Little and Large

There have been quite a few bees buzzing round various open flowers plus the occasional bumble bee, often resting in the Sunshine to warm up their wing muscles. The juxtaposition of these two caught my attention:



I think the little mini-beast may be a vine weevil.

Sleepy Wasp and Busy Bee

Today we had a trip out to the vet. It was time for Penny to have her annual vaccine boost. For once she wasn't very keen to get in the car. She used to love the idea of a car ride. I think all the recent months of prodding and testing has made her wary of the real intention of having to get in the car. Also as she ages she finds it harder to leap from ground level to the back seat. The way round that was to move the front passenger seat forward so she can get in the foot well first and then on to the seat.

A couple of days ago I took down a thick wooden shelf from the side of a shed and found this wasp had been sheltering, or possibly hibernating, there:



Today, as the temperature headed up to 17C, I spotted a few bees taking advantage of the warmth and a couple of open Crocus flowers:



I also watched a large bumble bee trying its hardest to fly forwards in a blustery wind.

Nature Waking Up

With the daytime temperature just reaching double figures recently there have been signs of Winter hibernators starting to appear. A couple of days ago I saw a seven spot ladybird wandering across a path in the front garden. Last night this guy was just outside the back door:







A full grown frog though looking very slim after hibernating, possibly under leaf litter or a log pile. I've seen a few slugs in the garden so he / she should soon find a meal or two.

Some Success

I'm still tinkering with the magnetometer. I found the position I had chosen for the detector was far from satisfactory. The unit is temperature sensitive and when the Sun actually shone the readings drifted about. I keep looking for a suitable fully waterproof enclosure so I can put the detector outside, preferable buried. As yet I have not really worked out a suitable place away from metal objects. As a temporary measure I dug out an old plastic box, lined the six sides with 10mm thick dense foam. The rest of the space I filled with lengths of pipe insulation with the detector in the centre, snugly shielded from excessive or rapid changes in temperature.



A possible geomagnetic storm had been forecast for this weekend. It duly started about 8.30 p.m. last night. I soon found I had to re-work some of the Arduino program (sketch they call them) and finally things were looking and behaving much as expected.



This morning the display is showing some large rapid jumps in the readings. I can't work out whether that is something metal moving nearby, the high speed Solar wind still hitting the Earth or the Earth's magnetic field recovering after the storm. I need to see local readings from more geomagnetic storms to gain more experience.

Tidying Up

After three attempts I finally managed to design and 3D print a box to hold the magnetometer display



I didn't like the detector being held in place with a metal clamp. Not the ideal arrangement for something detecting magnetic fields. A bit of delving in the cast off plastic goodies box in the shed revealed a length of plastic tubing. Now fixed in place with the detector inside.



Glancing at the display a short while ago I wondered what had gone wrong to give such a short lived deep spike in the readout.



Faulty solder joint? Faulty programming? I was much relieved when I checked the displays from the Lancaster University on the Aurora Watch site. One of their magnetometer graphs showed a similar downward spike at what appears to be the same time. My set up doesn't show the more minor variations but if it detects the larger ones then I will be satisfied, for now. Ideally the detector should be buried in the ground. That helps with cutting down temperature variations and influences from local magnetic fields which can affect its accurately.

Lost and Found

A short while ago I found the weather satellite receiver I built from a kit many years ago. At the time I thought it wouldn't be of any use as it didn't seem to cover the radio frequencies used by the latest satellites. A couple of days ago while searching for information for something else on the laptop I found the instructions for the receiver. It can receive all the current polar orbiting weather satellites. Then I went looking for the receiver. Can I find it? Nowhere to be seen at the moment!

What I did find was my kit built magnetometer which I decided to get working again. As I mentioned above, the information I had been searching for was for this receiver. Could I find it? Not a sausage. Anyway I connected it all up with the actual detector fixed high up in the conservatory and aligned East West. I have always been disappointed with the readout being a meter as there is no record of what changes there may have been in the Earth's magnetic field, especially after the Sun has released any charged particles in our direction.







I wondered whether I could use an Arduino with one of my 3.5 inch TFT displays to show some sort of graph of the changes. I had build one for displaying temperature and air pressure some time ago. Aha. I could probably use some of that code. Once again I went searching through files on the laptop and back up drives. You guessed it. Not found. So starting again from scratch was the only way forward. I linked the voltage output to the meter on the magnetometer display to an Arduino Mega fitted with a 3.5 inch display. Lots of typing code, testing and use of Adrian's favoured naughty words I managed to create a scrolling display. Only time will tell how useful, effective or interesting the result will be.





Next project will be to 3D print a housing for the display as it's now just a Heath Robinson layout while in the testing stage. Not a great deal of activity so far today. Just the normal minor variations if the Earth's magnetic field being displayed on the graph.

Brrrrr

First thing yesterday morning saw the temperature dropping to -3.6C



During the day it almost reached +3C with a slightly hazy sky and lots of Sunlight.



At least that meant no more snow but where many footpaths had been clear the day before, snow showers the previous evening gave them a covering again. That soon turned to ice as the snow was compressed by pedestrians. I'm getting good value from the ice spikes this year.

On our morning walkies we had a look down a track between fields



Standing in one field entrance I took a panoramic view looking towards the Lincolnshire Wolds



The 287 feet high tower and steeple of St. James,Louth parish church, was easily visible poking up. (a closer crop of the above photo) I've not seen it so clearly on a photo taken from 6Km (3.7 miles) away.



On the return journey the Winter Sun was casting long shadows



Back home and a quick look at the raised pond complete with alligator and rabbit.



Yes. Frozen over as expected. Looking forward to Monday when temperatures are forecast to rise again. Last night they dipped down to -7.1C. All photos taken with a Canon G5X Mkii.

Just When I Though it was All Over

After tea madam sprawls out until she hears the magic words "Time to get ready". We went through to the kitchen and were greeted with the sight of .....



We have hardly had more that a few flakes all day until then. In fact it was the heaviest shower seen here this week. Once it was over we again walked to the end of the lane. I took a few photos with the Canon GX5 using the built in panorama facility. This was about the best:



Then we made a detour on to the cricket field



Anyone for cricket? The snow showers continued on and off all evening.

The End of the Road

On our after tea walk we went right to the end of the lane. A couple of shots looking in an easterly direction towards the coast. More clouds to bring another batch of snow showers. They arrive about an hour later





and a view looking back towards the setting Sun.



This time I used the vivid HDR setting on the Canon G5X. Daytime temperatures are struggling to pass 2C and don't look as though they will improve much before Sunday. Looking at my solar radiation monitor recording at least we are having our strongest Sunlight so far this year though it soon goes down when the dark clouds pass over.

Icicle

Believe it or not I have been waiting for a few years to photograph an icicle. Winters have generally been fairly mild or dry and cold. I used the Canon G5X for this as the touch screen lets me determine which part of the scene I want it to focus on. The Nikon can get in closer but no touch screen makes it more complicated to make sure the part I want is in focus.



The end of the gutter on the Summer House has a small leak so the frozen drips gradually built up as the day went on. A closer crop of the above photo shows the individual parts as they froze. Possibly some of the surface may be made of snow flakes blown on to the freezing water drops.



As the Sun shone between snow showers it eventually melted or just fell off. I saw a new one had started to grow after dark.

Scene From the Front Door

We have had snow showers since 2 a.m. which have been settling.



Not very deep here yet though several roads over the Lincolnshire Wolds have become blocked or only passable with great care. Lots of RTCs being reported.

Photo taken using the HDR setting on the Canon G5X.

Wrapped Up

This morning we had a few light showers of hard compacted snow then the wind started to increase. Air temperature by mid-day was about 2C but the bitterly cold wind from the North Sea was biting into any exposed areas on our walk-about.





Occasional gentle snow flurries this evening but none settling as yet.

Single Photo v 3 Shot HDR

As the setting Sun was about to disappear behind a roof top yesterday I could clearly see the Sun without being dazzled. At first I used the Canon G5X normal CR3 single shot of the scene: (processed to jpg in Affinity Photo without any adjustments)



The shape of the Sun can just be seen but the strong Sunlight closed down the lens aperture leaving most of the scene dark and dull. Next I switched to the HDR (High Dynamic Range) setting where three pictures are taken in rapid succession and parts of each are used to make a composite photo. One photo is exposed as the above one. Another is slightly over exposed to bring out the darker areas. The final one being slightly under exposed to reduce the glare from the brightest sections of the scene. All this is done in the camera taking about five seconds. The final result being: (exactly as produced by the camera)



A much more realistic lighting effect. Normally I wouldn't point a camera at the Sun without a solar filter but this time the light from it was much weaker as it was low in the sky and shining through thin cloud.

Small 'Beauty'

The Clematis 'Winter Beauty' I ordered arrived this afternoon in a box about 4 inches square by about 2 ft long. Oh, great, a decent amount of growth I thought. Wrong. Pot and plant measure about 7 inches high.



That said it does look to be very healthy with three growing stems and a good root system. Anyway it is now planted next to the old Leylandi stump alongside one of the Virginia Creeper plants. As it is a vigorous climber it should soon help to fill the bareness during next Winter.



It needs a fibrous well drained soil so the bed of decomposing pine needles which fell over the past fifty years should be just the place for it. Apparently it is a native of Africa and grows in sandy areas.

Snow or Rain?

On impulse tonight I decided to try to capture a night pass from the NOAA 18 weather satellite. Haven't tried a night pass for years so I had almost forgotten how to set up the software. Anyway this is the result showing the mass of cloud about to sweep across the UK bringing snow or rain according to the weather forecasters:



Obviously the land outlines and land colouring were added by the software as there is no visible light picture transmitted at night. The horizontal grey speckles are caused by my receiver picking up some local interference. I have the same problem with amateur radio. One day I will find out what is causing it.