Drought?

Oh for some rain, but today came the news that there is an amber heat warning for parts of Britain. That means there is some danger to health for people, especially for the  vulnerable ones. There might be a cooler week next week, but that doesn’t mean rain.

In other news we had reports that we can expect temperatures of up to 40°Celcius in future years, that’s a lot higher than we are used to. Britain has a maritime weather system, meaning weather coming from all directions and all sorts of types. Rain, wind, sleet, hail, snow, sun, fog, mist, drizzle, gales, thunder and even tornadoes and water spouts, we get it all!

Low pressure

Just looked at my Barometer, it’s dropped to 957 millibars which is the lowest I’ve ever seen it. The pointer has dropped all the way down to “stormy”. And yet fireworks are going off all around us. It will be bonfire night, or Guy Fawkes night in the UK tomorrow. (Remember remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot). This was in the reign of James 1st when Guy Fawkes and fellow plotters tried to blow up the houses of Parliament by getting gunpowder into it’s cellars. The British people celebrated the failure of the plot by burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes and letting off fireworks.

So the weather isn’t good for it tonight. I doubt there will be many bonfires because of all the rain we have been having. But the fireworks are crackling and banging all over the place, and it’s not even the 5th yet!

Size matters

I was just wondering how big the UK is relative to the USA. Turns out according to Google it’s 40 times smaller than the USA! (also 32 times smaller than Australia).

We can drive across the country in a day. I could drive for maybe two or three days North to South John O’groats to Lands end, although it has been done much faster. The direct distance is 603 miles, but the road distance is 837 miles. So driving over the limit at 83.7 mph you could drive it in ten hours. But if you drove at just 40mph you could do it in less than 24 hours!

Goodness knows how long it would take to drive across America and I guess it also depends where on the coasts you drive from. America is wider in the north than in the south?

Passion flower

Yesterday in a garden centre, at the end of October we found this passion flower still in bloom. Its amazing how warm it has been over the last few weeks in Britain. Lasr week it was about 23° Centigrade in London and 19°s where we live. About 5 or 7° higher than usual. In some ways that’s good because we haven’t needed to put the heating on much. But it is unnatural. Apparently every month this year has been hotter than previous ones. Animals are not getting ready to hibernate, will they have enough food or energy to survive if the winter gets very cold. Who knows, it’s worrying.

Saggars and pots

A photo from the British Ceramics Biennial last year. Rain washed spode site glistening in the sunlight.

Missing being able to visit places and see things. Even after a couple of days it looks like they are going to increase local lockdowns and prevent more transmission of the virus.

And yet we see images of people without masks, or wearing them as some sort of decorative chin strap. While the head of one of the greatest countries in the world gets to throw possibly contaminated masks into a baying, maskless crowd.

Crazy, mad, sad.

Storm “Dennis”

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Storm Dennis has been tipped as possibly more damaging than storm Ciara last weekend. We have had some strong gusts of wind, bending the Eucalyptus sapling we have growing in the garden, it’s leaves acting like sails, catching the wind, and bending it almost in half. The Leylandii in the neighbours garden has been whipping about and it’s branches seperating as the winds buffet it. Sometimes great gusts of air force themselves between the tree and the privet hedge at the bottom of our garden.

We are waiting for the heavy rain that is forecast, an Amber and Yellow warning has been set for the whole country. Even planes have been cancelled fir the passengers safety.

Britain is not a large island (or islands) but its shocking to think that storms can encompass the whole of it. Whether the heating of the atmosphere could be causing it? I don’t know, but you do have to wonder?…

Brexit.. Done

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At 11.00pm (23.00hrs), Britain left the European Union. After a day that had been grey and drizzly, and a day I felt infinitely sad.

I did not vote for leaving the EU. But about 70% of the people in this area did, do I guess I expected rock and roll bands and masses of fireworks?

Instead we got about ten minutes loud music from the local pub, followed by a minutes fireworks at 10.58pm, then silence… A nice damp squib.

Other friends have posted statuses which sound similar. Perhaps people have become inured to it. Maybe they realise they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces….. As my hubby Sat’s, this world will go on…..

Voting today

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We are holding our third General election in five years in the UK today. That is Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

I won’t bore you with the politics but our parliament was opposing our prime ministers policies so he decided to try and get more politicians on his side by calling an election despite there being a previous one about two years ago.

What has ensued has been a bit of a farce, with politicians apparently going into hiding so they don’t cause problems by saying inappropriate things. The Prime Minister has hidden from journalists, and refused to be interviewed by senior journalists despite his opponents being interviewed.

The use of social media has also been questionable, with targeted information being pushed at voters. Most of the time you are in your own bubble, you don’t see what other party supporters see, some of this is from Trolls who stir up hate and animosity.

Last night in several constituencies posters of a very disturbing nature were put up. They could be classed as libelous. They were taken back down by the political party that was being attacked, but they must have been paid for by a concerted group of people and they may have breached rules about how much campaign’s are allowed to spend.

Whatever happened, or happens, the results are due to start flooding in later tonight. It’s been a cold wet miserable day, but there have been reports of queues round the block in some places.

I appreciate the right to vote. As a woman I feel privileged to have the right to do so, following the fight by the suffragettes in the 20th Century. To people in the UK, I would say its a miserable evening, but please use your vote and show you care about your fellow citizens.

Raining again

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The rain kept off till about 4pm, then it started to pour down. There are lots of flood warnings with 30 to 50 millimeters of rain expected in the next 24 hours. Then there are seasonal high tides due aswell. Water levels are expected to peak in the North East and there is talk of an evacuation in one costal area. We are in the North Midlands and are expecting heavy rain. It’s certainly changed from the hot and humid weather of a week ago. I guess though that despite being under a huge cloud we are lucky. There is early snowfall in parts of America!

Parliament is not prorogued

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I don’t often put news on this page but this is historical.

Our Prime minister, Boris Johnson decided to prorogue parliment for five weeks before it could decide what to do about Brexit, which is due to happen on 31st October 2019. (Brexit is Britain trying to leave the European Union). He did it to stop MPs meeting and stopping him from working towards Britain leaving without a deal although he said it was so he could write a Queens speech (when government say what the legislation in the next year will be).

This was challenged at the Supreme Court because the members of Parliament argued that this was wrong and had stopped the working of MPs.

After hearing the evidence last week, the Supreme Court (the highest court in the land) gave a unanimous verdict by 11 judges that proroguing Parliament was illegal because it stopped it doing its job. The prime ministers action was illegal and his advice to the queen to ask for permission to do it was unlawful .

Our government has been found not to be acting lawfully. The ruling means that parliament has not been prorogued, and that the speaker of the House of commons (the chamber where MPs sit) can recall it immediately.

This judgment reaffirms that the executive (the Conservative party) which is in power, is NOT above the law.

It is now being discussed on the TV. There is a lot of arguments, but it really is historical. Its very complicated but I hope I have explained clearly.