Oh, The Weather Outside is Frightful.....

Yeah. So. Bit nippy. I've been at my sisters place kitten sitting and all was going swimmingly....until it suddenly went all winter.  The rest of the country has been languishing under harsh blizzard and icy conditions for the past week, but so far the very south has been immune...much to my disappointment.

Then last night the disgusting freezing murk, which had been the weather condition of choice for the last few days, was happily replaced by perfectly formed crystals of H2O falling....and most importantly settling...we all got a little excited, apart from the kittens that is who were utterly confused.

Like a small child at Christmas I was up at the crack of dawn...after politely declining the request to go out the night before to build a snowman in my pyjamas at 11pm, as suggested by a certain Floridian...*coughs* Kim *coughs*...up and out shortly after 8am I wandered through Old Portchester Village to the Castle.

How about this for some stereotypical winter scenes

Unfortunately the gates to Castle were shut, but I managed to walk all the way round the outer wall.

And the snow was virtually untouched since it was so early...after I'd wandered around...not so much...meh

Stopped by this lamp post to see if Mr. Tumnus was about, alas no

I did manage to get a pic of the church through the gate, that sky looks a little ominus

I found a little wooded glen which had yet to be explored in the snow which was frightfully festive indeed.

Yet still no characters from Narnia....starting to think that it's not a real place y'know ;-)

 And then there was the village itself, ancient thatched cottages with rickety roofs and fences...how very 'Ye Olde England'

Unfortunately the snow was too powdery to attempt a decent snowman, but I did find enough to thrash my sister in a snowball fight, her partner's sudden disappearance as the snowballs started flying shows what a big wimp she is.  I did however end up, rather suspiciously I might add, with a self imploding snowball which covered my face and most of my upper body with snow....and that stuff gets everywhere, including the underside of my glasses, in my mouth and up my nose....good times!


Shortly after we retreated back into the flat to thaw out and I'm currently relaxing under a warm blanket with A Muppets Christmas Carol on the telly....even contemplating cracking open the hot chocolate, on the whole a un-sucky snow day.

And the Rain, Rain, Rain, Came Down, Down, Down.....

Too bloody right it did, a months worth fell in just 24 hours...most of it, apparently, in West Sussex (80mm was recorded locally in the Petworth area).  Torrential rain in fact, along with blocked drains from all the autumn leaves being on the ground, and fairly gusty winds have meant for a miserable time for most commuters and Bognor for the first time in over ten years almost becoming completely cut off, as main routes were over run.  Flooded roads and diverted drivers caused folks to break down and were rescued by the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution)....working in the middle of a public highway is not exactly where one would usually expect a sea based rescue service.

Also out of the book of ood was the local duck pond which also flooded big time last night and the carp dad and I witnessed swimming around, what used to be, the pavement.

And now some piccies

To give you an idea of the depth of the water those bollards peeking through the top of the water are around 3ft and a bit

The ducks seemed a little puzzled as to the sudden expansion of their abode, the fish however were having a decent explore.

Interestingly this used to be the main road past the duck pond...yeah, good luck with that

Perhaps not the best day to rest on a bench to contemplate life the universe and everything.

And, as always, I suffered for my art and slightly misjudged the edge of the waterline, walking home with a lovely squelching feeling in my right trainer.

And the weather people have said there's more of the wet stuff on the way....joy

Something in the Air

In news somewhat difficult to escape there is an ash cloud sitting over the UK causing various amounts of disruption to air travel, as in there ain't any...great if you happen to live next to Heathrow or under a flight path, not so much if you had a wedding planned in St. Lucia, were planning to return to the UK after an Easter holiday in the sun or, in the case of some of my con buddies, were in attendence at a Stargate convention in Vancouver and are now stuck there...can someone give McKay a bell?

Anyhoo, want to see the ominous ash cloud which has pilots shaking in their fashionable loafers:

Oooo, scary

The only thing invading my airspace yesterday was the dozens of BBQ's lining the seafront area.  It does however make for quite the spectuacular sunset:

Careful What You Wish For....

Right then, I'm a right child when it comes to aptly wintery conditions in winter, sledging, snowball fights, building snowmen....I'm your girl, therefore the worst snow storm to hit for nearly 30 years....my fault.

