The Weather - What's it Doing?

Temperatures in Southern Europe have been almost bursting the thermometers. US scientists have confirmed the commencement of an El Niño weather event, fearing it could push the world through the 1.5-degree milestone. In the meantime, our moderate climate has produced nothing but storm clouds and rain. It's not fair. Isn't it?

The jet stream is the cause of our mid-summer woes here in the UK. After one of the hottest Junes on record, the Jet Stream has been stuck in the same position, and we cannot see that changing in the coming weeks.

The Jet Stream is what gives the UK and Ireland our moderate climate. Should you draw a line through the middle of the UK on a globe, you will find that we are on a similar latitude to Moscow. We have seen the sort of winter weather that Moscow had. If we had that weather here, it would bring the country to a complete stop for months.

During our summer months, we get warmer weather courtesy of the Jet Stream. 

Temperature differences in the atmosphere cause weather patterns. Those lead to pressure differences and, when combined with the rotation of the Earth, move air around the globe, which we perceive as wind. The prevailing jet stream runs from West to East and shifts North to South according to the seasons. High and Low pressures are what cause our weather. Unfortunately, recently, the weather depression has meant that a low weather depression has dominated our weather system. Hopefully, they will get moving soon to bring better weather to us.  

With the confirmation of the El Niño event, we can look forward to many strange and unsettled weather events in the future. Australia could experience more significant drought risks, more rain to the southern US states and a weakening of subcontinental monsoons. All of which will affect economies.

It's a British tradition to talk about the weather. I'm sure other countries talk about it too, just about different problems with the weather. 

Still, I'm optimistic; I'm taking my bathers and sunnies on holiday. 

Do we need a 'Dig for Victory' campaign in the 21st Century?

A gentle knock on our front door at home causes Murphy, our Westie, Poo, to create such a racket; it would drown out a Black Sabbath concert. He then dashes upstairs and takes post on his usual perch, a sofa and that's another story.

This time it is our lovely neighbour opposite our house, Jack, who has popped around with a box of veggies and fruits from his allotment. Murphy is his friend and soon gets his obligatory tickles at the front door. Jack is a talented gardener and is pleased to share the results of his labours despite struggling with his dodgy hip, now thankfully replaced and pain-free...ish. We have had all sorts of beautiful vegetables, and they are so full of flavour and so much fresher than you can buy at the supermarkets.

Jack was proud earlier in the season when he bought us some asparagus, his first time growing them. They were delicious, and they are a vegetable that we quite often have when they are in season. And therein lies the secret, Jack's produce is in the season as it should be.

At the moment, flood inflation for the weeks to July 9th 2023, is 14.9%. That means anything bought for £1 last year will cost you almost £1.15 now. The Government tries to temper that by claiming that food inflation has slowed over the previous four months. However, that still equates to roughly a yearly increase of £300 for your food shopping alone this year. It's still incredibly high.

My Father, throughout his married life, was a gardener. Dad always tended the vegetable garden in the 60s and 70s, an extremely tight time for our family. Mum rarely had to buy many vegetables during the weekly shop; everything was seasonal and tasted terrific. Dad even supplemented our protein input by breading rabbits at the bottom of the garden that were undoubtedly not fluffy pets.

Those memories also bring to mind the wartime years in this country, and, no, I'm not that old before you ask. 'Dig for Victory' was the well-known cry. Food production and encouraged in all available spaces. The Public left behind after mobilisation dug gardens. The Government ordered that all available land be turned over for food production. Even then, there was a significant reliance on imported food, especially grain from North America. The Battle of the Atlantic was an immense problem for shipping. Rationing improved the country's health, a statistic kept quiet for some time. By the end of the war and rationing, food prices had risen by 20%. Considering five years of war and the rebuilding of the economy afterwards, it puts to shame the effects of barely three years of Brexit.

