Category: Weather

It’s too cloudy for astronomising but the clouds have their own magic. A2 is rereading The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood.

Spring is here, the sun is up and the weeds are out in force.
A1 is reading The Bookseller by Tim Sullivan. A2 is reading Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett.

Another foggy day as a change from the unremitting rain.
A1 is rereading Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds.

But it can’t be done this month which is the coldest, wettest and least sunny January on our records.
A2 is reading The Watermark* by Sam Mills,in which the protagonists are tricked into and trapped in a series of bad and boring novels.

Props to A1 for this lovely photo: shadow of the chimney in the fog.
A1 is reading Labyrinth* by Kate Mosse. A1 usually enjoys loopy conspiracy thrillers, full of secret histories, shadowy organisations and ancient artefacts. This is a Grail quest set in the 12th (the Albigensian Crusade) and 21st centuries, and given the novel’s reputation I was expecting writing, if not of David Mitchell quality, at least a step up from Dan Brown. But … oh dear. It’s not a patch on Neville’s The Eight,  Doerr’s Cloud Cuckoo Land, Gentle’s Ash — plotting is all over the place, characterisation non-existent (all are pretty indistinguishable, apart from good/bad), and the writing, while not quite down to Dan Brown level, is at best workmanlike. Very disappointing.
There’s a section about the siege of Carcassonne which was a bit weird. It reminded me very strongly of the Battle of Helm’s Deep as portrayed in The Two Towers film — there are a number of coincidences of events and speech. So much so that A1 is now rewatching The Lord of the Rings films. I’m not alleging plagiarism (both could be based on earlier, similar sources, and there’s only so many ways to lay a siege), but the similarities were striking.
A2’s bathroom read is I Think You’ll Find It’s A Bit More Complicated Than That; Ben Goldacre’s self-described toilet book.

A1 has not been to work since he slipped on the ice, fell and damaged his intercostal muscles three weeks ago, but today he went back and took this photo of the Methodist Hall and a cone of streetlight (A2 took a strangely similar picture out of our back window but the hall with its Romanesque windows is an improvement on the nondescript semi in A2’s shot).
A2 is reading Glyph by Ali Smith in which a blind horse haunts a house (thank you A1).

Another cold wet miserable day thanks to Storm Chandra or possibly Storm Ingrid, so here is a magnificent cloud from Zambia where rain is always welcome (thx Guida).
A1 has finished his Mick Herron fest and is reading The Burning Grounds by Abir Mukhergee.

A gloomy wet day.
A1 is rereading Smoke and Whispers by Mick Herron. A2 is reading The Starter Marriage by Kate Harrison, chucked out by The Leeds Library and given away on the street.

Even foggier today. In the background there should be tall buildings and cranes but they were all subsumed in the wall of white.
A1 is rereading Why We Die by Mick Herron.

In continuing weather news, today saw a temperature of 10.7°C and a shower of very small and sparse hailstones.
A1 is rereading Clown Town by Mick Herron.

Last night was the coldest of this winter: -5.2°C and in the coming days Storm Goretti threatens, so wrap up well folks.
A1 is rereading Spook Street by Mick Herron.

Lights out in force for the Winter Solstice. Things can only get brighter.
A1 is reading The Blue Hour* by Paula Hawkins. A2 is rereading Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkinson.

The fog moved back and forth all day.
A2 is reading Fascination by William Boyd; short stories which seem mostly to be about middle-aged married men lusting after random young women, unless the second half has a surprise for me.

Watch out, shepherds! Sadly we missed out on the pink fog
A1 is reading We Solve Murders by Richard Osman, continuing the recent trend of UK authors setting books in the US. Readable piffle.
A2 is reading The Jigsaw Man by Nadine Matheson.