Almost identical day to yesterday with the temperature as low as -3C. Loads of spider's webs again.Picture 1 shows them on the little plastic greenhouse that I used to use for seedlings and cuttings. But, in the anticipation of moving, I didn't grow anything at all last year.
Visibility here is about 100/150 yards but in the south-east the weather is much worse. A third of flights from Heathrow are cancelled. Poor people. At a Bank Holiday again, but you can't blame striking baggage-handlers for the weather. You would think that, in 2006, technology would enable take-offs in fog. There was an explanation on the radio this morning as to why foggy-in-the-day is different from pitch-black-at-night, but I was still half asleep.
Picture 2 is some cobwebs on the front gate yesterday and when Sky and I went to look at them I said "Spiders must be a bit stupid building webs there, hoping that flies are going to fly through the gate in this weather" She said "Perhaps they build them because they are beautiful". She is quite right of course. Why didn't curmudgeonly Grandad think such a lovely thought?Still on the subject of grandchildren, I wonder if one of the little ones, excellent writers that they are, would do me a job. Hannah for instance might be willing to earn £2, for copying all the addresses, telephone numbers, birthdays, holidays et al from my 2006 diary into my 2007. Those things where you just put in a new 'body' each year are basically a sound idea but far too bulky. I like pocket-sized diaries.
A normal Burton Joyce day today for Y and I shall collect her from the tram afer tea and then go to the camera club. Nothing special on tonight, just a get-together for a chin wag. I must leave her a note to remind her to put a tape in for Rick Stein on Japanese fish-cookery. They have raised cooking fish to an art-form and Rick isn't bad either! Sounded promising.
Bungus posited the notion some time ago that 'shadows don't fall on water'. I had to agree that, if they did, I had never seen any. We also wondered whether or not the same went for ice.His picture, which I'm sure he won't mind me using, seems to lay the ice-issue to rest conclusively. We still don't know whether or not they fall on still water though. Obviously reflections do but Bungus's picture is quite clearly a shadow because it carries on over the ice and up the bank on the other side.
Anyone willing to undertake the necessary research will receive the grateful thanks of this station. We haven't actually got a science-correspondent yet.
It was smashing to have David's comment yesterday. I must ask him if the absence of the word-verification system made leaving a comment easier, or made no difference.
.... It's in the balance...............
Love the websights.
ReplyDeleteWeather here clear again after a bit of early mist, becoming sunny (as evidenced by the shadow photo). I was supposed to be visiting a friend in Radcliffe tomorrow but have cried off as it means going down by the Trent. I hate driving in fog, having had one or two very hairy incidents in the days when it used to be REALLY foggy. An if I was driving an airyplane I certainly wouldn’t want to take off in fog, or land, or just fly – how would you know if something was coming the other way? I think the difference between day and night is thatit is dark at night. There is also the problem of light being reflected back off the drops of water.
About midday I just missed seeing how swans take off from ice. Drat!
I can never understand why spiders build webs on the glass side of wing mirrors. Any flies must be stuck on the other side, surely? But Sky is right; the webs are very beautiful.
I no longer bother with diaries because I either don’t put antything in them or I can’t find them when I want them. I do have an Architects’ & Builders’ Diary from the 1960s or 70s and one that I kept for a few months in 1945 (which mentions VE Day and the fact that I had a Geography exam on the day Sandra was born).
I didn’t think there was such a thing as Japanese fish cookery; I thought they ate it raw. I always have a raw bit when I am preparing fish. It tastes much the same as when it is cooked.
I have now confirmed that shadows do fall on still water (I don’t know the effect of choppiness). If it hadn’t been icy it would have meant getting my feet wet in order to get my head onto the other side. The things we do …
You are very fortunate to have a son (or anyone else) who shares your favourable opinion of the Forsythe. End of saga?
I have one of those diaries where you keep the cover/address pages etc. and just buy a new insert - they are also 13 month diaries, mine started December 1st, which |I find very ueful But then I have a handbag to keep it in.....
ReplyDeleteWe were out on Tuesday (Christmas 'yee-hah' night at R's Country and Western Club) and driving back along the M4 was a nightmare, thick patches of fog, then a clear bit, traffic zooming fast in the clear bits and then suddenlt there was a blanket of fog. It has been bad here, fog descended at 3.15 pm this afternoon. This was the Christmas we thought of flying off somewhere, very glad we didn't - feel very sorry for anybody in a tent at Heathrow.
Did you see Nigella putting a turkey in a large container of cold water, along with lemons, onions, various spices? I could not see the point of that, any flavour would be so diluted by the amount of water. If you want a water-filled turkey, I'm sure you can buy a cheapie one already injected.....