We got off rather lightly in Bognor or should I say covered rather lightly.....Though I haven't even been out to have a proper explore yet, you know me and walking on perfectly flat and un-slidey pavements so tempting fate on uber icy ones...I don't think so.  Though I must say I'm absoultely itching to get up on the downs to have a proper look.

Apparently, there are down sides to this much snow covering the land, over 1,000 people were stranded overnight in their cars on a local motorway (my sister herself very, nearly had to abandon her own efforts of getting home last night, her journey clocking an epic time of 3 hours to drive abut 20 miles....on a motorway), 3,000 schools shut (only a couple of days after going back after the Christmas break), buses and trains have been running on limited schedules, if at all, all day, powercuts have affected some parts of my county and as for the majority of the roads around these parts...well....skis...snowboards....snow ploughs...hell, even tennis rackets tied to the bottom of your shoes...are modes of transportation which marginally increase the prospect of a person actually reaching their destination.

Basically, we so very rarely get these kind of weather conditions that the country is woefully ill-prepared for the event and thus the entire country pretty much grinds to a halt...meh....all entertaining though, and the weather is set to continue temperatures remaining in the minus figures for the next week at least....I need something (or someone) to snuggle up with.

Until I've managed to get a few snaps myself heres a couple from the Beeb's website.

The Motorway, in Hampshire, which cut off many drivers leaving the poor buggers to spend the night in their cars

Woods in Sussex

The HMS Victory at the Portsmouth Dock yard

Sunset in snow covered Sussex

Things Which Go Bump in the Night

The unusual mild temperatures for November mixed with the multiple low pressures currently bombarding our shores had a most unwelcoming affect late last night. I'm getting used to the constant rain and gale force gusts, but admittedly jumped out of my gourd a little after midnight when a daylight flash was followed immediately by the loudest boom I have heard in my life. The house shook, neighbourhood dogs started going crazy and every car alarm within a half mile begin to sing out in protest of the unannounced storm. This of course was followed by a deluge of H2O which continued for several minutes and another building rocking flash/boom lightening strike....then as quick as it had come the storm moved off to annoy another county.

I've not heard if there was any damaged caused, but....damn...that lightening was very, very close....even a rabid storm lover like myself was left a little rattled.

Pulled these images from the MET website shortly thereafter...first one showing the rain across the country, may I draw your attention to the South East....

Oooo, what pretty colours I hear you say....of course my house is under that section of white in the centre of the most intense part of the storm

Just as an edit, I've since heard on the local radio that four houses were struck and damaged in last nights storm.

In the below map the areas hit are tagged yellow and my house in green...all are within a mile.

Oh, I do Love to Be Beside the Seaside

Gah, it's getting ridiculously close to Christmas now isn't it...Carol singers, hot toddies, roasted chestnuts and lashings of snow are some of the traditions which will be passing me by as per. A white Christmas would be a welcome change, especially since all that the weather seems capable of recently is rain and gale force winds. We've been luckier round these parts than the North of the country...poor Cumbria (of the Lake District fame) had something like 12 inches of rain in a day last week which led to all kinds of flooding shenanigans, the town centre was under 8ft of water at one point, road bridges have collapsed and damage no doubt into the millions cost wise...Apparently the floods was a once in a 1000 years kinda deal, which I'm sure is a great comfort to those now homeless and jobless and what's the forecast for the rest of this week....I'll give you a clue...starts with 'r' ends with 'n' and has a bucket full of H2O in the middle...joy

At least some people have been having fun in the 60+mph winds...fun...madness..you decide



And I ventured out yesterday in the gap between squalls to check out whether it was worth having a dip.

Least there was this to perk up my weekend

Weird Weather and Other Gumpf

Just thought I'd share these images taken by my very good self after a recent storm which had the audacity to wake me from my slumber last Sunday at 7.20am (a time which I am very rarely accustomed too...unless still awake from the night before)....so anyway these are called Mammatus clouds and are an apparent rarity, especially for West Worthing...and for extra me kudos the word is derived from the Latin word for 'breast' because of the clouds hanging down appearance from the main cloud (happens to the best of us ;-) )

So, there you go...learn summit new everyday dontcha...well I'm off to pack and hopefully I shall return in a couple of weeks with a fixed computer, lots of holiday pics (hopefully less of the above stormy variety) and at last something of interest to Blog about, which doesn't involve me dealing with condescending imbeciles who can't find eggs less than 4 feet in front of them.