New Years Honours List & the Temp drops to 5c in prep for 2016

£1bn a month  according to the Express headline is the amount we, well those who do pay tax, pay into the EU - - - surely we cant vote to stay in ? - - - 

A pic of waves crashing on against a sea wall offers more Strom Frank information 

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the crazy weather, well the warm part of it has brought rare red rumped swallows up from the Mediterranean  to Norfolk, the story relates how other visitor species have also been seen on our shores this winter 

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 This is supposed to have been dug up in Australia by archaeologists and is being claimed to be a clay copy of an 800 year old mobile phone - - -  April 1st coming super early in 2016 then? 

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Steph Houghton and Ronnie O'Sullivan are just 2 of the people on the New Year's Honours List which has the usual howls of protest about some of the recipients, This Mail story really gets hot under the collar about the whole thing  - - - nothing changes! - - - 

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this is the current rain radar  pic for the UK & Ireland and it shows there is still quite a bit of it around.  That huge blob just to the south of Ireland looks like it might be interesting to follow through the day.  The winds are down in strength from yesterday so it might be late in the day before we even see it 

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Between looking outside yesterday the radar movement of the storm made it evident that the north of England and Scotland were hardest hit but everywhere appeared to be getting a share.  

The winds were consistently high for a number of hours so i might have a walk locally later to see if there's any damage.  

The current Temp as predicted is low only 4.9c and this forecast for tonight indicates its going to only be just above freezing at midnight 

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the current stats show the low temp and the wind is making it feel even colder

 there's nothing to show on the weathercam just yet I'll post an update later
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UPDATE 08:00

08:00 Just about full cloud cover and a biting wind, no rain right now 

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Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcams - - Birdfeeders & Weathercam

The Storm & locally the storm (updates will be added)

Once again nothing new on the front page of the Express with "Frank" the latest storm battering the UK this morning 

This Sky News story  has reports from Ireland where the storm hit first and there's a video of the collapsing Tadcaster bridge just before 17:00 yesterday.  

the 06:00 rain radar  this morning shows Scotland and to a lesser degree the Lake District getting the full force of the storm and a quite large area of rain just leaving the Irish coast, the storm does appear to be tracking North West so locally we might not get too much rain. 

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These two pics front a story in the Mail about looters in York stories of people in "white vans" targeting flooded houses.  Reports say that it is "unbelievably cruel" and that it was "impossible to comprehend" why heartless opportunists would want to bring further suffering to those already hit by the crisis.  - - - sad - - - 

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straying from the weather, only a short while i noticed this on the BBC's "Tech" page. The Fairphone 2 is a modular designed phone for those who want to poke around inside it.  There's a video in the story about hoe easy it is to take apart or add/change a module.  Great idea but at not far off £400 i dont think its a goer.  Why the Fairphone 2? because there was/is a Fairphone 1 

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the http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ wind and isobar chart shows the current storm having its effect right now 

the Rain chart has some rain now in the far South of the UK which probably means locally we will see more rain very quickly 

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Local stats are showing a double figure Temp and 20.8mph on the anemometer it doesn't record gusts just a general reading every 5 minutes so its some indication of how consistent it is just now 

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Knowing the weather was going to change I determined to do a bit of tidying up at the logging site so it was an early start for me yesterday

 just before crossing the river at Darley Bridge i snapped this pic of the sun coming up with Riber Castle illuminated on the skyline

 with the moon still visible it was quite cold as the rabbits scurried away from my track down to the site

 the first job was to make these smashed up rounds into log burner sized pieces and stack them under cover, so the i uncovered the pile in preparation

 90 minutes later the jobs done and i turn my attention to the remnants of the tree

Moving all the small stuff to the pile i decided to get rid of the smaller branches onto the bonfire pile.  By this time 11:40 the sun is on the area but its still quite cold in the biting wind.  Time to return home
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update 08:35

 still very windy with just a bit of rain - - more to come

scudding clouds at the moment they should turn black quite soon
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UPDATE 09:50

A heavy band of rain is sweeping up the valley South (L) to North (R) see it live on the webcam link below
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UPDATE 13:20

Much the same as before but we have had a lot more rain and consistently high winds
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Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcams - - Birdfeeders & Weathercam

More flood reporting & Weathercam live now as well

The Express carries the sad story of 86 year old Ronald King who shot his wife 81 year old Rita who had been suffering with Alzheimer's - - - Mean while the banner headline that Health food is making us fat claims that people are eating more of the food because its good for you!? - - - 

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This pic of the PM and a few soldiers is shared by a couple of papers The mail has a lengthy article with actor Michael Sheen making an appearance in it simpering on about people in the UK being against having such a massive foreign aid programme when the money is needed here at home - - - for some reason the article needs to tell us he lives in Los Angeles -- I wonder why

The Express  has the same pic fronting a pledge by the PM of more money on flood defences and a figure of "£2.3 billion on capital schemes will make a diffirence" - - I do hope so - - -

