pretty complex

It didn't snow again last night, but it did freeze.  Some rather pretty ice crystals formed on the (outside, fortunately) of our conservatory window.

 

on a technicality...

Today is Twelfth Night, or the twelfth day of Christmas, so it's still (just) Christmas season.  So does this mean it's technically a white Christmas?

8:08 GMT, looking north

9:29 GMT, looking west

Despite it now being clear sky and full (if low) sun, we have very little solar PV generation.  It has to get through an inch of snow covering the panels first!

After ALife

My colleague and I travelled back to Tokyo on the bullet train this morning.  I had quite a bit of time before my flight, so he suggested we visit Electric Town.  We took a local train, then searched for some empty luggage lockers so we wouldn't have to wheel suitcases around.  All the coin-operated ones we found were full.  But we did find an alternative.

A very nice gentleman took our bags and gave us a ticket.

Divested of luggage, we walked around, marvelling at the sheer variety of stores selling everything electrical, electronic, technical, cutesy twee, and much that was unidentifiable.

A huuuge multistorey shop sold large expensive items, including mega-sized TVs, bicycles, telescopes, and sharks.

I've been to specialist telescope shops with fewer items on display.

Difficult to get a scale, but this was several feet tall.

At the other extreme, there were alleyways and arcades with tiny shops selling all kinds of electronics, from small boxes full of individual resistors and transistors, to crates full of old laptops.  Everything for the hobbyist.

One shop among hundreds.

It was lightly raining and getting dark: the combination of weather and goods made me feel like I was on the set of Bladerunner.  

After that, we retrieved our luggage, and I caught a train to the airport, to wait for my just after midnight flight home.  

I like the simplicity and clarity of the airport shop names.

The end of my third trip to Japan.

windy

It was windy last night.  We heard the tiles rattling on the roof, but fortunately, not skittering off the roof, as they have done in the past.

However, on my walk this morning, I discovered there had been damage elsewhere.

The tree it fell from is much bigger

all weather

Today's weather: fierce wind, heavy rain, thunder, lightning, bright sunshine -- all at the same time!

escaping the heat

It was a lovely morning to be sitting on a quiet railway platform, listening to the birds singing, waiting for the train that would take me from the developing heat in the south (forecast mid 30s) to the more civilised levels in Glasgow (forecast, low 20s). 

8:46 am BST; already warm

breaking the trend

We had a lovely start to March: nine sunny days before the weather turned.  

April has been even more amazing.  Fourteen sunny days:

before the weather turned today:

Well, we needed the rain!

misty morning

 Early morning view: the world has gone away...

07:33 GMT, looking west

what a difference a day makes

Yesterday, we had had nine sunny days since the beginning of the month, and the solar PV plot looked amazing.

Today broke the streak.  It was not sunny: it was full cloud cover all day, with a bit of brightness around noon.  The solar PV plot now looks very different, with a lot of (pale) orange filling in the minimum to lower quartile range:

Nine sunny days in March

I make a variety of plots of data from our solar PV system.  One set is of the power generation over the day, plotted on a background of the month (so far) averages.  February looked like this:

The horizontal time axis runs from 3:00am to 9:00pm GMT. The vertical axis runs from zero to 8kW. The orange regions indicate the minimum, lower quartile, median, upper quartile, and maximum generation at that time, over the month. The line indicates the actual generation at that time.  Several days have very little generation, with the black generation line hugging the x-axis (February this year seemed a particularly dark month), so the orange fills the shape.

March so far has been somewhat different:

Nearly full sun every day; hardly any orange in sight on the plots.  Even on the 7th, originally forecast to be dull, there were only a few dips in an otherwise bright day.  It has been very mild, even warm.

The weather is due to break tomorrow.  Ah well, it was glorious while it lasted!

sequestering carbon, several books at a time CXLVI

If you follow my book reviews over on my website, you may have noticed several reviews for Great Courses lecture series.  Each course is 12-48 lectures, on DVD, accompanied by a coursebook.  These make great watching while, say, eating lunch.  We wait until interesting courses are on special offer, and have watched many of these, from science and economics to literature and history.

Recently, Great Courses decided to discontinue several of their DVDs, leaving only streaming options.  We dislike this, so have bought up a load of cheap courses while they are still available.  These should last us a while!

shepherds' heads-up

Looking west this morning, three minutes before sunrise (in the east, of course), a slightly frosty scene, with a pale pink sky.

