Computer Updating Update

The weather has gradually deteriorated as we've progressed through the week. The week began on a milder than expected note but has steadily fallen to a little colder than we might expect.

Temperature and Rainfall 15-17 November 2016

After a rather calm spell of weather it became windy on Wednesday and that continued into Thursday when we had some rain thrown in for good measure.

I've continued moving over all my "stuff" from my old to new computer. It's certainly a frustrating job and I've now moved over all I can think of but there is bound to be lots of things I've forgotten. A list of unknowns if you like. I know this because they crop up by accident as I start to use my new PC more and more. A piece of software wants a username, a password or a product key before it will do anything even though it's now installed on my new machine. Do I really want to know if my email uses POP or Imap? The answer is yes if I want it to work as it's done for the last seven years. Software sometimes asks for a password but it isn't always immediately obvious which password it refers to unless you are some sort of computer expert.

To keep me from going insane I've helped Sue with a few jobs in the garden. We though it was about time the outdoor pots of more tender plants were moved into the greenhouse for some winter protection.

First job was to clear the spent tomato haulms from the summer crop to make some space for the pots. I even managed to find one or two usable tomatoes.

All our tubs have now been moved inside. I'll probably throw some fleece over them if any very cold nights are forecast but other than that they'll have to take their chance with the weather. If anything is killed off over winter I think it's cheaper to buy replacements next spring than any attempt to add extra heating into the greenhouse. I'll keep them as dry as possible and hope that we don't get any prolonged spells of cold weather.

I think our banana is showing just how tough it is as it is still green even after standing outside in last weeks snow.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Mild and Cloudy Super Moon Day

Monday was mild and cloudy although we didn't get any rain apart from a sprinkling in the early hours of the morning.

Temperatures Records for 08-14 November 2016

Monday turned out to easily be our mildest day of the month reaching 14.1°C (57.4°F). Our temperatures have been steadily increasing since our cold and snowy day last Wednesday.

We were on the lookout for Monday's super moon when the moon is "only" 221,524 (356,509km) miles away from earth. It won't be so close again until 25 November 2034. However, each time we looked out of the window the stuff we could see in the sky was cloud. Then around midnight we spotted the moon almost by accident as we had a final look of the night out of the window.

It really needed a tripod but that wasn't going to happen at midnight.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

A Plot Visit

Sunday morning was mild and sunny and although it clouded over in the afternoon we decided on a visit to the plot. It's been a few years now since we placed weed control fabric and wood chippings around our redcurrant bushes and the area was in need of a bit of a refurbishment so we decided to make a start on the upgrade to this area.

We also needed to harvest a few fresh vegetables. As usual I had a look around the plot to see if anything else of note was going on. I was surprised to see that some of our strawberry plants had strawberries on that looked like strawberries and that they hadn't turned to mush in the snowy weather of a few days ago.

Of course something had beaten us to eating the fruit. We have a few lettuce plants that survived the cold too. These plants were devastated by slugs in summer when the seeds were sown and they have been neglected ever since. This iceberg type lettuce looks like it might have some edible leaves to pick.

There's a few salad varieties still surviving too.

We made a start on our redcurrant patch but it will probably take us another couple of afternoons to complete the renovation.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

A Bit of a Nightmare!

Weather wise Saturday turned out to be the mildest day of the month so far with the temperature reaching 11.4°C or  52.5°C. After some overnight rain, the heavy cloud never cleared away and it turned out to be our dullest day of the month too.

I spent most of Saturday working on the change over to my new computer. It's proving to be challenging to say the least.  The amount of time it takes copy from hard drive to portable hard drive and back to a new hard makes the process very tedious. Then of course things never quite go to plan or like that  YouTube demonstration. It appears so simple but doesn't turn out that way when you actually try to do it yourself.

So far I think I've sorted out my images although I've still another large batch to transfer. I've now attached my images  to the correct Abode Lightroom catalogue.

My weather station data has been transferred successfully but my weather station itself doesn't want to talk to my new computer for any length of time.  I keep getting a message saying USB connection lost and I've no idea why.

This blog is a bit of a test to see if I've got this part of my new system up and running. Here's a photo from our visit to RSPB Old Moor on Friday.

My first picture imported into Lightroom using my new computer. All I need to do now is sort out everything else. I may be sometime!

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Computer Replacement Time

Thursday and Friday were improvements over Wednesday although they didn't have to do too much in order to achieve that. A little bit of sunshine and a few heavy showers were the order of the day on Thursday whilst Friday was sunny and dry and a little bit milder.

Friday was nice enough to tempt us outside and we had a visit to RSPB Old Moor for an afternoon walk around the reserve.

The time has come for my computer to be replaced. It runs my weather station so it runs 24/7. It's easier that way to keep all my weather data up to date. I don't have to work out which weather data has been downloaded from my weather station to my computer or whether it's been uploaded to the Internet. Checking back it means my computer's been running for almost 7 years non stop. It can still run reasonably well at times but then it seizes up refusing to do anything. It can be most frustrating waiting for something to appear out of a black screen.

Besides figuring out how to transfer seven years of weather data and all the associated internet requirements the other major challenge is to transfer all my photographs which are all stored using Adobe Lightroom. There's lots of help on the Internet and YouTube explaining how to transfer images and also how to transfer and connect them back to the Lightroom library with all their keywords.

This is my way of saying that if you notice things going a little bit haywire over the next week or so you'll know I've done something wrong.

Blogging will be on hold for a few days until things are sorted out.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Winter's Early

Wednesday really brought a taste of winter with it let alone autumn. With a little bit of luck Wednesday might be as bad as it gets all winter never mind autumn.

Early morning rain turned to snow around dawn and continued falling until around lunchtime when it turned back to rain. It wasn't heavy snow and it was the wet, slushy type that doesn't normally hang about for too long. The highest temperature all day was 3.4°C (38.1°F) falling to just below freezing late into the evening.

This time last year we were basking in lovely November weather as the temperature soared to 16.2°C (61.2°F). The mild weather stayed around for a few days last November. This is in stark contrast to this year as November has a distinctly more winter than autumn feel to it.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Oh Dear!

Tuesday was another dull and cold day. It started to rain late into the evening.

Temperature and Rainfall Records 07-09, November 2016

Now remember that forecast of snow. If you look at the above chart it looks as though it stopped raining at around 06:00 on Wednesday morning. In fact the rain turned to snow and my rain gauge stops measuring until the snow begins to thaw and turns back into water.

We haven't had very much snow so far and it's the wet and slushy type which won't hang about too long. I'm not too sure our banana tree is very impressed that it's out in the snowy conditions rather than being in the greenhouse only a couple of feet away.

Hopefully I haven't left it too late to move our banana plant indoors and out of the worst of the "winter" weather.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett

Forecast for a Keen Frost and Snow

Monday was another dull and cold day. The temperatures were almost a repeat of Sunday's although the overnight low was a little bit colder.

The weather forecast on Monday suggested a very keen overnight frost into Tuesday morning and the some snow falling in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

We haven't had that keen frost on Tuesday morning. The temperature fell to 1.8°C (35.2°F) enough to frost the greenhouse windows and timbers.

We'll have to see if the forecast of snow in the early hours of Wednesday morning turns out to be correct. The chances are that snow will fall on higher ground in the Pennines and we'll escape with just some rain.

Meanwhile in the garden some plants are carrying on as though the cold weather isn't here.

Things might change if that snow does turn up as forecast.

Copyright: Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett