Sunday 23 June 2019

5527 already

Well,

we've had the solstice, and it's been cold - minus 4 overnight and only just touching double figures during the day. Pleasant enough to sit outside with a coffee after lunch but already too cold to be pleasant by mid afternoon.

Previously we've had a run of wet weather, but on Tuesday evening the temperature dropped and we had a pelting shower of sleet with a little wet snow mixed into it, which fortunately turned back to sleety rain.

Wednesday was simply cold and overcast, and Thursday was not much better.

Friday brought freezing fog and it was so cold working on the documentation project, not only did I have my standard winter clothing - St Andrews University beanie, fleece outdoor shirt, fleece ski necklet (one of these infinity scarves that's basically a short loop of polar fleece), fingerless gloves - that I ended up keeping my puffer jacket on most of the day - truly Dickensian, and probably appropriately so, given the building dates from the 1860's.

The worst thing of course is that when we've freezing fog, the solar panels are really only good as perches for the local parrots - at least when the sun shines we still get a couple of kilowatts out of them in the middle of the day, despite the sun being low in the sky.

But as I said it's 5527, the Inca new year, and from now on the days will start to get imperceptibly longer and hopefully a little warmer, and in time the soil will warm and it will be time to plant ...