Mikes weather bits & Photo Blog: A slack news day! & A book mission for me

It must be a slack news day at the Express - - - the banner headline "EU raises risks" is more of a concern though, its long been thought that these type of attacks are being played down or even ignored.

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Straight to the local stuff today because i have been away on a "book mission" for a couple of days.

Before i went i managed to walk down by the river after Sundays soaking form Storm Katie

early on in the walk i passed what is normally only a small trickle of water under this stone bridge

although the worst of the storm had passed the sky was still very full as i looked towards Peak Tor

Not all that clear but the run off water is flowing down both sides of the small road down towards the A6 causing quite a bit of standing water on the main road

down at River level our multi million £ cycle path looks in fine condition as runs alongside the re-cycle centre, Juxtaposition or what!

this is a wet area anyway but the cycle path looks to be helping stop it draining now, this has happened elsewhere - - -

the River looks like it has risen by about 4 feet just now mind you we did have 32mm of rain almost all overnight

my ransom study seems to be enjoying the soaking

the outfall from the small stream is also helping swell the already swollen river

this is what it looked like a few days earlier

and the usual final photo from my walk

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I shot off early Tuesday morning to drive down to Hereford in connection with my book. A literary agent, a friend of a friend, was going to give it the once over and then hopefully point me in the right direction.

Walking into town to the appointment with an old friend the River Wye looked to have risen quite a bit

its over 40 years since i crossed over the Victoria footbridge !

a stonemason beavering away outside the Cathedral

an old watering hole still functioning

standing in the sunshine in the middle of town i scanned all the "over 60's" faces wandering passed wondering if i knew any, within 5 minutes i was approached by an old colleague and his wife for a chat!

still not visited the black and white house museum!

our business concluded we cross back over the river, after lunch we donned our walking kit for a walk down memory lane

Once again its over 40 years since i crouched by this gate soaking wet in the dark with 3 others after practicing "operations" up on the hill in the background - - - it even started to rain just for old times sake !

striding up the hill we look at the views from the top, no Black Mountains in view today

years ago our little cold wet group walked up to this position by way of the line of large trees!

in the gathering rain we take one last look down the hill and then decide thats enough nostalgia for one day and make our way down to the small road back into town. At the bottom of the hill a wiry figure in running kit approaches us and then turns sharp left up the muddy track to the top of the hill. We have one envious look after him before heading into the wet and windy weather.

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I make the trip back home early the following morning with Boris at a sedate speed and once there run a few errands before settling down in the sunshine to watch the fish in the pond, it has to be said that both filters and UV lights appear to be working very well because the pond is crystal clear at the moment.

The garden is still springing into life but once again the blossom on the Peach (I've been calling it a Nectarine!)in the top greenhouse

has the look of most of it falling off whole, fingers crossed! - - - the thick frost this morning won't do it any good!

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WEATHER NOW 06:30

There's an optimistic bent to the forecasts today with many indicating it will not rain. This http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ link has a couple of showers at the moment but our area is clear

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