Whats the weather like near you?

[Big J]

1 minute ago, Stubby said:

Hi Jonathan . When do you think you will get your first snow then matey ? 

 

Within a month I'd expect. Autumn really has been bloody beautiful this year. Incredible colours and apart from a few isolated days with heavy rain, very sunny indeed.

 

I was out this afternoon on the bike with a friend on the gravel roads. Saw three white tailed eagles (I've only seen three in total up to now, so to see them all together today was stunning). My friend reckoned that they were loitering because of the remains of a moose. The hunting season has started now, and the hunters tend to leave the entrails in the forest. Hence the eagles and also a lot of ravens. When I initially saw them, it was a pair flying along the track ahead of us. Their wingspan is close to 8ft, so almost as wide as the road. 

 

The photo is from the area where the eagles were, but my crappy camera didn't get a great photo of them.

 

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, Big J said:

 

Within a month I'd expect. Autumn really has been bloody beautiful this year. Incredible colours and apart from a few isolated days with heavy rain, very sunny indeed.

 

I was out this afternoon on the bike with a friend on the gravel roads. Saw three white tailed eagles (I've only seen three in total up to now, so to see them all together today was stunning). My friend reckoned that they were loitering because of the remains of a moose. The hunting season has started now, and the hunters tend to leave the entrails in the forest. Hence the eagles and also a lot of ravens. When I initially saw them, it was a pair flying along the track ahead of us. Their wingspan is close to 8ft, so almost as wide as the road. 

 

The photo is from the area where the eagles were, but my crappy camera didn't get a great photo of them.

 

It really is beautiful there Jonathan . As it happens we have White Tailed Eagles breading on the Isle of Wight . We have to bury the guts of any deer shot on West Dean estate. You seem to have made a good life there on the face of what you post mate . How do you feel about working at a timber yard ( I think it is ) than working for yourself in " low impact " forestry like you did over here ( discounting the rain and mud of course ) ? 

[Big J]

4 minutes ago, Stubby said:

It really is beautiful there Jonathan . As it happens we have White Tailed Eagles breading on the Isle of Wight . We have to bury the guts of any deer shot on West Dean estate. You seem to have made a good life there on the face of what you post mate . How do you feel about working at a timber yard ( I think it is ) than working for yourself in " low impact " forestry like you did over here ( discounting the rain and mud of course ) ? 

 

There is so much forest here and so few people, I don't think it really matters about the guts. Additionally, there are large predators here that can deal with them - lynx, occasionally wolves, eagles etc.

 

I don't miss working in the forest at all. I have been cycling 10-15hrs a week since moving here, so I see a lot of the forest and not having to make a living off it is a lot less stressful. 

 

I love working at the sawmill, but unfortunately they are having a raw materials issue (not enough timber in) so I am currently home (as of Tuesday). It seems that the timber industry is almost as unstable here as the UK. But it's not a big issue - I am a jack of all trades (master of none!) so I have other irons in the fire. 

 

I did do a day felling and stacking small trees on Tuesday and despite being quite ridiculously fit at the moment (aged 40, and fitter than I've ever been), it still bloody hurt the day after. It's amazing how specific forestry fitness is. I've been working physically at the sawmill for 1.5 years now, I train weights, cycle more than anyone reasonably needs to do and 4.5hrs of swinging around a 346xp and I feel like a newbie again! 😄

[Whoppa Choppa]

On 17/10/2024 at 08:17, Big J said:

 

I keep a close eye on the weather there through my friend's website/weather station. He's a deputy chief forecaster at the MetOffice, so the data is detailed.

 

Starlings Roost Weather

STARLINGSROOST.DDNS.NET

 

It wasn't far into September before I concluded that I was incredibly grateful that I no longer to have to work in forestry in Devon this winter. When the rain hits that early, you're basically screwed for the next 6 months. 

 

We have had a lot of rain here in the last week (about 70mm), which is quite unusual. The soil is sandy though, so it disappears almost immediately. I was out for a 101km gravel cycle ride yesterday (almost entirely on gravel and dirt roads) and the bike is hardly mucky.

