December 2012 Back to November
Saturday 1st -3 to 3 to -2°C 1.49kWh 1.1kW max. Fairly bright after a frosty start but with a cold northerly breeze. Clouded over later but cleared again after dusk
Sunday 2nd -3 to 3 to 3°C. 662Wh 200W max. A miserable cold damp day though it didn't rain properly till late in the evening.
Monday 3rd 1 to 6 to 1°C. 1.25kWh 800W max. Damp start with a short brigher spell mid-morning before clouding over to a damp afternoon. Cleared after dusk.
Tuesday 4th 0 to 6 to 2°C. 3.39kWh 1.1kW max. Sunny day but feeling cold in the strong westerly breeze. Started raining in the late evening.
Too cold to work outside so started taking the begonia corms out of their pots in the polytunnel so I can store them in the conservatory where they won't get the frost at them. Also started transplanting more of the winter flowering pot plants into 5in pots, beginning with the pansies. We have already done the primulas and some of these are on the window sills of the conservatory. Eventually had to give this up because even in the polytunnel it was only 4°C and my fingers were too numb to safely move the plants from their trays into the pots.
Pat saw a weasel sniffing around the vegetable garden. Hopefully it can do something about the rats and mice.
Wednesday 5th -1 to 3 to -3°C 3.63kWh 1.1.kW max. Sunny day but very cold.
Had a bad asthma attack in the night so couldn't really do much outside especially with it being so cold.
Thursday 6th -4 to 3 to 2°C. 623Wh 500W max. Cold frosty misty start. Brightened up for a short while but then started to rain.
Friday 7th 1 to 6 to 3°C. 1.23kWh 650W max. The rain had cleared by the morning to a bright but very windy day making it feel a lot colder than the thermometer suggested. There were also several short heavy showers.
The men came to put up the scaffolding for the wall rendering. Not an ideal day for it but scaffolders are a hardy breed. It is nice to see that at last there is some progress in this work. Hopefully someone will turn up on Monday to replace some of the guttering and extend the windowsills in preparation.
Saturday 8th 0 to 6 to 5°C. 2.17kWh 1.1kW max. Sunny day with very little wind to feeling quite pleasant for the time of year.
Now the scaffolding is up I decided to take the opportunity to remove some things attached to the wall which we no longer use before they come to do the rendering. A dipole aerial which we no longer need since the boosted the signal from the local transmitter, an outside lamp on what is now the back of the house but which was the front when the path came from the road to it before the 1950s and has never worked since we came here in 1974, and a security lamp with 2 x 500W floodlights; a relic from when electricity was still cheap and no-one worried about global warming.
Sunday 9th 3 to 8 to 3°C. 686Wh 240W max. Cloudy day, still feeling mild.
Monday 10th 3 to 4 to -1°C. 2.97kWh 900W max. Thin cloud with long sunny intervals. Still clear in the evening so might be quite frosty by morning.
No-one turned up to do anything with the wall. We spent part of the day emptying the 7 water butts into the polytunnel so we could move them away from the house along with a few other things still attached. Also moved the rest of the potted chrysanthemums away from the patio and also the table and chairs. I don't want there to anything around which can be damaged - the scaffolders have already dropped a pole on the fruit cage, bending one of the cross pieces.
Tuesday 11th -4 to 1 to -1°C. 2.81kWh 900W max. Cold and misty though not enough to block the sun. Came thicker after dusk.
Not a day to be working outside.
Wednesday 12th -4 to 0 to -3°C. 527wWh 200W max. Cold and misty but no breeze so felt a little warmer.
I would rather get a couple of hours outside if at all possible so, despite the cold, sawed some logs by hand in the afternoon till it came too dark to see. I was actually feeling quite warm by the end.
Thursday 13th -6 to -1 to -2°C 154Wh 25W max. Freezing mist for most of the day.
The electricity was off in most of the village for about 4 hours in the morning while they continued to replace the poles and power lines. We are the last on the line and they are coming here tomorrow to connect a new cable to the house so it will be off again for a short time while they do this. It is a good job we have plenty of wood for the log stove. I feel sorry for those houses which don't have an open fire or stove when this happens. Maybe they arrange to go elsewhere for the day?
Friday 14th -2 to 5 to 3°C. 11Wh 5W max. Very dull with high winds and heavy rain most of the day.
On the worst day I can remember for a very long time the men from the electricity company came to connect us with a new cable. I suppose they are used to working in all weathers but they admitted that they much preferred the cold yesterday to the warmer very wet of today. Unfortunately the one than came inside the house reeked of laundry fragrance causing me to have a bad asthma attack. They probably need to change their clothes every day especially when it is wet.
Saturday 15th 2 to 6 to 3°C. 631Wh 200W max. Another dull day but with only a few light showers. Feeling milder with very little wind.
