Stormy Weather

[DracoM]

Feels like back to bloomin' mid-March oop 'ere.
Genuinely cold, and more than genuinely wet, ghylls and rivers running fast, dangerous, and foaming with the rust brown when it scours down through sandstone. .

[Petrushka]

Feels like back to bloomin' mid-March oop 'ere.

And here too. It's still very, very windy and we've just had a hefty shower with what looks like more on the way. Raining for much of the day on and off but mostly on.

That wind though...!

[oddoneout]

Less than ideal conditions for a musical project being staged at work tomorrow involving an orchestra and lots of schoolchildren in an inflatable arena pitched outside , with open seating for the audience....

[Serial_Apologist]

Hope you manage to find a bus to change on to...

Thanks for asking, Holly. I ended up taking the train, catching something to eat from one of the stalls at Victoria, and walking the pleasant walk to Cadogan, by which time it was raining quite hard as well as still blowing. Just as well I hadn't cycled the 9 miles!. Several very annoying things about Victoria are that there is (a) absolutely nowhere to sit down unless you go into one of the bars, where obviously they expect you to buy something you didn't need; (b) most of the former exits to the station are now blocked off; those that aren'tl disgorge people who then have to cross each others' paths in huge numbers, making finding one's way extremely hazardous; and (3) when you do eventually find somewhere to stand in order to eat what you've bought, there's nothing to stand it on, anywhere: I had to put my "small" beacon of coffee on the floor, whereupon somebody rushed past and kicked it over!!!

[Lat-Literal]

Thanks for asking, Holly. I ended up taking the train, catching something to eat from one of the stalls at Victoria, and walking the pleasant walk to Cadogan, by which time it was raining quite hard as well as still blowing. Just as well I hadn't cycled the 9 miles!. Several very annoying things about Victoria are that there is (a) absolutely nowhere to sit down unless you go into one of the bars, where obviously they expect you to buy something you didn't need; (b) most of the former exits to the station are now blocked off; those that aren'tl disgorge people who then have to cross each others' paths in huge numbers, making finding one's way extremely hazardous; and (3) when you do eventually find somewhere to stand in order to eat what you've bought, there's nothing to stand it on, anywhere: I had to put my "small" beacon of coffee on the floor, whereupon somebody rushed past and kicked it over!!!

Oh the memories.

I don't have any strong recommendations of places in the immediate vicinity, especially as I have avoided the area for seven years, but there is an M and S coffee shop in the small precinct on the opposite side of Victoria Street; I suppose the Victoria pub is just about passable and usefully it is slightly off the beaten track (exit near to platforms 16-19); or a 15 minute walk towards and then behind Westminster Cathedral would take you to here - http://regencycafe.co.uk/ - which has a cross section of VIPs and normal people sitting in its history but there is a proviso. Sadly it is very Spurs. If you fancy playing spot the Ulster Unionist, there is always the Albert and I would have made a special reference to what used to be the Orange Brewery in Pimlico. However, I have just Googled it and it looks like a very different beast to the one I knew. One for the six figure salaried now I'd imagine.

Today I walked and took the bus to the Woodcote Green Garden Centre which is a bit near to the crazy metropolis for my liking. A lot of orange in that area too on paper with equal amounts of challenging blue. I bought several plants and a smashing glass bird bath and I managed to get everything into place, accompanied by sunshine, gusts and heavy rain. I put on the central heating for a short while tonight as it felt almost wintry. Perhaps though that was due to the frost between me and every channel I dipped into on the television.

The Woodcote Green Garden Centre, Wallington in "Surrey" - http://www.woodcotegreen.com/default.aspx

Proposed TV News Changes in my Manifesto : Example - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOEt1J3qeAQ

[BBMmk2]

I suppose people be saying it's all climate change! Very autumnal weather yesterday. Felt like being in October. Haven't been outside yet today but at the moment sunny and cloudy. Whether it's chilly or not, I'm not sure/

[Stanfordian]

Squally weather on my early morning walk on the Ribble Estuary of the Irish Sea; all rather bracing (as they used to say in the old holiday brochures).

[greenilex]

One or two nasty lows have been bowling over us recently...almost hurricanes, perhaps? Haven't been tracking the jet stream but we do seem to be a target just now?

[Serial_Apologist]

One or two nasty lows have been bowling over us recently...almost hurricanes, perhaps? Haven't been tracking the jet stream but we do seem to be a target just now?

