Blogging one-handed today – the other hand is turning the cups of Mr L’s anemometer, while he attempts to discover the problem with it and fix it. The idea is that I send the signal while he detects whether or not that signal is being passed along the wire. The anemometer has been out of service for a little while now, so we missed recording the big wind on Thursday night. Had we recorded it, it would surely have given an all-time record for wind speed at this station.
One of the ways that we know this was a bigger wind that we have been used to is that we did suffer some damage this time, losing three ridge tiles from the garage roof. The strange thing is, we both remember there being some spares in the garden when we moved in. Can we find them? No! All we can find are the old ones, for the front of the house, not any new style ones for the extension. They are very different in size and not interchangeable. The old roof held out very well in the storm, we lost a lot of mortar but no tiles slipped.
We do have another weather station, a cheap Chinese import, bought to allow Mr L to develop his software to include support for stations of that type. So, although we do have some readings for Thursday’s storm, we do not consider them at all reliable (in this case “cheap” certainly equates to “nasty”) and hence are not at all excited about the 117 mph gust that may, or may not, have happened.
Today we are having Scots Weather. That”s all four seasons in one day and if you don’t like the current weather wait 2o minutes and you’ll get something else. We had hail and sleet piling half way up the window a while ago, now the sun is shining — but it won’t last long.
There is a Beef Redang in the slow cooker for dinner, leaving us time to discuss at length the possible need to ditch our car and whether or not to get another, MOT-able-without-a-second-mortgage, vehicle – or go altogether automotive-free. There are of course strong arguments for each of the possible solutions. Mr L has started looking for milk floats on eBay again…
We took the poultry fence down on Thursday afternoon, in case it blew away. We still have not put it back (there are more winds coming) and the chooks now look as though they are permanently fully free-ranging. They love it, although it took them a while to settle to the idea that the fence was no longer there. We must now ensure that we have recognised all the chosen egg-laying locations on the Windswept Acre.
The hens are giving us 4 to 5 eggs a day now. I need to start thinking about ways in which to use them all. It is not such a problem right now, as some of the eggs are pretty wee – scrambling 8 or 10 tiny ones for breakfast is not unreasonable. We had five in an egg curry on Friday…
…and Spinning is Chez Woolgatherer this coming Wednesday, so I can plan something suitably eggy. Meringues? Swiss Roll? Custard Tarts?
I finished the Norie hat. It is too large, even before washing and blocking. I shall re-knit it. The Gördes socks are progressing only slowly, but I am now on Chart C of the leg. I love the yarn.
Last night we took to our bed with a glass of whisky and the lappie, and we watched one of our new Old Grey Whistle Test DVDs. It was Nostalgia Central…
We have had the first set of 2 DVDs for a long time and have long intended to get vols 2 and 3. Recently Mr L found that by buying the full set of volumes, we would get them cheaper than buying the separate volumes that we needed.
Tonight we shall watch volume 3. I am looking forward to that very much indeed.
Watching Whistle Test set me thinking about Pete Frame’s Rock Family Trees
Meringues! 🙂