How's your weather?

[Jon in Sweden]

Are there midges or mosquitos?

We have a nice sunny couple of days here.
It dries fast on the thin sloping soils.

Garden yest but today I'm off on the hill.
All work and no play etc.

No midges, but we can have mosquitos in summer. We didn't have any last year due to a late cold spell in spring, but that also knackered the blueberry harvest too.

The mossies are a pain sometimes (take repellant when gravel riding in summer as mechanicals in the forest can mean getting swarmed) but they don't really impact many outdoor activities in summer. They are, for example, only a bother when swimming at the lake at dusk.

Having done 13 years in Scotland, it's nothing like the sodding midges. You even get them in the gardens of the suburbs of Edinburgh. As soon as the sun dips behind the trees, they come out.

[PDQ Mobile]

No midges, but we can have mosquitos in summer. We didn't have any last year due to a late cold spell in spring, but that also knackered the blueberry harvest too.

The mossies are a pain sometimes (take repellant when gravel riding in summer as mechanicals in the forest can mean getting swarmed) but they don't really impact many outdoor activities in summer. They are, for example, only a bother when swimming at the lake at dusk.

Having done 13 years in Scotland, it's nothing like the sodding midges. You even get them in the gardens of the suburbs of Edinburgh. As soon as the sun dips behind the trees, they come out.

I also prefer moderate mosquitos to midgets!
Though the midgets here are better than the Scottish version.
Mozzies not really a problem.

It was a lovely day for the wild hills.
Even the summit of Rhiniog Fawr was warm enough to sit without a coat.
Warm mid afternoon in the sun. Felt like 15c.
I saw an unidentified butterfly (probably Red Admiral) at around 450 meters.
A small caterpillar too.
And 2 Red Grouse.
Nothing biting!

[Jon in Sweden]

I also prefer moderate mosquitos to midgets!
Though the midgets here are better than the Scottish version.
Mozzies not really a problem.

It was a lovely day for the wild hills.
Even the summit of Rhiniog Fawr was warm enough to sit without a coat.
Warm mid afternoon in the sun. Felt like 15c.
I saw an unidentified butterfly (probably Red Admiral) at around 450 meters.
A small caterpillar too.
And 2 Red Grouse.
Nothing biting!
461CA22A-8EFB-4464-B4EF-F42227D5A8F8.jpegDDAF1EEB-8423-4AEE-A953-A67FEB619960.jpeg

Weirdly, the Scottish midges don't really bite me significantly but the Welsh midges absolutely love me. I recall a wedding about 20 years ago in the Wye Valley, where I came out of my tent for around 15 minutes late in the evening. I got savaged by the little b@stards, and the next day, I counted over 60 bites the next day when we went for a swim in the river.

On the topic of wildlife, there was a fairly irate looking male capercaillie in the middle of road on my bike ride yesterday. He wasn't in a hurry to get off the road and was quite vocal in raising his objections to the imposition of getting out of my way. You see capercaillie fairly frequently here.

The cranes have made their spring reappearance too. Wonderful birds.

[deeferdonk]

Cycling home in the dark last night at about 9pm, quite cold after a sunny pleasant day (stuck in the office though). On the country lanes i noticed quite a few frogs on the roads. Must have woken up and started heading for their breeding grounds. (south Derbyshire)

[al_yrpal]

Sat by our pond yesterday evening with a glass of wine. A few bluebells have appeared amongst masses of primroses. The ducks have been visiting and many birds are singing including a pair of Goldfinches.

Lovely sunshiny weather

Al

[PDQ Mobile]

On the topic of wildlife, there was a fairly irate looking male capercaillie in the middle of road on my bike ride yesterday. He wasn't in a hurry to get off the road and was quite vocal in raising his objections to the imposition of getting out of my way. You see capercaillie fairly frequently here.

The cranes have made their spring reappearance too. Wonderful birds.

Capercaillie!
A fine addition to a ride.
I saw a stuffed male one once in the Alps and was astonished at its size.
........
There has been Frogspawn here (100m) for some weeks but also saw some at maybe 300m yest.

