily, looking for snow fall in Europe and hopefully we'll see some here before too long. I promise not to mention snow again until I find any because I'm well aware, my obsession with it drives everyone else bonkers!

What's Your Hobby

While we were out with friends last night, the topic of hobbies came up and I starting thinking about all the hobbies I’ve started over the years….

Brewing Beer.
Cycling
Computer Programming
Fishing
CB Radio
Recording the Weather
Radio Scanning
Games Consoles
Walking
Camping
Bird Watching
Photography
Flying Kites
Radio Controlled Cars

There’s probably loads of others I’ve forgotten about and I dread to think how much money I’ve spent starting all these and then moving onto something new. It wasn’t wasted though, I’ve still got all my bird watching kit and we do take it out with us when taking Lucy for a walk somewhere.

I’ve still got the radio scanner which is cool to take out as a normal radio as it picks up loads of stations. I still have a thermometer sensor in the garden with the display in here, so I know if it’s cold enough for snow. I’ve still got a Playstation 2 but it’s only used for playing dvd’s upstairs. The bike is in the shed and has been all summer.

The fishing tackle is at Dad’s and hasn’t been touched for 15 years. There is a tent somewhere but I was sick in it the first and last time I used it so it ought to be incinerated. The CB radio my Granddad left me is still upstairs but every time I’ve switched it on I’ve heard nothing and I’m too shy to talk on it anyway.

More recently, the power kite hasn’t seen the light of day for months, although it could be fun today in this wind. The radio controlled car hasn’t been started for weeks, I just can’t find the time to take it anywhere for a decent run.

With no shadow of a doubt I can safely say that my hobby is starting hobbies!

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Shout Box

Yesterday, not being able publish anything I carried on with my usual daily reading of linked blogs and noticed on Gemmak that there was a message on her shout box indicating she had the same problem. I thought to myself, at least it's not just me and how cool to be able to get the message across that your having problems.

Now, I've got to be fair here, this is the first major problem I've encountered with Blogger in over a year which is actually pretty impressive. Nether the less, I've added a shout box anyway because computers are a fickle breed and you just never know.

So now, if the Martians decide to invade and take over Blogger, I'll be able to let everyone know I'm still here and preparing to lead the resistance...

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A big thank you to Gemmak for linking to me

Blogging Blues

All that could be heard in the office yesterday morning were cries of "for chuffs sake, come on" and for once, it wasn't due to software I'd written, I was trying to get a post onto Snowbabies. Blogger was having none of it all day yesterday and I can't imagine what must have been going on in the Blogger office. I'm sure they must have been working flat out to get this problem fixed, no company wants problems like this when they are trying to attract new users. Having introduced all the new bits and pieces recently and with all the new users they were attracting, they must have expected that something like this could happen.

Having worked with computers all my life, I'm well aware of the equation ... lots of new things + in a short space of time = lots of problems. At the end of the day, you can have stable and boring or exiting but with the occasional hiccup and sometimes it can be a very fine line between success and disaster.

Autumn Sneaks In

Is it really only a week that we've been on holiday, I certainly wasn't expecting it to be so dark this morning, we appear to have quietly slipped into Autumn. It's still warm though, I was still in shorts and sun cream this weekend and it looks it's going to stay warm all week.

I've been checking out Winter Highland and The Weather Outlook just to double check when we can realistically expect the first sprinkling of snow over the Scottish mountains and it could be as early as next week. It hardly seems possible sitting here in front of the fan trying to keep cool but I'll be watching the web cameras up there soon for signs of the snow we hope to see during our honeymoon in December.

Follow that van!

Come back! We know you have butties! 

Hand 'em over

Come on.... stop messing about.... just hand over those butties... 

Templates are a changing...

I’ve been helping with a bit of re-design over at Buttercup and despite my plea’s of “leave the bugger alone”, we made the changes and it looks pretty dam cool.

I also tried changing Snowbabies but that didn’t work and I’ve ended up mucking it up. I think we’ll look at that again tomorrow and possibly base that on the same template as this one which seems to be the easiest one to work with.

Who said this bloging lark was simple, well, maybe it is, but only if you leave the template well alone!

I’ve already mentioned the Knowsley camels on Snowbabies but because they were so funny, I though I’d post another picture of their antics while we were queuing to get past the road block.

War Of The Roses

It’s been a few days since I've had chance to post here, I’ve been busy enjoying time off work… Monday was an experience, War Of The Roses – Part 2, I wonder if the original one started with a disagreement about the colour of a Bridesmaids dress?

We’ve been to Knowsley Safari Park again today and it never ceases to amaze me how normally sensible people drive their new cars through an enclosure full of monkeys whose sole purpose in life is to cause as much damage to any passing vehicle as possible. Still, it’s always a hoot spotting cars driving about that have been assaulted by a gang of window wiper thieves.

Eric, our new kitten is coming on in leaps and bounds and I mean that literally, he
comes flying from any direction and before you know it, he’s up your leg on the top of your shoulder leaving a trail of hypodermic wounds in his wake.

Anyway, I've got to go, we've run out of plasters.......