Did some transplanting in the polytunnel of the early spring bedding into larger pots. pansies, violas and primulas. Rather cold for this job since you can't really do it with gloves on and the potting compost was very cold after the recent frosy weather.
Sunday 16th 1 to 6 to 4°C. 2.46kWh 800W max. Bright and sunny morning but clouded over in the afternoon.
Emptied the last two water butts near the house into ones we had resited near the polytunnel. There is now nothing in the way for them to come and re-render the walls. Whether they will turn up tomorrow we shall see. Pat thinks we won't see them before Christmas!!
Monday 17th 2 to 6 to 2°C. 987kWh 350W max. Sunny intervals and light showers with a chilly NW wind.
Pat was right. The work won't start before the New Year, probably January 6th. Everything stops for Christmas!
Tuesday 18th 3 to 6 to 1°C. 1.8kWh 600W max. Sunny intervals and less wind making it feeling milder. Clear skies after dusk so might be frosty by morning.
Good enough to go for a bike ride though it was rather muddy, even flooded, round some of the back roads. Started to move the rest of chrysanthemums into the polytunnel now the frost has knocked them back enough for me to trim them down.
Apparently there is a shortage of brussel sprouts for the traditional Christmas dinner, though we have actually done quite well this year.
Wednesday 19th 2 to 5 to 5°C 122Wh 15W max. Gloomy and wet. It might be even worse tomorrow.
Pat couldn't face digging up vegetables from the garden so we had some broad beans frozen in the spring, new potatoes from the second crop in the polytunnel and plum crumble, the plums actually being from the bumper crop in 2011. Cheered us up no end
Thursday 20th 5 to 7 to 6°C. 97Wh max ?. It was worse than yesterday. At least there is no risk of flooding around here, although there are some very large puddles in the surrounding fields as the ditches are overflowing. A lot of people, especially in the south west, are going to have a miserable soggy Christmas.
Friday 21st 4 to 8 to 5°C. 645Wh 200W max. Another dull day but at least it didn't rain until late into the evening.
Took the opportunity of a bright spell in the afternoon to stock up our supply of wood for the stove. The chainsaw is broken at the moment (chain tensioner suddenly snapped - why is there always a weak link in every mechanical device we have ever bought?) so back to using a bowsaw on logs up to 30cm thick, which is most of them.
Saturday 22nd 5 to 10 to 12°C. 208Wh 100W max. Dull and drizzly in the morning with a short dry spell in the afternoon before another band of heavy rain. Very mild for the time of year.
Sunday 23rd 12 to 7 to 4°C. 2.10kWh 800W. Sunny intervals with thin high cloud. Even so the temperature was falling most of the day and it felt quite cold in the stong SE breeze.
Monday 24th 4 to 7 to 4°C. 380Wh 150W max. Dull and drizzly most of the day with a short dry spell in the afternoon.
Tuesday 25th 2 to 6 to 4°C. 673Wh 500W max. Showers with a few brighter intervals.
Very quiet compared with what most were probably doing today with only the two of us but we had a nice Christmas dinner with a medium sized free-range chicken and the sprouts, roast potatoes and ingredients for the sage and onion stuffing from the garden and home made mince pies and fresh baked bread. Came nice enough for a period in the afternoon to go for walk round the back roads before it started to rain again.
Wednesday 26th 2 to 7 to 4°C. 1.08KWh 900W max. Started off quite bright and sunny but soon came very dull again with drizzle and spells of heavy rain.
Had some more of the chicken in a pie with leeks and parsnips from the garden. I think I preferred that to yesterdays traditional dinner. The rest of the chicken will go in the freezer and we will go back to our mainly vegetarian diet.
Thursday 27th 2 to 6 to 2°C. 640Wh 600W max. Dull and drizzly with a short brighter spell around lunchtime. Cold westerly wind.
Back to tidying up the chrysanthemums in the polytunnel. The good news is that they have plenty of new shoots for next year on healthy roots, despite a lot of them being ravaged by the rabbits, so we should have lots of healthy cuttings next spring.
Friday 28th 2 to 11°C 484Wh 200W max. Overcast with a few spots of drizzle. Strong southerly wind made it feel colder than the temperature, which slowly rose throughout the day, suggests.
Back to cutting wood while the weather was drier.
Saturday 29th 11 to 7 to 3°C. 198Wh 50W max. Poured down most of the day, much of the time very heavily. Strong gusty westerly wind.
Probably the worst day this year, and there have been plenty of bad ones to compare it with. I suppose it could have been worse. It could have been colder and fallen as heavy snow.
Sunday 30th 2 to 9°C. 680kWh 800W max. Bright to start but soon deteriorated to dull and drizzle again.
They are promising better weather in the New Year but I will only believe it when I see it.
Monday 31st 9 to 5°C. 128Wh 50W max. very dull rainy day. It was supposed to clear before midnight but, at 23:15, it started raining again! I only hope next year's weather will be better,
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