It was foggy this morning as we drove to the hamster show. Along the M6, we knew Birmingham was out there but couldn't see any sign of it.
The Christmas hamster shows are always a bit special compared to the normal meetings. The hamster club puts on a buffet which always goes down well. There is usually a good turn-out which means more competition which usually means our hamsters don't do as well as normal. We only won the one trophy, for our Winter White hamsters.
We've had quite a tiring weekend. We were down in South Wales for a friend's wedding. The welsh weather didn't disappoint - it rained most of the time. The wedding was indoors so that didn't matter much. Apart from the bit in the conservatory where the roof leaked so there were buckets placed to catch drips.
It was a long drive down to Wales and back and I'm still feeling a bit tired so this will be a short post.
This afternoon I looked out of my office window and realised it was snowing. Apparently it had been snowing for a while but I hadn't noticed. The flakes are quite large now and it looks like it's starting to stick to the ground rather than immediately melt.
Update
It was snowing when we left this evening, to drive home. By the time we got home (about 5 miles away) the snow had stopped. There was no snow on the ground so either it melted quickly, or it hadn't snowed as much here.
The weather has been a bit odd recently. The days have started off fairly cool in the mornings. It usually starts to warm up after lunch, but the temperature peaks at around 6pm.
I shouldn't complain. At least it's getting warmer now it's supposed to be summer.
It's quite windy today - on the drive back from the shops this morning, I saw some cardboard boxes get blown out of a skip.
In our garden we've got a small lavender bush in a tub. The roots have started to grow out of the drainage holes in the bottom of the tub. This makes it unsteady and it gets blown over quite easily.
I've been meaning to plant it in the garden for a while and decided to finally get around to doing it today. I unlocked the shed door to get the spade, turned around and saw the lavender pot get blown over again. It's definitely time to re-plant it.
In the early hours of this morning, a bright flash lit up the bedroom. I was half asleep and my first thought was who's taking a photo? our cameras are downstairs.
A couple of seconds later there was a long and loud rumble of thunder. It went on for ages. But strangely there was no rain. If there was a storm going on it must have been localised to some other part of Coventry.
I mentioned the weather yesterday. While we were up north, we missed the worst of the rain. Driving to work this morning, part of the London Road were flooded and we passed a few fields which had turned into ponds. We were definitely in the right part of the country for the Bank Holiday.
Update
Driving home tonight (by a different route) there were branches on the side of the Kenilworth road, which must have been blown down by the wind.
You can tell it's a Bank Holiday, because the roads are busy and it's raining.
We were 'up North' yesterday, to attend a Hamster Show at Lymm, in Cheshire. We only came 2nd in the hamster racing this time.
The track used for the Hamster Racing
The Old Cross, in the centre of Lymm.
This morning, we went to the Cheshire Oaks shopping centre, near Ellesmere Port. We got there shortly after opening time, and it was already busy. By the time we left there were lines of cars snaking through the car parks, looking for spaces. When we got to the motorway, there was a long queue of traffic on the opposite carriageway, trying to leave at the junction. They can't have been wanting to visit Ellesmere Port itself - the town isn't that interesting.
Not quite free range but we got the quail out for a run in the garden. It was really warm today so when we got home, we got the chairs out and sat outside. We had to keep an eye on the quail so they didn't try to escape. No-one tried to fly over the fence but Maggie tried to make a run for it and aimed for the small gap between the fence and ground.
They enjoy to peck at the dandelion leaves near their hutch. They like most leafy veg, so we gave them some of the spinach beet leaves too. Our salad veg isn't growing very well at the moment so they'll have to wait before they can sample those.
The quail chicks (5 weeks old and almost full sized) were getting a bit 'overcrowded' indoors. They had plenty of space in their 1m x 0.5m cages but they occasionally stampede, which they don't do if they have more room. We put half of the birds outside, in the rabbit hutch we bought last year. There are 8 birds in the hutch, so they have a lot more room now. The birds indoors have been split between their existing cage and the newly vacated one so everyone has extra space.
We were waiting for the weather to improve, to minimise the change of freezing nights. Unfortunately we put them outside before we saw the weather forecast and the impending storm. We checked on them this morning and they were all ok. Emma put them in the top part of the hutch last night, and they had kept dry.
The rabbit hutch.
One of the quail, in the small hutch 'extension'.
Will 2007 be the year when Britain failed to have a summer? June started well, with the local weather station recording 12 successive dry days. Things rapidly went downhill with the rest of the month recording 18 successive days of rain.
Many parts of the country have been suffering flooding but things seem to be improving a little. As I write, it's actually quite warm outside. I've managed to go 2 days without being rained on, but I don't think it will last. Rain is forecast again for tomorrow.
Update:
10pm - got rained on while leaving the Wing Wah restaurant.
Finally a weekend without rain. Today we lifted up some flagstones to expose the soil underneath, so we could plant out the courgettes which were still in tubs. We were surprised to find that there were only 4-5 inches of soil underneath before we hit concrete. We will have to limit ourselves to growing things that don't need much root depth.
Something has been eating our herbs. The Tarragon has completely gone, and there isn't much Parsley left. The Marigolds have also been eaten. Our other herbs (Sage, Oregano and Thyme) were ok, as were the other flowers. We think it may have been slugs but the rain will have washed away any trails. We've added Slug Pellets to our shopping list.
Update 08/07/07:
Not quite a weekend without rain. Sunday started off sunny but it started raining by late afternoon.
The weather has been terrible for at least a month. June was one of the wettest since records began. I don't think we've gone more than a few days without rain. My umbrella has certainly had more use in the last month than it did all winter. Hopefully we should be getting a summer soon.
It shouldn't rain this much in June. I was going to do some gardening today - our back garden is all flagged and I was going to lift up 2 rows of flagstones and dig it over, ready to plant the flowers, herbs and vegetables which are currently in pots. As I said, it was raining so I was stuck inside. I decided to paint he hallway instead.
We stripped the wallpaper from the walls a couple of months ago but never got around to repainting. Last week I washed the walls down with sugar soap, and intended to get the walls painted before my parents visited last weekend, but we didn't have time.
I only managed to get one coat of paint up, but it looks so much better than the bare plaster. Our aim now is to get the rest of the downstairs decorated before Christmas, because eating Christmas Dinner from plates balanced on your knees isn't ideal.
The last few days have been getting colder in the mornings. We had some snow overnight - not much but enough to still be hanging around when I got up.
It's been getting colder in the house too. The lack of central heating is starting to become a problem. The only heater we're using is a small electric one in the front room (the Hamster room), and we've been having to slowly turn it up a bit each night to stop the room temperature from dropping too much.
