Winter 5

Dark days but not for much longer

Tuesday 26th January

Even though the days are starting to lengthen, and we have nearly an hour of extra daylight compared with the beginning of the month, the days are still unusually dark because of all the cloud cover.  If anyone had been crazy enough to try to arrange a cricket match here during the past three months the players would have spent the entire time in the pavillion - either waiting for the rain to stop, or after successfully appealing against the light.  I can’t remember the last time we were able to read a book during the day without having to turn on the lights.  

By the way, I am puzzled by why we have twice as much extra daylight at the end of the day as we have at the beginning.  Perhaps it is something to do with angles.

Very little is getting done in the garden.  Collecting wet leaves for the leafmould bin and cutting back dead and semi-dead wet vegetation are not not my favourite garden tasks and there is little else to do at this time of year.  Last week I started digging out a patch of unwanted variegated grass so that I could plant something more interesting but that wasn’t much fun either and I came in without finishing. I lost motivation when my feet became numb from the cold.  wellies are not the best footware for keeping feet warm but they are essential because the garden is so wet.

We have been going on short walks almost daily.  We started off walking in the plantations, mainly Skyhill, but the paths were so muddy and slippery that we could only walk slowly and carefully and even then my feet slipped once and I managed to topple over.

The walks have been rather repetitious but I have taken a few photos.  On the 12th we walked up the glen road as far as the waterfall just beyond the ruined shepherd’s house.

We had hoped that the track would be safer underfoot than the plantation paths but it wasn’t much better - stony and muddy with puddles and even running water in places.

We passed the place where I photographed the wind-damaged conifer leaning across the road at the end of last month.  All the leafy branches had been removed and the only signs of the fallen tree were a pile of thick branches which had been saved for firewood . . . and a gap in the row of trees.  Luckily there was no domino effect and the remaining trees are still standing.  I wonder whether they were originally planted as a hedge and then neglected for many years.  There are more than twenty trees growing along the road boundary of two fields.  I took this photo to give an impression of how tall they are.

The history of the Glen is a source of fascination but also frustration because so little information is available.  For instance, just beyond the leylandii “hedge” we can still see the remains of a mill race at the side of the road.  There isn’t much left - just a leaf-filled depression above an earth bank.  (Another short section of the mill race is still visible further downstream near Race Cottage.)

Years ago the glen used to be very different.  It is nearly all residential property now but in the past there were farms, tourist attractions, at least three mills on the Auldyn River, exploratory mines, a slate quarry and other industry.  The large stone house below that section of the mill race is called The Old Mill.  I believe that the present building was erected near an even older building of which no trace remains.  It may have been demolished when the road was rerouted after the 1930 flood.  I tried to find out what type of mill it was but the only reference I could find to an industry on the site was this comment on the Manx Electric Railway Society’s website “A number of plants and mills in the Island processed inorganic chemicals for local use, including the now ruinous Glen Auldyn chemical works at SC432931”  Perhaps the older building was used to process chemicals.

There was a brief cold snap with a frosty morning on the 16th.  It wasn’t a very hard frost but enough to turn the foxglove leaves white.

We risked the mud which was even worse if that was possible and walked in Skyhill plantation again.  There was no snow at lower levels but top of Snaefell was white.

Moss loves the damp conditions and was was flourishing on the bark of this ash near one of the streams which cross the plantation path.

On the 19th we gave up on the mud, changed tactics, and took to the roads.  We walked down the glen, crossed Lezayre Road and continued down as far as the footbridge over the Sulby  This is a more or less level route and not such good exercise as climbing the fairly steep paths through the plantations.  But we were able to walk much faster and almost twice as far which compensated a bit.  According to a very useful website http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ the distance from our gate to the footbridge is exactly 1.4396 miles - so it is close to a three mile walk there and back.

I took some bread cubes for the ducks that usually congregate near the bridge - hoping for handouts from children visiting the little Poolydooey nature reserve on the bank to the river.  There were no ducks in sight.  The state of the muddy and debris-strewn track down to the ford where the duck-feeding usually occurs was enough to deter even the most determined child.

We crossed the bridge and were greeted by a group of gulls that appeared from nowhere.  Gulls appear to be psychic where bread is concerned.  Feeding gulls is frowned upon but at least I didn’t have to carry the packet of bread home again.

On the way back we were greeted by a friendly pigeon that flew over and perched on a garden wall.  It cooed to us, hopped along the top of the wall, doing a little pigeon dance and listened to every word when I stopped to talk to it.

