February 7th 2014

A shocking exhausting day. Weather grim, in fact so grim its becoming comical if it wasn't so serious for those affected. Work busy, Julie still not 100% after her scare in January so I'm up and down the UK's flooded road network and motorways burning candles at both ends by the dozen. So it was good to get home at 7.30pm and be told to sit down, supper is ready, don't move. So there I sat on the sofa, having been told to, glass of wine in hand and a tray meal of vegetarian haggis, potatoes, cabbage and peas thrust in front of me. I love vegetarian haggis, very filling but every mouthful feels like an improving pick-me-up as the ingredients are most wholesome. It went down a treat I can tell you, especially accompanied by a red wine or two. So with that consumed the efforts of day took hold of me and bed by 9pm. A perfect end to a difficult day.

February 6th 2014

I didn't take this photograph today. And those of you with a quick mind will have already discovered that fact. So why on a day when it has rained for 12 hours, when everywhere is flooded, sodden at best, have I posted a high summer photograph. Well because I stumbled across this photograph while looking for something else on the laptop. Taken last May it epitomises what I love of the Marlborough Downs, a landscape that on the 6th of February, today, I drove over looking grey, cold, waterlogged and as though the entire lifeblood had drained out of it. But nature is resilient, really resilient and in a few months when the sun has risen again to provide a bit of warmth the poppies of Wiltshire will once again flower over the chalk downland. I shall look forward to that day. I posted this photograph on Twitter and within an hour over 12 retweets plus half a dozen comments, all saying it has cheered them up on a day when it seemed rain was the only element on earth. And for that I'm glad.

February 5th 2014

 

Well what can I say, today has been another rip roaring winters day. Gales, pestilence, driving rain, even the shipping forecast had an air of excitement about it; at one point using the phrase for wave height off Cornwall as 'phenomenal';

Sole : Storm warnings - Issued: 2000 UTC Wed 05 Feb

At 051200 UTC, low 61 north 29 west 960 expected 60 north 40 west 959 by 061200 UTC. Winds will reach storm force 10 at times in the far northwest of West Northern Section and the far southwest of Denmark Strait after 060300 UTC. New low expected 45 north 50 west 977 by same time. Winds will reach storm force 10 in the southwest of West Central Section after 061800 UTC.

 

Area Forecast - Issued: 2000 UTC Wed 05 Feb

 

Wind West 7 to severe gale 9, occasionally storm 10 at first, decreasing 6, becoming cyclonic, mainly north later, 6 to gale 8, perhaps severe gale 9 later.

 

Sea State High or very high, becoming rough or very rough. Weather Squally showers, rain later. Visibility Good, occasionally poor.

Outlook for following 24 hours

From 2000 UTC on Thu 06 Feb 2014.

Hurricane force winds expected in East Central Section and West Central Section with storms expected in West Northern Section and Denmark Strait. Gales or severe gales expected in all other areas. 

So there's nothing for it but to batten down the hatches and head into the school tuck shop and have an early Cadbury's Cream Egg. Although as this photograph was taken at 8am, even for me that's a bit early!

 

February 4th 2014

We all pass the humble city, or feral pigeon without maybe thinking about where they came from. It is almost impossible to calculate how many feral pigeons there are in Britain but there are less than we think. Familiarly, coupled with many pigeons often being congregated in small areas of a city often makes one think that every city is awash with more pigeons than the city can cope with. But ecology and population dynamics are not ideal for wildlife in our urban areas. With that, best estimates are around 500,000 breeding pairs across the UK, with maybe 2-5,000 in most cities. To put that into context there are around 4-5 million breeding pairs of blackbird, possibly as unlike the blackbird, the feral pigeon is closely related to human settlements, not the wider countryside where the woodpigeon or stock dove are more numerous. Although they can have their problems, disease carriers, seen as pests, I like pigeons as they bring a little bit of the wild into our urbanised areas. Their ancestors are the rock dove of which just a few hundred now cling to a precarious existence in the remote cliffs along the western side of Scotland and a few islands. Humans domesticated these birds over time and it is from that domestic stock that our feral pigeon derives, from escapees.  So next time you walk past a small flock of pigeons as I did today, just enjoy that feeling of a little bit of the wild being brought into the well ordered concrete city.

February 3rd 2014

It has been a mad and hectic two weeks for me with repeated 140mile round trips up and down the M4 and the M5 to be both at work and to be with Julie while she was poorly. I don't mind the travelling at all but it is exhausting, and so tonight I was at home at the beginning of what I hope is a spell of less moving about. I am exhausted by it all but a few early nights is what the doctor ordered. And so to bed at 8.30pm with a big mug of hot chocolate. I do like Green & Blacks Hot Chocolate and having heard that hot chocolate can ward off the crippling disease dementia, it is a goodly excuse to drink this elixir regularly.

February 2nd 2014

 

Amongst my many interests, monochrome photography is increasingly fascinating me. In a society deluged by colour images there is something aesthetic I find quite exciting about a black and white study. I think its the texture coupled with a limited palette of colour for the senses, which allows the viewer to see a different image to one which is in full technicolour. I'm not sure exactly what we see different but with black and white images the image is maybe second to the story the image is trying to say. Two images taken this weekend. Avebury church and cottages today and our pheasant in the garden yesterday.

Frbruary 1st 2014

 

It comes to something to be posting in my diary the arrival of blue skies and sunshine. However this winter has been pretty bad down here in the south and south west of the UK, with it being recorded that it was officially the wettest January on record. We're in a new month now, the season of Imbolc and as if a light switch had been flicked I woke this morning to unbroken blue sky. So wonderful was this that I had all the windows open for an hour to air the house - there is something restorative in getting fresh air into houses after the winter dormancy. We may still get a cold snap but I can feel the heat in the sun now, it's not going to be long until we can all venture outside and feel warm. I must be getting old if I'm craving sunshine and warmth!

 

While I'm on our resident pheasant enjoyed todays warmth too.....