Home \ Magazine \ General Interest

General Interest

Christmas is coming!

Written by Dave Wiseman Wednesday, 02 December 2009 12:52

We all know the lyrics to the Xmas nursery rhyme:

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, Please to put a penny in the old man's hat;
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do, If you haven't got a ha'penny then God bless you!

I wonder how often we stop to think about what they really mean though? The lyrics of this song were to associate the Christmas feast with geese which were traditional English Christmas fayre. In this case the meaning that was conveyed to a child (or anyone else come to that) was that the festive period was where each should give to charity, according to their means...even if they could only give a blessing! Fair words which still have meaning today I think.

Autumn Leaf Fall

Written by Dave Wiseman Sunday, 01 November 2009 00:00

November already and as we lose an hour with the clocks back to GMT times for another six months, it now seems to darken very early. I used to worry, as a very young lad in late October, if it would be dark enough for fireworks at 7.30pm (my usual bedtime) by November 5th, but it always was! Something else I recall is that by then we would have gathered up huge piles of leaves ready to burn on the nights bonfire but recently many trees still seem yet to have shed their leaves by this date. So are we really seeing later leaf fall or is my old memory playing tricks?

Tale of Two Halves

Written by Dave Wiseman Tuesday, 01 September 2009 00:00

Around Autumn this column usually takes a look how the UK's soil has fared over the summer and what winter therefore most likely bodes. This year it really has been a tale of two halves, for example it has been pretty dry in the south recently, but conversely wet or even very wet in the north. August saw just 50% of average rain in the SE for instance but the north west especially Northern Ireland saw as much as 200% of the average rainfall. Unlike 2007 though it has been nowhere near as wet and only in the north west are groundwater levels at high levels for the time of year.

Coping with Floods

Written by Dave Wiseman Saturday, 01 August 2009 00:00

One of the most obvious things you might expect about the climate is that it has a habit of righting itself; that is for most periods when the weather has got set into a warm dry pattern there will be a definitive break from this; a prolonged period of rather wet unsettled wetter weather can result and you can certainly say that about the weather recently!

A Decent Summer?

Written by Dave Wiseman Wednesday, 01 July 2009 00:00

As June ends on a warm note, despite a few thundery outbreaks, it does seem that we might be in for a decent summer now. The water temperatures around our SE and south coasts have risen above normal and the weather pattern looks set into a reasonably ‘blocked’ set up as the Azores high pressure stays north of its usual position, often extending well to the north east across the United Kingdom.