17th January 2019 Snowman's Revenge!

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Thursday 17th 38F, grey and breezy with wintry showers and some sunshine promised. 2018 was the hottest ever for ocean temperatures and follows a rapidly rising trend over the last few years.

It started raining as I left by the tradesman's gate. By the time I had reach the neighbour's carport it was raining hard. His pond looked like a Hollywood piranha attack.

Fortunately the downpour soon went off and I could leave my impromptu shelter and continue. A mass of low, grey cloud was racing across the landscape from the south west. Above it a ceiling of bright blue sky and light, fluffy cloud. The sun threatened briefly but was soon gone to the rapidly increasing overcast. An untidy straggle of geese went over heading south. We lost 4 degrees F over the course of the day. With increasing wind and light flurries of snow in the afternoon.

Friday 18th 28F, -2C, clear and calm. In baking news. Australia had a temperature of 49.6C  with bats falling like leaves from the trees.

In braking news: A US driver, who drove onto a private house lawn intending to destroy a 9' tall snowman, destroyed his truck instead. On the massive tree trunk buried inside. Judging from the tyre tracks the house was the lucky escapee. As the hidden tree trunk safely stopped the vehicle before any damage was caused.

No doubt the driver will be appealing for an empathetic "ambulance chaser." Who will sue the home owner for damage to his truck. Can I nominate this driver for the Darwin Awards? For raising sandcastle kicking to a new level of self-inflicted injury. There's a joke in there about white supremacy but I'll leave it well alone.

Driver rams into snowman built on huge tree trunk

Saturday 19th  24F, -4C, clear, calm and misty with a hard, white, hoar frost. It all looks incredibly cold out there with great potential for photography.The early mist was ground hugging, very localized and dense. Making the chilly landscape more attractive. However, the mist was soon gone. To be replaced by a more general, low cloud. We needed more fuel so I shopped from the car. Isn't it amazing how many drivers have "special powers" in thick mist?

The Duke of Edinburgh is on a roll. So he has announced a new award for royal drivers who reach the age of 97. It's called a Duke of Edinburgh [Personal] Award. The prize is a brand new Land Rover delivered, next day, to your palace door, entirely at taxpayer's expense. 😉

Sunday 20th 22.8F, -5C, calm and almost clear after a hard, overnight frost. In bright sunshine I walked across the "prairie" up to the woods. Then back down by another route beside the frosted fields. Two deer were grazing in a hollow in the woods.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

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