Sunday 5 August 2012

A quiet day

For a Sunday in the middle of the summer holidays, this one turned out to be very quiet, presumably on account of the poor weather forecast. As it happened, the morning and afternoon were both fine and there was only a sharp downpour at lunchtime.

I went to the boat by myself today, to do a few jobs like charging the batteries, securing the umbrella better, changing a few bolts to stainless steel, etc.

Before lunch, I pootled up to Popes Corner as I thought I might as well do a few miles while I ran the engine to charge the batteries.

After lunch I dismantled a brass pressure gauge (see my last post) and started cleaning it with Brasso. However, the years of grime was too much for it. So I did the best I could and decided I would take it home and buy some fine grade wire wool. The photo below shows how it looked before I started - almost black with grime.


After about half an hour of cleaning and polishing, it looked better, but was still not good enough to be converted to a wall clock. More spit and polish needed Mr Hudson!


Now, back to the weather....As I cruised slowly back to Lazy Otter, I realised that one of East Anglia's greatest assests - it's vast skies - is also one of its greatest weather forecasting assets. You see, when you're at home, stuck in an office, on a train, driving a car or crammed into a town or city, you don't get to see the sky much but when you're out in the East Anglian countryside, that sky is always there for all to see - not only showing you the weather you have just had, but it will clearly be showing what you are having at that moment and, if you look far enough up wind, you'll see what's coming up. This can range from sunshine and blue skys, to dark clouds, rain, or even snow and everything in between. Now, I'm not saying you can use the East Anglian sky to predict 5 days ahead but with a little common sense you can easily see what's on the horizon.

An example...

This was the view behind me today...dark clouds with lots of rain ...


This was happening at the time...still a bit cloudy but no rain...



...and this was what was coming up for the afternoon...blue skys and sunshine


 You don't need to be Michael Fish to work it out!

BFN

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