Weather check

[Paul Narramore]

A bit warmer here in Kent, in fact we've stopped keeping the woodburner in. Yesterday by midday the mist had cleared and the sun came out. I'd decided to take a break from spreading compost on the borders and embark on installing another water butt.

I cleared the ground at the corner of the workshop, made it level and laid down a 2ft square 3" thick paving slab. Using an electric jig saw, I cut off the top of the water but this time all the way around and not just a small porthole. I think I did my other ones when our son Edward was about 10yrs old and could stretch into the insides to do up the back nut of the tap. I then got some tongue & groove wood together to make a round lid.

My other butts are joined together in tandem with connecting pipes so as one fills up, the rainwater spills over into the next one and so on. These butts are on 2ft square paving slabs sat on four decorative concrete blocks.

So off to Wickes to buy three blocks to add to the one I already had. They had none, neither had Homebase nor Travis Perkins nor the garden centre. These once popular blocks now seem to be a rarity. Even the tap for the butt was difficult to find. Wickes sell butts WITH the taps but not seperately. I eventually found the brass tap I wanted at Homebase. The plastic ones tend to weep after a few years. I did get some readymix mortar though plus a rose (Super Star) and some early tomato and chilli plants.

Just rambling..........

[elemire]

Its a bit warmer here as well, around +14C in the day, nice and sunny.

[Stefanie]

We still peaked at 30C this afternoon but we were promised rain (a meagre 30% which most likely means 20drops - just enough so that my newly cleaned car will look dirty again)

[Flordel]

Stefanie, I wish you a lot of rain.

Here is warm and sunny, estimate for Sunday 21 degrees!
It seems we're skipping spring, going from winter directly into summer!

[Stefanie]

Thanks Flordel we really really need rain. So far we had genuine 8mm; one can hardly call this rain but it's the first few drops in 4 weeks (when we had 2mm!) and it now stopped.....

Check for yourself how 'The Heads' look (view is out to sea - the Indian Ocean)

http://www.theheads.co.za/

[Paul Narramore]

It's barely spitting with rain today. According to the experts we need a month of rain every day to begin to refill the reservoirs, and of course that's not going to happen. Well I added another water butt yesterday which will eventually make me just about self sufficient in rain water.

[Stefanie]

We had 99mm rain in 12hrs – a whole worth of two month rain in such a short period of time. This unfortunately seems to be the new norm here: either nothing at all or all at once!

Well, the garden enjoyed it. Our water tanks are filled to the rim and even overflowed. Now the sun is out again complimented by a blue sky. I guess that was the end of the rain for the next two month….

[Lulu-amongst-the-blooms]

After last weekends heat, last weeks damp fog, this weekend we have had cold damp weather, a hard frost last night and a terrific hailstorm yesterday evening. We brought all the pelagoniums back in......this week we are told will bring daytime temps of 16 and seventeen again.

This morning, w woke to the frost, then had a couple of hours brifht sun, THEN mist as w drove somewhere, noe rain again. Its really very confusing!

[elemire]

We also had a mild frostbite in the night, hopefully not enough to cause any damage. Temps stay around +14C in the day, and around +4C in the night, sunny and dry-ish so far. We had annoyingly strong wind yesterday, but it calmed down over the night.

Forsythia is about to bloom here, although roses are still rather dormant, especially in less sunny spots.

[Lulu-amongst-the-blooms]

According top the weather thing on a gadget we went to minus three at 5 am, dipping under zero at firt at four am. So a freeze, uit a bery short one.

Its a beautiful morning though.