In the bleak Mid Winter, Bits and Bobs.

[Westi]

We probably had that little beauty come through here first! Traffic news on the radio extra long reporting trees down in a wide area! All fine around here though, but was a tad breezy!

Westi

[Ricard with an H]

We also has an unexpected-hooligan though earlier in the day at around 14:30 hrs, I quickly rescued a crawl ladder I had left on the roof of the garage-shed.

"I don't believe it" Such stupidity and I'm the one with a keen eye on the weather forecast so I don't get a surprise.

The forecast didn't include the hooligan but it did suggest gust speeds of over 40 knots around 13:00 hrs.

My cloches with fleece covering are all over the place, plain expanded metal cloches stayed in place.

Hmmm.

[Geoff]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25924088

Probably with their trousers rolled up too!

[Cider Boys]

Thanks for the link Geoff.

Having lived all my life in the Sedgemoor area along with my parents, Grandparents and Great-Grandparents who farmed this unique wetland I have an opinion on the flooding over the last two years. Firstly the whole area is the Somerset Levels and Moors but the Media have always referred to it as the Levels. The Levels are the coastal clay based area whilst the Moors are the low lying inland areas some of it peat based. The Levels have not flooded for donkeys years since that is where the towns of Bridgwater and Burnham-On-Sea are and the Moors have acted as a water dump to protect their population since the Moors are very sparsely populated. So the Moors have always flooded and all Moors people have webbed feet. However the fact that the Environment Agency have seen fit not to dredge the rivers for 20 years is negligence especially as the cost of dredging is £4.5 million and has not been done whilst they happily spend £31 million on creating (by flooding an area) a bird sanctuary at the mouth of the river Parrett. Perhaps the dredging was also stopped because the spoil could no longer be spread on the fields due to the ridiculous environment laws prohibiting its movement as it was classified a hazardous waste. So any spoil was being banked up beside the river causing it harder to pump the water off the fields. I do not know what the answer is except that this land will always flood but to leave whole villages cut off except by boats like Muchelney or completely abandoned like Thorney in these sophisticated times reminds me how vulnerable we are to the forces of the weather. I'm afraid the Somerset Levels and Moors people think the Environment Agency's motto is Ducks before People.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weath ... evels.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... rious.html

Barney

[Geoff]

I feel sorry for you all down there, hope you haven't been affected too badly.
I know it has rained a lot but surely there are plenty of three month periods with similar rainfall and less problems to prove it is negligence/incompetence. I'm no hydrologist but surely you don't dredge rivers to increase their storage capacity but to lower them below the surrounding land and increase their flow capacity, what a stupid interview. As for not spreading the dredged material and instead raising the banks to keep the water on the land and make it easier for the material to get back into the river, I suppose you might as well stop dredging if you are going to be that stupid.
I could go on for ever about the failings of the organisations that are supposed to maintain the infrastructure. Country roads are being destroyed because they don't maintain the drains and allow the verges to grow into the tarmac to loosen it so the undrained water can dig lovely big potholes. When the council workers appear they seem to achieve little, their productivity on the job seems lacking. They have closed depots to supposedly save money so the day starts further away from the jobs, round here they seem to pack up soon after 3 o'clock to get back to depot.
The same applies to almost anything loosely connected to civil engineering; electricity transmission costs, railway maintenance, house building (I still maintain the inability to build enough houses at sensible prices was as much to blame as the bankers for the economic woes).

[oldherbaceous]

It seems but a distant memory now, that two years ago we were going to have to save every drop of water possible to combat the drought conditions the UK was going to suffer!

Barney, you often spring to mind when i see what weather you are getting down there. I hope things improve for you with all possible haste.

[Cider Boys]

Thanks for your kind wishes, oldherbacious and Geoff fortunately I'm dry as the village in which I live is not flooded but the fields around are saturated and I do feel very sorry for anyone who has been flooded. It is usual for the Moors to flood in winter but not to this extent, I have lost 3 sheep drowned in a flooded rhyne and my son's cattle are up to their knees in water and mud but we have have managed to provide a number of livestock trailers so they can at least sleep in the dry. I'm feeling a little sore to-day as I climbed Burrow Mump (like a small Glastonbury Tor) last Sunday to look at the extent of the flooding, but on climbing down I kept slipping on my arse much to the amusement of a crowd of locals cheering me on each time I fell!

I hope that things are all well with you Oldherbacious, I still read your musing; they always cheer me up. Unfortunately the land I used to rent to grow things has now all been sold for development of a Village Centre and playing fields. I really do miss my vegetable growing as I only have my very small garden now. I'm hoping to take over an allotment in the Spring and it will be nice to smell some dry earth for a change.

Best wishes to all and keep digging.

Barney

[oldherbaceous]

Afternoon Barney, if i thought i could cheer just one person up each day, i would be a very happy man indeed.

Sorry to read that you are no longer growing, i used to love your tales of the Broad Beans and the like, always seemed to bring the forum to life....

So hope you get an allotment sorted, and you get growing some vegetables again, even if it's not on the field scale.

It's rained all day long here, again, but i'm sure it will be brighter tomorrow.

[Ricard with an H]

No rain forecast for us for 24 hours and then its back to wet-windy and stormy, also, I noticed already the slightly longer day with some of that birdsong that tells us its on the up-and-up.

The lower fields in the valley, whilst not suffering from the dreadful flooding I read about, are sodden. So much-so it's difficult for even my little dog to walk so we're doing the beach for walkies rather than 'Muddy-lane'.

In some areas the sheep are turning the grazing into mud-bath type situations and this destroys the grasses.

Pheeewee, what a year.

[oldherbaceous]

Just been to feed some cats down the lane, and i have to say it feels rather Wintery out there this morning.

No sleeves rolled up today....

[Geoff]

Might be cool but it's bright and DRY!

[Ricard with an H]

Might be cool but it's bright and DRY!

And for me a good day to catch up on more roof repairs, it was cold and the cold got through my thermal long-johns by 14:30 hrs.

In windy areas slates should be fitted using slate-hooks rather than the conventional two nails just above the centre line. Slate hooks cope better with lift/suction. One or two areas have suffered so much from the lift that the slates either split or loosened over an area. This roof is only 12 years old though the slate is laid as if it were in a suburban area rather than coastal.

You can't even buy slate hooks round here, none of the builders merchants stock them because none of the tradesmen use them. Bizarre.

Maybe not so bizarre, not this far west.

[Geoff]

You've probably all seen the map of rainfall percentages that has been published today making the south look pretty terrible (don't get me wrong, it is for those involved) but there is another one that shows the data as actual rainfall. The Guardian shows both http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014 ... ords-began
So the southern catastrophe meant they had to cope with northern averages. The "drought" areas are quite interesting too.

[Ricard with an H]

Its a good day to catch-up on vacuuming and dusting, the wind is so strong as the rain hits our conservatory glazing it stalls before starting to fall down the glass. The wind is blowing the rain up the glazing just beneath the gutters, that is where the rain often breaches the seal between glass and timber-frame.

Its a nasty day with water sitting on the grass and shingle drive because the ground is sodden even here quite few metres up from the valley bottoms.

Cloches have just gone flying past again, I just can't hold them down.

[Monika]

Fascinating map in the Guardian,Geoff. I didn't think we had come off as lightly as suggested in the other maps published today!