Occasional musings on meteorology and other bits of Earth science
A bank of celandines (Ficaria Verna) is a sure sign of spring, and I was cheered to see this large patch of them during my Boris/Nicola-permitted walk a few days ago. Celandines are not just a plant of the countryside, I find lots of them in the garden as well, where they are in someContinue reading Celandines
Every year, at some point during the spring, there is the magic moment. Now, I always grow my tomato plants from seed, planting them in a heated propagator in my study, usually in early February. Before the magic moment, the plants in my study are growing away happily, and any that I am unwiseContinue reading The magic moment
I don’t have a lot of choice as to where to go for the exercise permitted to me by the government. The obvious choice is to go east along Dunbar beach (see previous post). But by sneaking through a few streets and past the swimming pool I can go west along the beach instead. IContinue reading Inside a local volcano
Like everyone else, I am stuck in my house on account of the COVID-19 outbreak, only going out for essentials and my one allowed walk per day. Fortunately, I have easy access to the beach, where I can get in a long walk without meeting too many people. It is actually an easier walk thanContinue reading Social distancing geology walk
One of my birthday presents last year was a proper, official-shaped rain gauge. It took me a while to get around to setting it up, mostly because of the difficulty of picking a good spot in the garden: almost everywhere is close to a wall, under a tree, or is a place where a rainContinue reading Gauging the Rain
Well, I am still on strike. At least it means I can take advantage of any non-horrid weather to get some garden jobs done. This time of year is when I do one of the most physically demanding tasks: removing last year’s compost from the greenhouse and putting some fresh compost in, so that itContinue reading Compost, lovely compost.
I don’t seem to find time for this blog unless I am on strike; the last two posts come from the strike of late 2019 and this one is written on the first day of the strike in February/March 2020. (Previous strike posts here, here and here.) I think I have said enough about theContinue reading Writing on the wall
Number 2 child has been at university in Dundee for the last few years. In that time, the drive up to Dundee has taken us past an obvious classic lump a number of times, but we have until now never had time to stop to visit the summit. The driver descending from the plateau aroundContinue reading Above the silvery Tay
Well, here we all are again, out on strike. I am furious and very disappointed that it has come to this. Yesterday was very similar to the first strike day in March 2018: A wet soggy morning on the picket line at King’s Buildings… … followed by a rally in Bristo Square. The PA systemContinue reading Sigh. Again.
When I have had time over the summer, I have got a little more done on the sundial. The Wikipedia page on sundials says that the angle, H, of the hour lines is given by tan H = sin θ tan (15° x t) where θ is the latitude and t is the number of hoursContinue reading Sundial — continued