 

A friend at work watches a lot of English football and he often remarks that it never seems to stop raining. The climate in the west of the UK is certainly not extreme like many parts of the world, but it is probably one of the most miserable in Europe. 

 

For context, in September here was 2.5c warmer than Cullompton (in Devon), had 35% of the rainfall and was 3 times sunnier.

 

Photo is from a bike ride 10 days ago locally. We've had days with heavy rain, but the sunny days in between have outnumbered them and have been glorious.

 

I don't live there but friends do; bear in mind it never stopped raining from end Jan to May and then as you say started again in September with a vengeance. The entire summer was neither hot nor really dry. East Dartmoor had over 90mm rain in ONE night earlier this week! In one night! 🤯🤯

[Big J]

10 minutes ago, Whoppa Choppa said:

 

I don't live there but friends do; bear in mind it never stopped raining from end Jan to May and then as you say started again in September with a vengeance. The entire summer was neither hot nor really dry. East Dartmoor had over 90mm rain in ONE night earlier this week! In one night! 🤯🤯

 

My four years there was a real eye opener. You think the weather is bad in Scotland, but just west of Edinburgh (where we lived for 13 years) it's a lot less severe than the SW.

 

Summer was never guaranteed in Scotland though. You'd get to September sometimes and realise that you'd only had a handful of days over 20c. I swim outdoors a lot and recall one year where the lake temperatures didn't exceed 15c. We had 24c here this year at the end of May!

 

Everyone lives for the summer in Devon. Those hot, balmy days that you invariably get where the county looks lush and everyone is happy. You then just spend the remaining 9 months of the year in wellies washing mud out of every orifice, counting the days until the rain stops, the wind settles down and being outside isn't some form of purgatory! 😄

 

I was out with the missus this afternoon on the gravel bikes. Had this lake to ourselves, and again saw a white tailed eagle. Saw one car in 1.5hrs.

 

[Whoppa Choppa]

8 hours ago, Big J said:

 

My four years there was a real eye opener. You think the weather is bad in Scotland, but just west of Edinburgh (where we lived for 13 years) it's a lot less severe than the SW.

 

Summer was never guaranteed in Scotland though. You'd get to September sometimes and realise that you'd only had a handful of days over 20c. I swim outdoors a lot and recall one year where the lake temperatures didn't exceed 15c. We had 24c here this year at the end of May!

 

Everyone lives for the summer in Devon. Those hot, balmy days that you invariably get where the county looks lush and everyone is happy. You then just spend the remaining 9 months of the year in wellies washing mud out of every orifice, counting the days until the rain stops, the wind settles down and being outside isn't some form of purgatory! 😄

 

I was out with the missus this afternoon on the gravel bikes. Had this lake to ourselves, and again saw a white tailed eagle. Saw one car in 1.5hrs.

 

You've hit ze nail on ze head

[Bolt]

If you’re native to Devon, you don’t think of it’s weather as ‘severe’, it’s just what you think of as being ‘the weather’ (the same a steep, narrow, winding country roads are just ‘roads’).

[Big J]

4 hours ago, Bolt said:

If you’re native to Devon, you don’t think of it’s weather as ‘severe’, it’s just what you think of as being ‘the weather’ (the same a steep, narrow, winding country roads are just ‘roads’).

 

Maybe, but it's a bit like growing up in a cage and thinking that's normal too.

 

It's just objectively miserable. You don't quite realise how much it negatively affects your life until you get away from it. Being able to plan an outdoor activity without having to worry about rain and wind, or covering everything you own in mud.

 

I know that I'm negative as f**k about the West Country, but it left a deep and lasting impression on me, and it wasn't a good one.

[peds]

Observing this conversation with an occasional chuckle from the west coast of Ireland. 

[Big J]

1 hour ago, peds said:

Observing this conversation with an occasional chuckle from the west coast of Ireland. 

 

Haha! You have my sympathies. Very much the same issues there, albeit at least (I assume) that it's not filled with people who have retired there from London and who object to any kind of rural work!