We walked down to the Sulby again the next day.  On the way home we heard cooing again as we passed the house where we had seen our friend the previous day.  I looked into the garden and saw him perched on top of a campervan.  Then he flew onto the roof before fluttering over to the gatepost.  While I was taking his photo, he took off again and landed on my head.  I couldn’t take a photo because the camera strap was round my neck.  He showed no sign of moving.  I had to ask Tim to remove him and then he hopped onto Tim’s arm.

While all this was going on a rather dour postman arrived to deliver the post and totally ignored the antics of the couple of eccentric walkers and their feathered friend.  We haven’t seen him since - the pigeon, not the postman.  But, on a later walk, we did hear more than one pigeon cooing near the old Ramsey power station on Gardener’s Lane which is about half a mile downstream so we hope he has been reunited with some pigeon friends.

We didn’t walk on the 21st because it rained all day, culminating with a heavy downpour during the early hours of Friday morning - another three inches in not much more than a day.  The rain cleared early though and we were treated to a very pretty sunrise.

After shopping we . . . (at this point work on the blog was rudely interrupted by a four hour power failure on Tuesday morning - probably caused by damage to power lines due to the gales) . . . walked down to the Sulby again and I recorded some post-downpour images.

First, our little waterfall in the back garden.

Then a view of the river from the bridge near the chapel.  The level had dropped since early morning but there was still plenty of white water.

As we approached the Lezayre Road junction we could see that the river had overflowed again and water had been running down the road.  Debris was trapped under the wooden fence where the water had spilled over into the Milntown gardens.  This is the second time this winter that the road has flooded.  Luckily it never lasts long because the level drops very quickly as soon as the rain eases off.

I think the main reason for the flooding of the road is that the Lezayre Road bridge isn’t high enough to cope with the run-off after an extreme downpour and the water backs up above the bridge.

We crossed the road and walked down Gardener’s Lane.  There used to be open fields here, between the river and the disused railway line, where we walked the dogs - but now a new housing estate is taking over.  Beyond the new houses there are still a few remaining overgrown fields and a pair of impressive trees, oaks I think but I will have to wait for the new leaves before I am certain.

The river was higher than previously and there was a little island on the debris by the ford which was being patrolled by a hooded crow.

If one takes time to stop and stare there is beauty in the most unpromising places - like puddles on a road.

On our way home I stopped to watch a pair of mallard ducks.  They  were battling to paddle up the fast flowing Auldyn river and keeping to the quieter water next to the bank.  You would think that all this rain would be lovely weather for ducks - but there can be too much of a good thing.  The female mallard suddenly got caught by the current and was washed out into the middle of the river and swirled downstream in the torrent.  She was followed immediately by her anxious mate.  Further up some more sensible ducks were lined up on the grassy bank between the Rose Villa parking area and the river . . . waiting for better days and calmer waters.

On Saturday we walked up the glen to see how the repairs to the road had fared.  The main repair to the river bank which I photographed for the Winter 4 post was fine but the second repair up near Fernside had sustained further damage.  Most of the small chunks of granite which had been packed behind the wire mesh had been washed out and there was a rather ominous crack at the side of the road.  

But there is some good news.  Snowdrops are opening all over the garden and things can get better in the garden as the days get brighter and we approach spring.

Winter 4

The mystery of the missing season.

Wednesday 6th January, 2016

Our recent weather has been weird.  It still feels more like autumn than winter on the Island but in sunnier and warmer areas of the British Isles there have been reports of daffodils flowering before Christmas and new leaves appearing on trees before the old ones have finished falling.  Someone said that it seemed as though there had been no winter . . . they had gone straight from autumn into spring.  Another correspondent reported that their snowdrops had finished flowering already.  Our snowdrops have barely started.   It may be that the lack of sunshine in our area has counteracted the warmer than normal weather.  We do have the first buds on our snowdrops but this patch appear to be opening very slightly later than last winter as the buds are all still upright.

2nd January 2016

1st January 2015

I walked around the garden a couple of days ago during a brief dry period and found a few tatty primroses that had been nibbled by hungry woodlice or earwigs, and also some early violets that are not looking their best.  Nothing is looking its best.  Flowers which haven’t been nibbled have been beaten by the rain and gales.

The little pale cyclamen that was covered in blossom when I bought last February has survived under the big apple tree.  I thought it might have been manipulated to flower in early spring and I may have been right but I am not certain.  After I planted it in the garden, it flowered again in autumn.  But it still has a few flowers so it does continue flowering later than our pink c hederifolium

As well as the tatty early spring flowers, we have some tatty late summer ones.  There seldom seems to be a period when at least one Welsh poppy isn’t braving the weather.

