The Weather

Turdus migratorius
Here they are known as Turdus Non-migratorius.
They are a bit of a pain in the winter when they sit on your railing staring at you while you are trying to watch TV.
I've never figured out whether they wanted fresher seed or they wanted to come in and warm up. So far I've taken the seed route.
Robins not welcome, only Batman.
 
How appropriate.
 

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WET WET WET..
In the almost 4yrs since I moved back to NE England, the last 12hours have been by far the wetest with non stop heavy rain.
The single track roads locally are almost impassable and EV drivers are panicking and doing u-ies.

Another nail in the ev sales coffin - Tesla sales down by 8% and BYD also down. Who wants to e stranded in their expensive EV eveytime we have a deluge?
 
EV the fair weather vehicle, just like another fancy car or a motor bike.
Going through a low pressure cell, rain and windy but the forecast is looking good, calling for 17C next week.
Daffodiles are holding back and the Forcythia is starting to show signs of flowers, looks to be on the low side, weather has been up and down.
 
Flooding, lots of flooding. It has rained continuously for 4 days with more on the way. The City of Moundsville, and the State of West Virginia have both declared our area as in a State of Emergency. The little creek I live on has risen about 8 feet, overflowed well up the bank into the back yard, and put 5 inches of water in my neighbor's basement. So far, my sump pumps have kept ahead of the water intrusion, but they are now in near continuous operation. I left my house today for the first time this week and snapped a few pictures out the van window with my phone. This area is where our creek joins with another creek and both flow about 1/4 mile west to the Ohio river. Rain north of us and in western Pennsylvania have caused the Ohio river to overflow.

This "campground" along with many more like it are "temporary housing" for the transient workers involved in the fracking industry. This campground is completely full during the summer, but most of the workers leave during the winter depending on the weather. This year those who stayed have lost their homes. The people running the area did have the sense to move all the heavy earth moving equipment to the highest ground on the property, but it wasn't enough. There were several large bulldozers with water up into the cab. Several streets in town were impassable and a couple had completely washed out. These were the only pictures I took, as traffic was stopped due to water over the road ahead of me. The county fairgrounds are underwater as is the park with the walking trail and the softball fields. Judging from the bleachers on the fields, the water looks to be about 3 feet deep.
 

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There is a one day hold in the rain today that let the flood waters go down a good bit. We had heard stories about a coal miner that left the mine late Thursday night headed back to Ohio on the road that we live on which parallels a creek and crosses it a few times. The creek was well up into people's yards and had risen over the road in a few places. The story goes that the miner decided not to drive into the floodwaters and tried to turn around on the road. His truck slid off the road and into the creek which was at stage 3 or 4 whitewater at the time. Somehow, he got out of his truck and hung onto a bridge support yelling for help for several hours until dawn came, and he was rescued. Stories come and go, and some may or may not be true.

It was sunny and 60 degrees when I got home from church, so I grabbed my old "beater" lawnmower to "mulch" some of the mess that had been deposited in my back yard. The creek was still a foot or two above normal but had receded several feet from the high water mark. There were some strange new objects on the bank on the other side. I grabbed the Sony with "mega zoom" and yes there is an Ohio "Friends of Coal" license plate on these remains of a front bumper from a pickup truck. I also found a bright yellow safety harness and some sunglasses in the yard.
 

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