Storm Eunice

The storm hit today. We were on the northern edge and although its been windy with heavy rain I don’t think it was as bad as storm Desmond earlier in the week.

I’m staying at home as I have a sore throat and aches. I guess it might be the weather. It seems like you get different bugs depending on the temperature?

While I sit and watch the trees blowing about I believe that Britain generally gets a few named storms a year. Eunice is a bad one. It mainly hit down in the South of the country. A wind speed of 122 miles an hour was measured at the Needles, a series of cliffs on the Isle of Wight. Part of the canvas covering of the Millennium Dome was ripped off. Trains were cancelled throughout Wales. Major bridges were closed. Rooves were torn off and a church steeple blew down. I know Cornwall, Devon and Somerset have been affected and London Fire Brigade was inundated with calls.

There may be snow blizzards tonight in the North of England and in Scotland and Northern Ireland. They were saying 10 to 30 centimeters of snow may fall.

Meanwhile here… Its been a bit breezy. My city is about as far away from the coast as you can get, in the centre of the country. Our river is quite small here. It doesn’t create massive flooding, hopefully things will be OK. We may lose a few tiles, a chimney pot or two.

Blocks

Digital manipulation of paving blocks. The colours are from water and green algae on the blocks. The perspective of them means that because I have mirrored them both side to side and up and down there appears to be a bulge in the centre of the picture. I again used the Layout app that comes with Instagram to do the mirroring.

Light in the sky

Half past five in the evening and the clouds scud by. There’s still light in the sky but the rain showers keep pounding the windows. I love the newly washed look of the air. Almost sparkling. When I came here forty years ago there was far more heavy industry in the area. Smoke and dust polluted the air. A smog sometimes settled over the city and you could smell the fumes from the tyre factory or enamel being fired onto pottery if the wind was in the right direction. Now the wind is more a carrier of sound. The local A road and the motorway. The occasional sound of pile drivers when new buildings are erected, which is not very often. Sometimes smoke travels on the forlorn breeze as an old building accidentally burns down. So sad. So much bustle gone. We are a warehouse city of poorly paid jobs. No real chances. No ambition if the naysayers are believed. I think we can do better. Think creative, be creative. Let a bit of light shine on us. X

Fast changing sky

It’s very windy outside. I took two photos within a couple of minutes of each other. One had a bit of blue sky in it, the other was much cloudier and more turbulent. The pink developed then faded quickly. I mirrored the two photos so you can compare the colours next to each other. Darkness is gathering. I want to snuggle up and hibernate!

Red sky at night

I wish I lived on the other side of the hill.

Red sky at night! Wish I could have got up the hill. But it faded quickly after taking this shot. I’ve seen a couple of photos on Facebook which were taken by other people.

A gale force wind and storms are forecast for later tonight up in the north of the UK. But that’s mainly Scotland. Hopefully this means that the weather here will be OK. Its still a long time till spring. Lots of cold, wet, windy weather still to come.

Cold

I’m sitting here with my fleece on and a dressing gown on top of my normal clothes. It’s not that cold, around freezing outside. The heating is on, and a little oil heater. But it’s drafty. When it gets this cold in the house I sometimes put my gas cooker on. I can cook a meal and warm the house up. If I get too cold I’ll go to bed and read a book. We have a radiator on in the bedroom. I am trying to save energy. Gas and electricity prices which have been capped are set to rise around 50% in April. Many people will struggle to pay. One energy company recently gave some energy saving tips:

‘cuddle a pet’, ‘eat porridge’ and ‘do star jumps’! It’s nice to know they care.

Meanwhile our ruling political party seems to have turned into a ‘Part-aaay’ over the last couple of years! Marvellous leadership… Not.

Little Earth painting

A couple of years ago I painted this picture of Earth. I was trying to get the shading right so the clouds sit above the surface was difficult. This is North America, Canada and part of Mexico and the Caribbean.

I hope the cloud shapes work and you can see the weather patterns. I wonder if anyone would be interested in paintings of worlds. It’s something I’m interested in. I’ve painted pictures of Jupiter and other astronomical images. I don’t use an airbrush for painting so it’s quite hard to get the granularity and softness of space and planets.

Westport mist

Sunset over Westport Lake. We drove there through a cold fog and emerged into a thin mist hanging over the lake. The wildfowl came towards us wanting food but we had gone there on the spur of the moment so had no food. The visitor centre had just closed so we couldn’t get a warm drink. Westport Lake now has parking machines so we had to pay for the privilege of going for a walk. We took a short flat walk around the lake its not far, but far enough for me at the moment. I got left behind a few times but I managed to get round. It’s a start to the new year.