As well as the snowdrops, there are also a few other plants that normally flower at this time of year.  The winter jasmine refused to flower up by the summerhouse but has produced flowers every year after being moved down to the terraces at the south west end of the house . . .

. . . and the stinking helebore (Helleborus foetidus). It was originally growing outside the laundry window but has spread to the bottom of the garden and come up in some unusual places.  This one is growing under a spiraea and there are even a couple of plants under the leylandii hedge.  According to Wikipedia, the seeds are popular with rodents.  So the usual suspects, the birds, may not be responsible for spreading the seed.

There really isn't much to write about apart from the weather. The media is full of weather related records - record high temperatures for December and record rainfall and floods in many parts of the British Isles.  I only started recording our rainfall in September 2014 so my results are not very significant - but December 2015, with a grand (?) total of 369 mm/14.53 ins, easily beat the previous record-holder - October 2014.   This was no mean feat as October 2014 was the second wettest October  on record according to the Met Office at Ronaldsway.   I was amused by this quote.  Do you think the professor was implying that the weather has been taking steroids?  “Climate change has fundamentally changed the UK weather, said Prof Myles Allen, at the University of Oxford: “Normal weather, unchanged over generations, is a thing of the past. You are not meant to beat records by those margins and if you do so, just like in athletics, it is a sign something has changed.”  

But climate change is a serious subject.  I doubt whether anyone with a scientific background claims to know the whole truth.  It is interesting that the scientists can’t even agree on climate change in the past, such as the events that triggered the ice ages.  “Although the exact causes for ice ages, and the glacial cycles within them, have not been proven, they are most likely the result of a complicated dynamic interaction between such things as solar output, distance of the Earth from the sun, position and height of the continents, ocean circulation, and the composition of the atmosphere.”  So any current climate change is probably also a result of a combination of events and it isn’t easy to establish how the burning of fossil fuels fits into the whole equation and whether it is even a major player.  But, as a totally unscientific onlooker, it seems to me that the pollution that we cause is very important because it is the only part of the equation that we can influence.

We have been lucky on the Island.  After the flash floods on December 3rd, all the worst of the rain has bypassed us.   Surrounding countries and counties . . . Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Cumbria, Lancashire and Yorkshire have had torrential rain and floods while we have only had a few minor problems with water on some roads.

We only found out that our little road had been damaged in the December 3rd flood when we received a letter from the Lezayre Parish Commissioners on the 15th which informed us that the U14 Glen Auldyn Back Road was closed until the repair of the washed out section had been completed.  We weren’t aware of the problem because it is further up the glen from our home.  We walked up the road to inspect the damage.  There were two sections where the edge of the tarred road had been undermined.  Repair work  had already started.

Further up, part of the gravel road just beyond the end of the tarred road had been completely washed away and a short detour had been constructed.

We returned just before Christmas with our son to inspect the repairs.

And when we walked along the road again at the end of December there was more weather damage.  This time a tall conifer had been damaged by the gales and was being removed.

But all is not doom and gloom. There was blue sky and sunshine this morning.  Unfortunately it only lasted for about five minutes but I had time to record the unusual event.

And finally . . . battered and bruised but still standing . . . this is the winner of the trophy for the last rose of 2015 . . . and also the winner for the trophy for the first rose of 2016!

Winter 3

Season’s Greetings!

Thursday, 24th December, 2015.

Last week I was thinking about the way that gradual change tends to pass almost unnoticed . . . even important things like our children growing up and the days lengthening or shortening.

In November we drove to the Cottage Hospital for Tim’s monthly blood test and the sun had already risen over Maughold Head while I was waiting in the car park.  In December we drove there in the dark.  There was heavy cloud so I wouldn’t have seen the sun rise even if we had been there at the right time.  The only sign of the approaching day was when the car park lights switched off . . . and the sky gradually turned a slightly lighter shade of grey.  While I was waiting, I saw two small birds swoop past and a little later there were some larger birds circling overhead.  It wasn’t light enough to see any more than their dark shapes but they were probably herring gulls riding the air currents over the Mooragh Brooghs.

I am not religious but it seems to me that the time of year in the northern hemisphere when the days start to lengthen again is significant (even if we don’t notice it) and really deserves to be celebrated.  The correct time this year would have been at 04-48 on Tuesday December 22 but there is no point in quibbling about a few days when it is easier to go with the flow and sacrifice the traditional turkey on the 25th.