7:39 GMT

Erice back streets

Today was the workshop excursion.  It has been hot here all week so far up high in Erice, so I was not looking forward to an even hotter time down at sea level.  Then there was an Italian Severe Weather Warning alert.  Hmm.  So colleagues and I decided to spend the time talking shop in a nice café instead.  It was the right decision: apparently, a temperature of 42 degrees was recorded by the excursion bus!

Later, some of us went wandering to find a different restaurant for our evening meal, and ended exploring some of the picturesque backstreets.

narrow, and hot

steep and narrow, and hot

The workshop has been just as good as last time.  Final day tomorrow, with more great talks and discussions scheduled.

And a third one is planned for 2026.

view from conference accommodation window

I'm back in Erice for the second Workshop on Unconventional computing; the first was in 2022.  I'm staying in a different building this time, with a lovely view over a courtyard.

Last time I was here it was October, and nice weather.  Now it is July.  And a lot hotter: due to be 30 degrees plus all week.  But the buildings are designed for it: very thick stone walls.

There's a welcome reception this evening, then the workshop starts at 9am tomorrow (Sunday!)  At least I should get more sleep than last time, having arrived mid-afternoon rather than at 3am.

red sky in the morning

7:56 GMT today

 Such beauty, but at what later cost?

travel in the time of Storm Babet

Storm Babet hit the UK and other parts of northern Europe this week.  I was due to travel by train from York to Ely yesterday (Friday), a journey I've done many times, scheduled to take just over two and a half hours.  I wasn't optimistic, given the news, but my phone app said my 4pm train was "on time".  Hmm, maybe not as bad as being suggested?  I arrived at York rail station.  Nothing going south.  I enquired about the departure board, which was also saying "on time".  Apparently that's set somewhere else, and the station has no control over what it says, and those who do ... hadn't updated it.  The very helpful LNER rep suggested I try again tomorrow.  So I left the station.

This morning, I arrived at York rail station.  Nothing going south.  But I had a plan, and a whole day to execute it.  I got on a train to Manchester Victoria (which was packed), then walked from there to Manchester Piccadilly, where I got on a train to London Euston (also packed).  On that trip, at one point looking out the window, I thought: "It's not too bad; that river doesn't look very high. Oh.  It's a road."

From Euston I walked to Kings Cross, to find the station shut, with a huge crowd milling about inside.  A crowd started growing outside as we waited for the doors to open.  The doors did not open, even after the crowd inside had dwindled.  I was wondering if I should try going to Liverpool Street instead.  But then, someone discovered there was an open door around the side, so we all flowed round to that one.  I got into the concourse area just as the train to Ely departed.  

So I got on the next train to Cambridge (reasonably full), and there got a train to Ely (empty).  Finally. 

The train to Ely wants me to "text British"?  As opposed to texting foreign?  A bit peculiar!  Oh, the next screen starts "Transport Police..."

I had my ticket checked a few times along this route, on trains, and at gates.  I'm not sure what the point was, given I was not only on the wrong train going to the wrong station, I was travelling on the wrong day.  None of the people doing the checking batted an eye at this.  Maybe they were just checking I had a ticket?

Four trains, 7 stations, 7 hours start to finish.  But I made it.

tiles fixed

The tiles are all fixed back down again (although it's hard to see past the scaffolding).  Hopefully they will last until the next 30-year storm.  Fixing the tiles took significantly less time than erecting the scaffolding.

the roof tile of Damocles II

The hanging tile of Damocles has just been safely removed.  This has required the erection of significant infrastructure (which is also needed to replace and refix the other damaged and displaced tiles).

the roof tile of Damocles

Storm Eunice had very strong winds at home yesterday.  Today, surveying the results, we saw some displaced roof tiles.

First we noticed all the tiles that were displaced.  They’ll need fixing.  Then we noticed the gutter – with the roof tile lodged in it, flapping up and down in the still strong wind.  

If that falls, it will drop onto the new conservatory’s glass roof:

The hanging tile is in absolutely the most difficult position to get at – in the very middle back of the conservatory.  The roof tiler will need scaffolding to access that bit of the roof.

Oh well.  Fingers crossed it doesn’t fall.

May ambiguity

There’s an old saying: “ne’er cast a clout ’til May be out”, which means don’t put off your winter clothes too soon.

There’s debate about the meaning of “May” in this saying.  Does it mean to wait until the end of the month (because May has notoriously fickle weather), or until the may blossoms (because it won't do so until it's properly warm)?

This is ambiguous most years, because the may usually blossoms in April.  Not this year.  April was freezing, literally: there were several frosts, and a bitter north wind.  May has been only a little warmer, and very wet.  So the may is blossoming now, and both meanings hold.  If things go on like this, I’ll still be wearing woollies come June!

late blossoming may