Out and about in the odd weather conditions.

Yesterday temperatures around here plummeted from 20+ degrees in the morning to below 10 degrees in the afternoon. It was already warm when I went out to run at 8.30. By the time my daughter came round towards the end of the morning so that her toddler could toddle round the garden we were kept busy making sure we had the little one slathered in sun block and I noticed this morning bit of sunburn on one shoulder from sitting on the bench in the garden. By the time she dropped me off at the local tram station at around 3.00 the sky had gone from blue tp grey and the rain had started to fall. Fortunately I was forewarned and had picked up my umbrella on my way out. Some unfortunates I saw in Manchester had clearly not read the weather forecast.

When I say that the temperatures plummeted, it really was the case. When my daughter and I left my house the sun was still shining and we were all fanning ourselves. We stopped off to wait for her teenage children to come p of school and even though the cloud had moved in, we still had to open the car windows to cool us down. The teenagers arrived moaning about temperatures in school. When they dropped me off at the tram station, only about fifteen minutes later, I was wondering if I should perhaps have picked up a warm jacket rather than just a cardigan. So it goes!

When I left the Italian class at 6:30 and walked back to Piccadilly station with one of my classmates, the rain had stopped but the cool stuff was still around. My companion, a gentleman rather older than me, pointed out as we walked a variety of industrial architectural features that he had had a hand in designing. As areas are renovated and gentrified he watches his work disappearing. His past, he said, is being erased!


I have just heard the weatherman on the radio describing today as another splendid day ... in the southeast of the country. Here it has been fine but mostly cloudy with temperatures in the low teens: pretty much what you might expect for this time of year. I went walkabout to the local supermarket to pick up a few things while Phil gamely took advantage of the dry bit of the day to cut the grass in our garden and in those of two neighbours. Local hero!

And now, here are some photos of some of my ramblings over the last few days:-

An increasingly rare sight these days: a bee on a flower in my garden.

Light at the end of the tunnel.

Evening sky.

Articial sunshine - aka dandelions.

Blossom, before the rain and wind blew most of it away.

Bluebells, and interlopers - Himalyan balsam.

More evening sky.

Our local heron.

The heron fishing, quite successfully I think.