[sjs]

No sooner had the BBC told us that the weather was going to be unremittingly bad until at least the end of March than it became beautifully springlike. It's not just their weather app that's ususably pessimistic, it's their presenters as well.

[fausto copy]

I honestly thought they must have used indelible ink, as the words 'light rain showers' have been on our forecast for weeks.
Today, I was surprised to just find 'light cloud', so perhaps the rain has finally washed the 'rain ' away.

Back to normal for the rest of the week though.

[Manc33]

Weather is good here (Stockport) considering it's March 5th. It's 15°C and sunny out, with windows open.

[Cowsham]

Yesterday cold wet and miserable -- today after a frozen start to the day it's now sunny and warming up a bit.

[Jon in Sweden]

It was a lovely day yesterday. Warm enough during the day for shorts and jersey on the bike (13-15c - I run hot, so that's almost up to my ideal "operating temperature" of about 16c) but the minus 5c frost overnight means that the ski slope was still in good condition for skiing with the kids in the evening. It's 0645 now and minus 4c again. More skiing later today, though resting from the bike.

[Jon in Sweden]

17c today. Flipping lovely.



What stands in stark contrast to the warm weather we've had lately is that all the lakes are still frozen solid. As in, you can still safely walk across them if you know what you're doing and have safety eqiupment.

[Cowsham]

17c today. Flipping lovely.



What stands in stark contrast to the warm weather we've had lately is that all the lakes are still frozen solid. As in, you can still safely walk across them if you know what you're doing and have safety eqiupment.

You could get into a lot of trouble very quickly though if you didn't know what you're doing I'd suspect.

I had a similar frightening experience out on the Garry Bog -- flying model aircraft when I was young. You walk out on what you think feels solid -- turn around and can't find a solid way back !

One time a guy fell in up to his waist retrieving a model and was going down fast -- a couple of us rushed out to the rescue. ( by that time I'd learned the dangers ) we managed to save him but it was a close run thing.

I'd probably die in a couple of minuits under that ice.

[Mike Sales]

I used to walk out across the mud to my dinghy at low tide. The mud only covered the foot of one's wellies and the chief danger was falling over.
A sewer pipe was buried in a trench across the sea bed, and, as I found, the mud was not consolidated afterwards. I quickly sank well above the knee. I could not climb out. I looked up to the High water mark and judged that I was in a tight corner.
Before beginning to shout for help I noticed that the mooring rope of my dinghy was within reach. I managed to pull the boat to me and could grasp the transom for support and push it across the mud to firmer ground.
Walking home through the town centre thoroughly bedaubed was embarrassing.

[Jon in Sweden]

You could get into a lot of trouble very quickly though if you didn't know what you're doing I'd suspect.

I had a similar frightening experience out on the Garry Bog -- flying model aircraft when I was young. You walk out on what you think feels solid -- turn around and can't find a solid way back !

One time a guy fell in up to his waist retrieving a model and was going down fast -- a couple of us rushed out to the rescue. ( by that time I'd learned the dangers ) we managed to save him but it was a close run thing.

I'd probably die in a couple of minuits under that ice.

Oh definitely. But they are very good with ice safety here. There are regular occasions where you can practice pulling yourself out of the water onto the ice. Infact, it was about 2 years ago that I cycled past a large school group up in Eksjö who were doing just that. They had a harness around a fully clothed pupil (around 14-15) who dunked themselves and then self recovered.

The ice is still really thick, but it's seriously weakened. The skaters that go out do so first thing in the morning after the overnight freeze (which stabilises it). Routinely, they carry mini ice picks around their neck, a throwline, long ski poles (which can be used to span a hole in the ice to push yourself up), a dry bag (as floatation) and a complete set of dry clothes in another dry bag. They take it quite seriously here, but are equally quite relaxed about falling through.

Bogs and quick sand are another matter though! Far more unpredictable, I'd guess.