Sunset, twisted..

Take a look at me sideways on. I am a sunset with trees and a roof.

Twisted 90° and mirrored. I just caught the glow of the sunset as it fell behind the south west horizon. Another shortening day. In about three weeks we will get even shorter. Midwinter gloom will arrive and then the long climb back to light again. I will have to hibernate!

Snowing

A few shots of the snow outside in the garden. The snow is only a couple of centimetres deep but is continuing to fall. I don’t think this weather will last long, but it does seem strange that it’s falling in November. Most years we don’t get anything even at Christmas. It sometimes snows in the new year and can last a couple of weeks but generally it’s been mild for most winters. What does worry me is the cost of heating our house. Gas and electricity bills are skyrocketing. Ah well, that’s life.

Storm Arwen

Not here… In Scotland

When you see a bad weather report like this you think it might effect your home. In this case its to the north of us up in Scotland and The North East of England. Still the wind is roaring past the house and rattling our wheelie bins. But that’s about it. We don’t appear to be getting flooding at the moment, but there may be on the North Sea coast.

We did have our power supply flickering a few times. But up north thousands of peoples homes have lost power. Trains are stranded. Its all relative I guess.

Autumn colours

This was a real leaf today. Its a bit blurred, but the colours are accurate. I walked around a local lake today, only a week later than I intended, but it did me good. It was grey and overcast, there were not many bright leaves, but right at the end of the walk I saw this. Half disintegrated, but colourful and cheerful on a gloomy day, it bought a smile to my face.

Wet

I looked out this morning and the wind was whistling down the hill and rain was pouring down. But we had it lightly, about eighty miles and further north of here, rivers have flooded and a couple of footbridges have been swept away. Then later today there was news of someone possibly being swept away by a river.

When I think about the buildings collapsing into flooded rivers in South Asia recently it just underlines how much rain is being dropped on the land in some places. Because the atmosphere is getting hotter it can hold more water which consequently precipitates in greater amounts when it does rain. Flooding events that were once in a decade or a century are becoming more frequent. We have to act. I don’t know about political slogans like ‘levelling up’ but I think the heavy rains are ‘levelling down’ and washing the ground away from humanities feet!

Cold day

Wet and cold today. The sort of day to wear layers to keep warm. Gas prices are at an all time high and the cost to consumers is ser to rise.

Last night I slept on the settee again because of my leg, and despite trying to keep warm with a housecoat and a dressing gown on, I ended up putting a pair of trousers on! I also used a bath sheet to go over the top of me. I miss my warm duvet. I’m not putting the heating on until we get temperatures below 0°. Celsius.

Feed the birds

As the autumn approaches the northern hemisphere the weather gets colder. Local bird populations are looking for food. Some of them need to stock up so they can migrate others so they can overwinter in the UK.

You can get bird foods from local shops and pet stores. Grain, peanuts, sunflower seeds, fat balls, together with a fresh supply of water is what they need. If you feed them bread make sure it has been soaked in water, otherwise it can swell up in their crops and cause harm to them.

See your local nature charities for more information about feeding specific birds.