So Happy Winter Solstice/Happy Christmas/Happy festival of your choice to all our family, friends and any unknown friends out in the blogosphere!

Winter 2

It is really starting to feel like winter.

Saturday 12th December, 2015

This morning I am happy that it is raining again - the more rain and the harder the rain the better as far as I am concerned.  It is not that we need any more rain.  It is more a question of schadenfreude.  A few minutes ago I saw a convoy of pheasant killers driving up the glen and anything which spoils their “fun” is fine with me.  

We have had another two and a half inches of rain since the end of last week but it has fallen in bits and pieces with almost dry days in between so there hasn’t been any major flooding although reports are coming in this morning of minor floods in the south of the Island - and snow on the mountain road.

I even managed to get some work done in the garden during the week and we took a load of garden refuse out to the tip on Friday morning.  I have also been collecting more wet leaves and piling them into the big leaf mould container that Tim erected at the bottom of the garden.  The trees have dropped all their leaves now although there are still a few left on the clematis and some of the shrubs.  

My main task involved the climbing rose by the summerhouse.  I have been thinking about tackling this rose since September when I took this photo hoping that it would help me to work out a plan.  

I decided that I needed to tie ropes  to a branch on the hawthorn, which is growing on the bank above the summerhouse, and then attach them to the trellis at the side of the summerhouse.  After that I could tie the rose to the ropes and hope that it would eventually grow tall enough to tangle itself up in the tree.  The main snag was that the only suitable hawthorn branch was rather high and I don’t like heights - so I kept avoiding the problem until the situation became critical after the gales last week when at least half the rose was blown free from the trellis. 

I didn’t want to tie the ropes around the hawthorn branch in case they chafed the bark.  During our shopping trip to Ramsey on Tuesday morning  we went in search of some tough cord/rope and a couple of sturdy plant straps to fix around the branches.  On our way up Parliament Street we inadvertently disturbed a young herring gull that was sleeping on the grass near East Street. He didn’t seem to be at all perturbed and after standing on one leg so that he could have a good stretch . . .

. . .  he posed for a photo.

Feltons didn’t have what we needed so we walked up to Market Square to see how the "regeneration" was progressing.  We had avoided this end of town for weeks because of the road works and were pleased to see that the work had been completed and that the square was available for parking again.

It wasn’t until we got home and I looked at my photos that I noticed the  words “electric vehicles” painted alongside two parking bays.  

Google obliged as usual, and I discovered that Ramsey was keeping up with the trend (or galloping ahead of it) and had installed a recharging station. I had even taken a photo which included the recharging station (the little black structure near the blue car in the foreground).

After inspecting Market Square, we walked down the quay towards the Farmers Combine.  The tide was high and some of the fishing boats were preparing to leave the harbour.

We stopped to look at the water birds.  We saw at least six adult swans but still no juveniles. There were also plenty of Canada geese and some mallard . . .

. . . and a huge gathering of black headed gulls which were relaxing on the water. These are just a few.

The Farmers Combine stocked strong nylon cord and plant straps so we managed to get everything that I needed to restrain the rose.  The only thing which delayed the work was the strong wind.  It was going to be a tricky enough job without contending with long thorny branches whipping around in the wind.

Wednesday morning looked promising.  There were still clouds around and they proved that not all clouds have silver linings . . . some have pink linings! 

But the wind was still strong so I did some clearing work at ground level and put off climbing ladders for another day.  

On Thursday the wind eased and I ran out of excuses.  I couldn’t find a suitable level place to stand the ladder so I wedged it above the hawthorn on the bank and tied it securely to the tree.  I wasn’t certain that the plant straps which I had bought would stand up to the weight of a wind-buffeted rose so I decided to recycle a couple of old nylon dog collars instead.  I climbed to the top of the ladder, clipped the collars around the branch, threaded the cord through them and then climbed down and got on with the painful task of attaching the cord to the trellis behind the rose and attaching the rose to the cord.  By the time I had finished my hands looked as though I had been wrestling with a wild cat.

This is the semi-tamed rose.  I hope it doesn’t try to break free again during the next gale.

And this is one of the recycled dog collars.

It has stopped raining now so I may go out and collect more leaves . . . or maybe not.  It is rather cold outside.  It is five degrees C in Ramsey - but factor in wind chill and it feels like zero.

Winter 1

A wet and wild start to winter

Monday 7th December 2015

The weather - and its aftermath - were the only topics of conversation last week.