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And here comes storm Frank from the Atlantic - - - This Mirror story was issued yesterday at 20:47 but updated at 22:20 is rather alarming if its predictions are correct.  "More than a months worth of rain", "Torrential rain snow and floods" "bitter Arctic plunge unleashing freezing winds" are just 3 of many quotes from the article.  - - - 

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this is the XCweather forecast for Matlock over the next couple of days and its going to be windy and rainy especially tomorrow.  looking towards Friday it is expected that the Temp might get down to zero overnight so maybe the Mirror story isn't far out - - - it's going to be an uncomfortable run up to a cold New Years Day - - - 

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 I did another couple of hours down at the logging site yesterday, I met Jim the owner of the land and he told me the Deer i saw the previous day are not Sika but Norwegian Fallow Deer 

I saw off another 6 rounds yesterday its a not too difficult job.  Just a case of trying to first split the round and make it into smaller pieces or as i have been doing with the one next to the maul, just swiping off chunks around the edge. Its ok until I meet a large knot or where a branch had been coming out of the trunk.  If i cant sort it in 3 hits I normally resort to cutting it up with the chain saw 

another huffing and puffing session got the last of the rounds onto the track so only 5 to go 

there's plenty of wood coming out of the branches but i am going down to stuff not much thicker than an inch round. 

For today's task I think that with the nasty weather returning later today i might stick to getting as much of this lot and the reduced rounds into firewood sized bits and under the cover of the plastic sheeting.  If the weather is as bad as forecasters are saying it might be up to the New Year, today might just be 2015's last effort - - - 

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Sally has "Girl Flu"  I didnt know there was such a thing?  She started with a cold on Christmas day and it seems impervious to all the usual remedies so far, we will be cancelling our usual Tuesday lunch out, here's hoping she might be up to it tomorrow. 

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 not a bad Temp to start the day at just under double figures 

the moon features on the weathercam this morning in an almost clear skies, I'm hoping the bad weather keeps off until at least lunchtime. 

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NEW LINK BELOW 

I have changed the Live webcam Birdfeeder link below to now include the weather cam live as well.  The image above doesn't show the birdfeeder at left of the pic just because its too dark at the moment.  The image is 320x240 resolution/size but if you hit the little 320x240 display a drop down will reveal a choice to increase the resolution/size to  640x480 - - -   

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Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders NOW ALSO WITH LIVE WEATHERCAM

Stormy weather until 2016 & the daffs are almost flowering in the garden

Nothing new in the Express this morning as it promotes the predictions of the weathermen - - - 

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while the UK suffers the floods in the US Tornadoes are wreaking havoc as this pic shows a trailer park in Garland Texas.  The story relates that 11 people have been killed from the tornadoes in Dallas. 

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This appears in the Mail  as an attempt to goad the government into stop sending money abroad and keep it here to spend on flood defences.  The story is peppered with flooded town pics and comments by people flooded out of their homes and communities.  The reader comments at the bottom of the story are the usual inane and amusing collection.  Does the story help anyone? i dont think so - - - 

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 with the forecasters not indicating rain I decided to go and smash a few rounds up at the logging site,  as I started down the hill I noticed 17 deer (Sika I think) in the meadow just above my logging area 

 I managed to get to within 25 metres of the field unseen 

 but as I moved forward a couple of heads were definitely looking in my direction 

 as I used the dead ground to get to my logging area they had obviously heard me and when I looked into the field from what would be the left hand side of the previous photo they had all gathered on the far side.  I attempted to get closer but they shot off into the forest 

 I moved a few of the rounds up towards my covered pile of wood and had a go at them there

 surprisingly it didn't take too long to reduce 6 of them to this size 

 I rolled up 4 more from the hole they are in and will have a go at these 6 today.  I then had a go at removing the small branches from the tree to get at the firewood 

I had intended staying quite a while but my iphone crashed and i didn't know what time it was so packed up.  As i puffed up the hill i remembered my camera has the time on it! but it was too late by then 

 mist was returning to the valley and the day just got worse from then on 

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I was determined to do a bit in the garden in the afternoon and to begin with the weather wasn't too bad 

 i noticed that some of the daffs in the raised bed have now got flower heads on them! 

this raised bed has always been difficult to keep tidy so last year we put a slate path in the middle so we could walk onto it to weed etc.  That still didn't make it easy to get on and off though so on my last visit to the Lakes i got some flat sided lumps of slate and here utilise them and a large piece of sandstone to make a seat cum step.  As i finish it starts to rain so the tidying up can wait for another day - - - 

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 just over 10c this morning but the breeze will cool it off a bit 

not much to see on the weathercam yet, the setting moon is top right - - The forecast is for cloudy and windy weather until around 21:00 when we might see just a little light rain
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UPDATE 08:40

as predicted the cloud is broken in places but not many.  The wind is very much in and out at the moment but is due to strengthen soon 

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Enjoy the day

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders