Stormy Weather

[amateur51]

Than a load of boats going down the river in the rain ?

Left-to-right as well, I understand

Aren't the Chinese credited with turning this sort of thing into a form of torture?

Maybe this is the origin of waterboarding too

[BBMmk2]

Are we in summer?

[salymap]

Are we in summer?

I don't think we are bbm. It's the gloomiest day of this dreadful summer- kitchen light on at 6.30 to cook something, drizzling or pouring with rain all day - 10 days to longest day.

Sorry for the people of Wales, by the way, I know the elderly and children must be suffering most in the floods.

S-A is it going to get any better soon?

[Serial_Apologist]

I think it should start drying out tomorrow afternoon, then remain dry until Friday, but not particularly warm, it has to be said.

[Petrushka]

Temperature remained at 11 degrees during the day. Christmas Day last year was higher than this! Cloud and chilly wind as well today and still in my winter coat.

[Nick Armstrong]

I rather like the new way the BBC weather page shows hour by hour weather for your selected area in a way that indicates temperature changes graphically: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/w2

[BBMmk2]

Yes, that's rather good Caliban. We have actual;ly that shiny object again!! Two days running!! Goodness! he water people be declaring a drought again!!

[Anna]

After two dry days and sunshine we have the rain back and The Telegraph has a report that Wales, the South West and Midlands are to expect a return to monsoon conditions and flooding, a 50 year storm. I hope they mean 1 in 50 years and not that it'll last for 50 years. Can I come and stay with you lot in London as you will be basking in sunshine?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/weather/9331919/50-year-storm-heading-for-Britain-bringing-downpours-and-70mph-winds.html

[salymap]

Well Anna, I'm the London side of Kent, but that terrible cold wind is back today, not helped by the fact that I have to apply ice-packs to my lower back amd hips.

Goodluck in the monsoon though

[marthe]

The sun finally came out this afternoon after several days of cold, wet, miserable weather. I'm keeping all my fingers crossed that the good weather holds for our big event, the Newport Flower Show http://newportflowershow.org , in a week's time. I've been chair(woman) of a committee since last September and we're in the final stages of preparation for this event. May the sun shine for at least the next week! Fingers crossed also for Anna that she is spared a deluge of biblical proportions. saly, I hope your back is feeling better. My best wishes to all my friends on the other side of the Atlantic.

[Dave2002]

I rather like the new way the BBC weather page shows hour by hour weather for your selected area in a way that indicates temperature changes graphically: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/w2

Excellent stuff.

Interesting to see that Marthe is in Newport, US. Been there a few times, though refused to drive over "that" bridge - looks terrifying. http://www.bostonroads.com/crossings/pell-newport/ Having said that I did drive over all the big bridges in Denmark (Great Belt), and from Denmark to Sweden (Oresund), which have similar clearances underneath. I guess it's the view from some distance away which makes it look scary - and the slopes up and down.

Weather in the summer seems much warmer than in the UK, and for us got a bit oppressive. Newport classical music festival good - that should be along in a while, though I don't know what's on this year. http://www.newportmusic.org/Season%2...ase%202012.pdf

[Anna]

Well Anna, I'm the London side of Kent, but that terrible cold wind is back today, not helped by the fact that I have to apply ice-packs to my lower back amd hips.

Poor saly, ice-packs don't sound very comforting and must make you feel even more chilly in this awful weather! Does any sort of physio or massage help or do you just have to be stoical? Looking at marthe's link to her flower show - wow, those mansions are not at all what I expected, and why is one called Chepstow I wonder, did that architect have Welsh connections?

Weather today: the morning bright, followed by horizontal rain, followed by bright, followed by straightdown stair-rods of rain almost impossible to see through! I'm thinking the best thing tomorrow is to stay in and listen to the James Joyce day on R4 as it's supposed to be awful again.

[Nick Armstrong]

horizontal rain

Sure you weren't recumbent there, Anna?



Sunshine and the odd short sharp shower here in the metrollopes...

[marthe]

@Dave2002: Thanks for that link about the Newport/Pell Bridge! It's not as scary as it looks. For many years, we lived on the waterfront and had a wonderful view of the bridge from our front windows. I could have made a fortune if I had charged a dollar for every photo that was taken of the bridge from the edge of our driveway! As a teenager, I watched the bridge under construction.The bridge replaced a much-loved ferry service between Newport and Jamestown. Yes, festival time is coming up: classical, folk, jazz. This coming week America's Cup trials take place. The boats are here having been shipped over in containers! Early July, Newport will be part of a Tall Ships festival. The old town will be jumping all summer long.

@Anna: Chepstow was designed by a Newport architect named George Champlin Mason around 1860 for Edmund Schermerhorn of New York. He belonged to one of the old Knickerbocker (Dutch) families and was related to "the" Mrs. Astor (Caroline Schermerhorn Astor). This was his summer home until his death in 1891. In 1911, Emily Morris Gallatin bought the property and named it Chepstow after the Chepstow in Wales where her ancestor, Lewis Morris, took the castle during the English Civil War. Emily Morris's American ancestors were prominent and wealthy New Yorkers who were The Colonial Lords of the Manor of Morrisania. They had a bit of a back garden... 5,000 acres of land in what is now New York and New Jersey. Another Morris, Lewis Morris III, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Chepstow was bequeathed to the Preservation Society of Newport County by the Morris family in 1986. It's one of the PSNC's "small" houses (compared with the Vanderbilt mansions). A friend and I do some volunteer gardening at Chepstow, mostly weeding and getting rid of nasty viny stuff (Japanese Bittersweet) that's entwined itself around the clematis and rhododendrons. It's a lovely property, more charming, less grand than some of the better-known houses (Breakers, Marble House).

[BBMmk2]

WE having a good spell of weather down here at the moment. Where the earlier part of the week saw torrential rain etc.

I am going out today with my jamming partner to0 Brighton to buy some sheet muysic. That should be great fun and possibly a few beers to be had aloong the way!!