Sunday 1 June 2008

Rain Graph

I was beginning to wonder if I was really getting into farmer mode and complaining about the weather but it really has rained a lot over the last two months compared to last year. I only started collecting data half way through March last year so only have the last two months where I can compare the rainfall and here it is – a bit out of focus but I couldn’t cut and paste the chart from Excel:


In figures April last year was 41.50 mm but 120.50 this year and May was 102.50 last year and 160.50 this year. The folklore here is that you get bad summers when there are 13 moons in the year. There were 13 last year and 13 this year; I’ve no idea about next year but I do hope it’s 12. It’s the first of June today and even as I write this I can hear the thunder in the distance and now the heavens have just opened and it's tipping down.

Today has been taken up with helping Ann at her Vide Grenier (Empty Attic, or car boot) at her place to raise funds for her work with stray cats. Despite the weather forecast of showers this morning and thunderstorms this afternoon, the rain that greeted us at 7 am, cleared by 8 and it remained dry all day.

Of course a few items tempted me, there were a couple of cotton sheets that if good, will be wonderful if it ever gets really hot this summer. If they are not good they will make wonderful cleaning cloths that should keep me supplied for years to come and a couple of books. There was a copy of the first Cranks cookbook with their wonderful carrot cake and there was (I guess from the typeface) a 1940/1950’s copy of Pride and Prejudice. I’ve seen the film but never read it. So I spent a lovely afternoon chatting and reading the book. I also bought this:-

It’s a foot warmer; there is a little metal basket inside to put coals or ashes in and wooden bars on the top so you don’t burn your feet on the metal casing, just what I will need when winter comes round again.

I’m off for another duck dinner tonight along with Ann, Regis and some of the others who helped so an update on the strawberry jam will have to wait a bit longer.

3 comments:

Alan said...

Sounding a lot like a farmer now! (Or a witch with the whole moon superstition) Either way, welcome to my world.

Hope the weather gives you a break soon and you get done what needs doing. Here we had frost on the 29th of May, and violent storms on the 30th with more lightning and hail than I've seen in a long time. Can't do anything about the weather though, so we just keep on keeping on.

Cheers, A

P.S. I'm impressed by your weather data!!! So high tech!

dND said...

Cheers Alan,

Excel can be a wonderful thing - when it does what you want!

There have been unusually late hard frosts here too, I have found 2 plums and 3 reine claudes only on my 2 trees. There are no nectarines and practically no cherries this year and it looks like the apple tree will only have a quarter what it had last year, and that's if there is enough rain in a couple of months.

The weather patterns are a bit screwed up at the moment. It will be interesting to see if it changes next year. My belief is that some of it is due to normal weather patterns but that they may have all lined up plus the effects of the pollution that we are causing on top of that. We might see some respite but we still should take the warning to 'clean up our acts'. I hope it is true and we still have time to do something about it.

aims said...

That foot warmer is impressive! What a find! and the other stuff too!

I rarely go to garage sales. I have a very hard time looking and then feeling guilty about hurting the feelings of the owners of the crap.

I know you can find some treasures.....but - oh well.