This summer, we have had a couple of troughs of salad leaves, which has saved a couple of trips to the supermarket. When I lived in Dartmouth, I did manage, one summer, to grow a large selection of vegetables in containers on a veranda outside of my flat. That kept me going all through that summer. Although an amusing story, one day, I found that my dog Molly had buried her bone underneath my onion sets. 

I'm sure that the ground in our small back garden is nutrient rich enough for a good crop of vegetables, but if things don't improve, we will all be considering containing growing next spring.

There's so much writing...I'd better get on with it

 

I wrote back in April about the demise of a Writers Forum magazine. That magazine was my favourite of the two that I was subscribing to. 

The remaining magazine took up the 'slack' for the Writers Forum subscribers. I was a little upset by the editor's column the following month as it was a little triumphal, in my opinion.

In this month's edition, which I received this week, it is interesting that they have run several articles about freelance writing. It is an attempt to open up the opportunities available for writers. 

My writing focus of late had been towards my novel (more later), and my efforts for magazine and website articles have taken to a period of purdah. These articles have once again piqued my interest in pieces, and I already have some ideas in mind. I need to dig around for places where I might pitch these ideas, so that's another writing task to put onto the productivity spreadsheet.

Getting to Thursday evenings with an idea of what to write about for this blog has become a habit over the last month. I must sit down and list subjects for the coming weeks. I need to write two further blog pieces this week and schedule them for publication whilst I am on holiday, in case I don't have sufficient internet access.

My novel Beasting Dartmoor is coming into a critical phase, for me at least. I'm in the middle of the final word count I aim to achieve. A floppy middle of the story is something that I don't wish. I'm writing slower than usual because I'm trying to achieve the correct pace for the story and inject more intrigue and excitement.

There's still no light at the end of the tunnel just yet for the story. However, I'm starting to think about what I need to be doing towards the end of the year when, hopefully, it's the editing and proofreading stages getting ready for publication. And there's lots more to do too!

I started this year by promising to move this blog across to a more suitable blogging platform. I want to be able to start using the Mars Edit app to write and publish a blog each time. Unfortunately, it doesn't work with Blogger. My current bedtime read is SEO for Dummies, also for this project.

After a Three Biscuit post by William Gallagher last week and an online chat with him, I'm considering producing a Youtube promotional video for my novel.

There we are. That's my writing thoughts this week. I have a lot to do in the next week. My first target is to get through an exciting bit for the middle of the story and bust the 35k word count. One way I can do that this weekend is to join William's Write-in hour on Sunday. Then I've got those blogs written. I'd better get on with it.

It's only spelling, isn't it?

 

A few days ago, an article on the BBC website caused my 'shock horror' gene to get a little workout this week.

'Only Fans Account billboards in London streets spark complaints' 

See what I mean? Probably not what you are thinking either!

Only Fans, Not that one, each to their own and all that, change the parental settings on your router will sort any problems with that particular problem.

No, it is the word billboards that has got me rankled. It first reminds me of that great film 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. That also got me thinking, 'That's an American word.'

Off I went to check, and sure enough, billboard is an Americanism dating back to 1850 to 1855. In this country, we usually refer to them as advertising hoardings.

English is an ever-evolving language. We can see how it has evolved by following Suzi Dent, the famous lexicographer, on Twitter. The root of nearly all our words comes from such references as Latin, greek and, quite a few, Germanic.

It does annoy me when I see spellings such as color, favor and harbor turning up in writing that purports to have come from Britain.

I'm not against American spellings or American English as I have often heard it referred to; I have submitted pieces to American websites. It's a bit of a job to do that. After outlining the piece and getting the go-ahead to write it, I have to change the settings on my spell checker and run it through again. That's not so bad with a 500-word article, but I'd hate to do that for a 90-100k word novel.

I really like my U's in the correct place, and I am not a frequent user of Z'. It's maths (from mathematics), not math, and while we're at it, it's zed, not zee.

Links:

BBC Story - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66097347

Dictionary  - www.dictionary.com