Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well, the weather has been absolutely beautiful, warm and sunny, but with a little bit of cloud cover. It made for a great day out at Dunham Massey, we clocked up 2 1/2 miles whilst we were there. There were a lot of young mums and some grandparents with toddlers there today, mostly sat on the main lawn enjoying the sunshine, it was lovely to see. I’ll bet the little darlings will have had a good sleep when they all got home. Below is a photo of the lake taken from the garden behind the house. We then headed for home to have dinner. 
 

 

I also took a photo of this, a Davidia Involucrata, or handkerchief tree

 

 

 

 

After dinner, Sheila and I went to have a look at how our garden is doing, as we were just about to head back inside, we saw a blue tit going into one of the bird boxes, Sheila got quite excited, as it was the first time she’s actually witnessed it herself. Once back inside, I began making a chocolate orange and cinnamon cheesecake, which will be tomorrow night’s dessert, as Mike and Sarah are coming over. 

 

I’ve only ever seen a grass snake in the wild, that was when I was in the scouts and on a summer camp in North Wales.

Edited May 10 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Grizz]

3 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

from https://meteologix.com/uk/aurora for today

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the heads up @Coombe Barton…

woah…..in the Deep South of East Sussex in the last hour it has been amazing. I’ve been to Tromvic in Norway and not seen the Northern Lights as good as this. …….well it’s either that or those out date mushrooms in the fridge. …..

”Coz I’m like tripping balls man!”.

These photos have not been enhanced or messed around with, they are from Mrs Grizz’s standard iPhone 10.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10 by Grizz

[PhilJ W]

I will have to wait until one am when they switch the street lights off but I'll be fast asleep by then.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Erichill16]

Didnt get an early night. 

[southern42]

Top left hand corner of Wales. Mr Suvvern's pic. I left my 'phone indoors. Typical!

 

With street lights and trees in the way, getting a decent view was tricky. Amazing to see nonetheless.

[southern42]

' night all and nos da.

[monkeysarefun]

I saw this parked up on the side of the Melbourne to Sydney freeway on the way to the shops earlier today. It consisted of 3 pulling trucks, and 2 behind to push.

 

Internetting just now shows its the third of three transformers  that form part of the Waratah Super Battery facility being built on the Central coast, north of Sydney. 

 

 

The  component and traction units all up are 125m long and weigh 477 tonnes. Built in Victoria, its a 1005km trip to its destination, travelling at nighttime at 40km/hr.

 

I imagine reverse-parking would be a fine art!

 

 

 

 

Edited May 11 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

On 10/05/2024 at 06:55, Andy Hayter said:

 

I think when I posted the advice elsewhere my comment was that if the eyes are round the snake is non-venomous.  If the eyes are oval or slit shaped, you are probably closer than you want to be.

 

 

Not universally applicable down here at least, so dont go picking them up, @polybear!

 

Inland Taipan, "worlds most venomous snake":

 

Coastal Taipan "worlds second most venomous snake":

 

 

Eastern Brown Snake - "worlds third most venomous snake":

 

 

Tiger Snake "worlds seventh most venomous snake"

 

 

The ranking of "most venomous snakes" differs depending on where you look, one difficulty being that it is open to interpretation, depending on whether toxicity, venom load or number of deaths caused is used, amongst several other metrics.  For instance some African and Indian Snakes may have less potent venom than those above but  are the worlds "deadliest" because they kill many people each year, whereas the Inland Taipan above inhabits the western desert regions of Queensland and Sth Australia and is rarely encountered.

 

One thing for certain though, a bite from any of the above four if untreated with anti-venom will result in death.

Edited May 11 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Wondering if we'll see an aurora tonight, big soar flare incoming apparently.

We're actually in the "maybe" zone for the Aurora Borealis here in Portland, but it won't be visible with the light pollution. With darker skies Central Oregon is a big possibility. The new moon gives everyone a better chance too.

 

With those evidently fabulous sights in the south of England I'll give it a shot - just in case. (I'll be opening the windows tonight anyway.)  50°N has a higher probability than 45°N (here). Skies will be clear.

 

We hit consecutive warmest days of the year Thursday and Friday here. Thursday exceeded 80°F (27°C). Our first 80°F day is (on average) May 8 so that was right on time. Today likely exceeded 90°F (32°C) and may have been a record high. We don't normally see that until mid-June. Harbinger or not it's too soon to tell.

