We’ve just completed another tremendously wet July – 125mm of rain and at least 50mm more rain than any other month in the year.
It looks like ye old icelandic blocking low has pushed the jet stream down towards the Med.

This would all be easier to take if we were STILL not in the grip of a wonderful United Utilities hosepipe ban (although the fact that July was the wettest month by far does show how dry a spring we had) …BUT we were all floating down the roads last November… remember that, United Utilities?

It was very nice to see four whole planets at once last night… Saturn, Mars, Venus and an elusive twinkling Mercury – startastic! Ashamed to say that I resorted to another iPhone app called ‘Planets’ that used the compass to make sure I was saying what I was seeing correctly!

…and so I’ve finally sucumbed to the 32gb tech temptation from 1 Infinite Loop plus a reasonable Vodafone upgrade offer. 3 months of baby steps with the iPod touch meant that using the iPhone was pretty much second nature – and all the purchased apps have transfered like a dream without hassle or extra payment. (or begging software firms to change a handset activation code to a new IMEI number because you’ve upgraded – NOKIA!)

And yes it sounds a bit like an ad – but everything did actually work with so much less hassle when compared to previous smartphone nightmares. I shudder to think at the wasted time spent setting up my Symbian N96; the pain wrestling a Windows Mobile 6 phone in to some sort of shape; or the sheer geek-tastic lunacy of trying to customise the Nokia N800. Damn you Apple! (Next stop iPad? Noooo – must resist total immersion to the Apple-side)

Just tested the phone with Memory-Map app, OS 25k map collection, GPS and a 4 hour walk… and all worked like a dream!

A nice fine and cold February and early March here – lots of sunny weather with (possibly!) a record of 11 consecutive freezing nights in March!

Some stored data for Feb is here…

March up to 27th, here.

In other weather related news: The battery in the VPII sensor unit gave out and, shock, panic, terror; we LOST some data!

The CR-123 lithium battery lasted pretty much exactly 3 years as backup for the solar power, and luckily it was simple case of getting a replacement (as quick as possible!)

…but it’s a wonder if it’s just the dark winter days to blame for depleting the solar capacitors ability – or is it an underlying problem. Time will tell.

Just added a static weather page and now hope to post about Urswick Weather on blog (so blog has an actual use… sort of). As ever, Urswick weather is here…

And, as has been blindingly obvious to anyone in the tri-state area, it was a VERY cold Jan! We recorded out lowest ever temp at Urswick:

Jan 7th 2010:  -9.6  at  7:40am – jan2010 weather – But we didn’t quite have any days where it stayed below freezing all the time.

I’ve finally got round to updating the atantalus site, and have added a new blog for me (a shiny WordPress 2.9.something one, after I lost the details of the old MoveableType one) and one for Gemma (which is absolutely nothing to do with me)

…and I’m trying to arrange everything between the design / photography / weather / random bits of stuff bits of the site.

I’m still quite partial to the original design though, so may just add to it rather than change, change, change.

Back in September, we embarked on a classic lakeland stroll, planning to travel from Langdale to Wasdale via the high bits.

Setting off on a lovely September morning our only problem seemed to be getting to Langdale, which was, as usual, struggling to cope with the slightest meeting of vehicles on the narrow lanes.

Eventually we made Blea Tarn and a classic lakeland view of the Langdale pikes.

Slightly further on, you pass a famous place where Alan Titchmarsh stood on the front of his latest DVD/book…

Obviously the public will flock to this place now…

More to come!

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