It started with Clodagh, our third named storm, which passed over the Island on Sunday.  We were able to do the shopping in the morning before the rain set in and the wind strengthened.  This was fortunate because it was our last chance to shop before waiting around at home for a heating oil delivery early in the week.  We weren’t even aware that the fairly normal winter weather in the afternoon had a name until I read about it in The Guardian on Monday morning.  We congratulated ourselves on surviving unscathed in the glen after the onslaught of yet another storm - until we received a hand-delivered letter from the Department of Infrastructure in the afternoon which informed us that the road up the glen would be completely closed to all traffic and pedestrians from 09-00  on Tuesday until an “unstable tree has been removed and the area has been made safe”.

Tim phoned Manx Petroleum to let them know about the road closure and they rescheduled our delivery from Tuesday to Wednesday.  Then we walked down the road to inspect the offending tree.  It was a huge beech and did look rather hazardous.  The roots had been torn out of the ground and the only thing stopping the tree falling onto the road was the neighbouring tree.

We walked down again the next morning to find out whether the oil tanker would be able to get up the road on Wednesday.  One of the men working on the tree told us that the road would still be closed officially but that they would be allowing traffic to get through.  Work had already started on cutting back the top branches of the tree - a skilled and dangerous job requiring a good head for heights.

When we got home I decided to make a start on clearing old leaves out of our stream/ditch.  Bearing in mind last week’s resolution, I made the decision and stuck to it and this turned out to be more fortunate than I could have anticipated.

We walked back down the glen road in the afternoon to check on progress and on the way we met a couple going for a walk with their pet.  At first glance I assumed that they had a large dog - but that only goes to show that we don’t really look at things and tend to see what we expect to see.  This is the “dog” which was going for a walk.

The tree men had done an incredible job and the area had already been made safe.  Most of the tree had been removed and the road was completely clear and open to traffic.  

The huge trunk, which had been leaning towards the road, plus a few branches, had been left at the edge of the field.  They must have used a tractor and ropes or chains to get the trunk to fall into the field.

Wednesday started with a peculiar pink tinge to the morning light.  This isn’t a photoshop effect.  It really did look like this.  

They say that “Red sky in the morning is a shepherds warning” but in this case the sky wasn’t very red but the whole glen looked pink.  It heralded an uneventful day but perhaps it was an advance warning.  Our oil was delivered and then I spent a few hours working on the stream and removed most of the remaining leaves.

Thursday was wet, extremely wet.  The weather system wasn’t windy enough to be given a name although it really deserved one.  About two and a half inches or rain fell on our garden.  There was traffic chaos all over the Island with flooded roads, landslips blocking the mountain road and a semi-collapsed bridge in lower Laxey which dumped a school bus in the river.  Luckily the school children had already been delivered to their homes and the driver was advised to leave the bus before it toppled into the water.  The bridge had withstood two hundred years of Manx weather, including the notorious 1930 flood but Thursday’s weather was the last straw.  This photo is from the Manx Radio website.

The Auldyn River must have overflowed and filled up the glen road next to Milntown because we saw a lot of debris trapped under the fence and huge puddles in the Milntown grounds when we drove to the shops on Friday morning.

Our little stream managed to cope with all the water seeping out of the hillside above us but the main stream which flows through our neighbour’s garden on the other side of our mutual holly hedge clogged in a few places.  I spent some time clearing out the section above our top fence where a couple of big stones had slipped into the ditch and blocked the flow.  A bit of water had been diverted down the path above our fence, but not enough to cause any problems.  Further down the stream had overflowed and water was running down the edge of our neighbour’s drive as well as the usual blockage at the bottom of the ditch which causes a minor waterfall onto the road.  

So Friday was another day spent on removing wet leaves from ditches - but it would have been a whole lot worse if I hadn’t removed the bulk of the leaves before the deluge.

But the week wasn’t over yet.  On Friday evening and Saturday the next storm, called Desmond, arrived with warnings of severe damage, heavy rain and structural damage.  Islanders were warned to stay at home unless their journeys were absolutely essential and all the ferries were cancelled.  So we stayed indoors and waited for the devastation.  Luckily Desmond didn’t live up to the forecasts as far as the Island was concerned.   There were a few trees down but there was less rain than expected although the wind was strong and kept going for over twenty four hours.  Parts of Cumbria were not so fortunate and are still under water.

Sunday promised to be a better day with a glimmer of brightness in the east.

It lived up to the promise and there were even sunny periods.  I was able to clean out all the leaves that Desmond blew into the ditch.  This morning we are enjoying (?) ”Occasional rain &/or drizzle”  and winds of about Force 6 (strong breeze).  The next belt of rain (possibly heavy at times) is due to pass over the island this evening.