That's right: the Atlantic lows streaming across the ocean towards us kind of lurch their way along the jet stream, causing their fronts to buckle where jet and front coincide at about Everest height; then an especially deep low will often form at the end of a chain of depressions, with the northerlies on its western side pushing the jet stream way to the south, sometimes even as far as Morocco. A high then forms to the west, which may then become a blocking high, fending off the low pressure circulation, while the jet splits, with the stronger part streaming around the northern edge of the high towards the Arctic circle, and the weaker and slower part sneaking round to the south, and petering out in the Med, where a so-called "cut-off low" will be left beleaguered in cold air, usually in the area around Corsica and Sardinia. Sometimes these cut-off Mediterranean lows become intensified through an injection of cold air returning from Scandinavia, leading to very stormy weather being experienced in Italy where such cold air comes up against hot dry "Sirocco" air from the Sahara. Meanwhile Britain "basks" in clear, cool northerly or NW winds until the "clearing high" located west of Ireland weakens due to the warm air it drags up on its western side rides in on the Gulf Stream, cold air being drawn in from the west across the States and Canada, and where the two airstreams meet the jet stream re-establishes itself, and the whole cycle starts all over again. Simple. Not.

[Serial_Apologist]

Oh the memories.

I don't have any strong recommendations of places in the immediate vicinity, especially as I have avoided the area for seven years, but there is an M and S coffee shop in the small precinct on the opposite side of Victoria Street; I suppose the Victoria pub is just about passable and usefully it is slightly off the beaten track (exit near to platforms 16-19); or a 15 minute walk towards and then behind Westminster Cathedral would take you to here - http://regencycafe.co.uk/ - which has a cross section of VIPs and normal people sitting in its history but there is a proviso. Sadly it is very Spurs. If you fancy playing spot the Ulster Unionist, there is always the Albert and I would have made a special reference to what used to be the Orange Brewery in Pimlico. However, I have just Googled it and it looks like a very different beast to the one I knew. One for the six figure salaried now I'd imagine.

I reckon you should try qualifying for one of those blue badges, Lat: you'd make a fine tour leader!

[Lat-Literal]

I reckon you should try qualifying for one of those blue badges, Lat: you'd make a fine tour leader!

Thank you kindly.

Is there any chance of a Stormy Weather II as the thread is loading quite slowly now on my machine?

Also, can I safely put my glass bird bath out tonight - it is on a tall stand - or are we likely to have more gusts?

I have risked the solar powered butterfly which I bought today at Knights Garden Centre in Woldingham but it is on a long pole that sticks in the clods. Lots of horses and sheep in the vicinity - a lovely accompaniment to the walk today - but my God is the area posh : small wonder the late Smiley Culture chose it, not to mention Peter Andre. Oh - I just did.

http://www.knights-gardencentres.co.uk/

[Serial_Apologist]

Thank you kindly.

Is there any chance of a Stormy Weather II as the thread is loading quite slowly now on my machine?

Also, can I safely put my glass bird bath out tonight - it is on a tall stand - or are we likely to have more gusts?

I have risked the solar powered butterfly which I bought today at Knights Garden Centre in Woldingham but it is on a long pole that sticks in the clods. Lots of horses and sheep in the vicinity - a lovely accompaniment to the walk today - but my God is the area posh : small wonder the late Smiley Culture chose it, not to mention Peter Andre. Oh - I just did.

http://www.knights-gardencentres.co.uk/

A cousin of mine and her wealthy husband lived in Woldingham in a large house with swimming pool. When the family grew up and left home they downscaled by moving into the gate lodge. Eventually they decided that was too big to manage and moved into sheltered housing in Oxford. It must be nice to be able to downscale like that, and eventually leave the resulting proceeds to one's immediate family, all of whom already had a good headstart.

[Lat-Literal]

A cousin of mine and her wealthy husband lived in Woldingham in a large house with swimming pool. When the family grew up and left home they downscaled by moving into the gate lodge. Eventually they decided that was too big to manage and moved into sheltered housing in Oxford. It must be nice to be able to downscale like that, and eventually leave the resulting proceeds to one's immediate family, all of whom already had a good headstart.

Yes - but I bet they didn't have a £6 solar powered butterfly upon a pole.

A mixture of weak sunshine and some rather strange looking clouds here.

So, has the guru Steve "The Rainmaker" Hilton returned from California?

We will know for sure if there are sudden thunderstorms just after midday.

[DracoM]

Polling day, and sluicing it down oop 'ere.

[greenilex]

Really clear and totally fascinating, SA - thank you. I have experienced one or two of the Mediterranean storms you describe.