 

It is nice to see the warmth return, but it is very warm.

 

I've not yet turned the air-conditioning on - it is about 24°C indoors and temperatures will be closer to the seasonal normal next week. I did sleep with the windows open for the first time this year. Nice - until the birds woke me up at 5:00am. I closed the windows and got some sleep until the alarm at 6:00am.

 

Edited May 11 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

its the third of three transformers  that form part of the Waratah Super Battery facility

Back home we had a beastie that size trundle close to home in the middle of the night on it's way from the Port of Brisbane, many moons ago. Fun to watch. They don't bother to go around the round-abouts - just through.

 

Lots of route planning was involved, dodging and if necessary deactivating, overhead wires.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

We're actually in the "maybe" zone for the Aurora Borealis here in Portland, but it won't be visible with the light pollution. With darker skies Central Oregon is a big possibility. The new moon gives everyone a better chance too.

 

 

For the same reason the Aurora Australis is supposedly visible at the moment as far north as Queensland ,  not for me though because its raining...

 

Clear skies further south gave a good display going by all the pics online.

 

 

Edited May 11 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

9 hours ago, PupCam said:

Evening All

 

 

Didn't go easily for me or mother and after that we've both had a very similar coldy/fluy/spaced out weirdness symptoms.    Unless you can catch such viruses via a Faceache Portal one did not infect the other!

 

We seem to be heading back to normality now I'm pleased to say, it was not good!

 

 

Bear has located a Chemist just a couple of miles away that does private jabs - they offer a choice of vaccine as well; the 'net suggests that less people have issues with Pfizer than with Modena - guess which one the NHS use......

[polybear]

Bear here....

 

A reasonably productive day yesterday - though all (essential) dross stuff.  More of the same today, sadly - I was hoping to go to ExpoEM but PPP on behalf of Bear has screwed that.  Poo.

I did see buddy over the road yesterday though - and gave him a wedge of documents for safe-keeping  "just in case" a Certain Bear falls under a Bus; that's the very last Tick in a very long string of Tick Boxes.  I'd offer cake all round but I've got n'owt 😢 (have I mentioned that?)

 

BG

[pH]

A few shots of the Aurora:

 

 

 

 

My sister once saw a great Aurora show in the wilds of Labrador. She said they audibly crackled.

Edited May 11 by pH

[New Haven Neil]

We were too knackered to stay up to see the show!

 

17c this morning, we're all going to melt

[monkeysarefun]

22 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

We were too knackered to stay up to see the show!

 

17c this morning, we're all going to melt

 

 

16.7 degrees here, I've got the heating on!

Edited May 11 by monkeysarefun

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

16.7 degrees here, I've got the heating on!

15C here , only hot water heating on. Windows open too. It is forecast to be about 20C later.  

[DaveF]

I was too tired to stay up aurura watching last night and slept very soundly.  This morning it is pleasant but humid with some cloud and a slight mist, the gentle breeze is off the sea.

 

Last night I opened a packet of oatcakes with a cheese and marmite flavour.  They were surprisingly good - but I do like marmite.  They will be something a bit different for supper, with or without any cheese.  I am trying not to eat too many sweet things last thing at night.  The fibre in them is useful too.

 

Today I need to sort out the intercessions for church tomorrow as the person whose turn it is has gone away on holiday.    I want to look at some more of my older photos and will probably scan more old family ones.  Then I could do something in the garden, or work on a model, or I might just sit and read.

 

David

[Gwiwer]

10 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Don’t think I’ll bother on a 20% chance

So I looked out of the window and saw only dark skies. No hint of aurora. 
 

Everyone else saw a magnificent display. 
 

 

[PhilJ W]

This was on X this morning.

Possibly the driver had a medical emergency.

[tigerburnie]

I intended watching the Aurora, but for the first time in at least a year, I slept through the night without waking. We are also experiencing record temperatures for this time of year daily, but it's not fooling me, I had three bags of smokeless delivered yesterday for the fire, bet we get a frost before the end of the month.

[polybear]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Possibly the driver had a medical emergency.

 

According to the BBC website he was arrested so my guess he was p1ssed.

[PhilJ W]

Just now, polybear said:

 

According to the BBC website he was arrested so my guess he was p1ssed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cw594p1l39no