Chickens In The Rain
Chickens in the rain, for a change.
Rainy Days
It makes sense to shelter on rainy days.
The Unthreatening Clouds
The unthreatening clouds did not bother me during my bike ride but it was cooler than sometimes at this time of year. I occasionally felt that an extra layer or two would be welcome. That’s unusual in July at this time of year.
I chose routes that kept me as far from cars as possible. I also chose wider roads. They may be safer. The challenge is to find roads where cars are banned.
We will see if the rain comes.
Switzerland: From Arid to Flooded
Switzerland and Europe are currently experiencing flooding. All the major Swiss lakes are close to breaking their banks. A few weeks ago, you could read about how Switzerland had been so dry that it had started to register on the aridity index. Now it’s flooded.
Some people are bored by the rain, and wishes that it would go away, but I don’t feel that way. We had years with very little rain, so to finally get some rain is welcome. At least now we know that all the hydroelectric dams will be full. We hope that all the water tables and reservoirs will have recovered as well.
Although this weather is bad and unpleasant, and it limits what we can do it is seasonal. This is the type of weather that is normal in Switzerland. This is precisely the weather that makes us grateful for nice days. That’s why I personally welcome it. I don’t want Switzerland to become an arid country. I like that we have rain, sunshine etc. I like that we have seasons.
The Sunflowers are out now, which is good, as it means that bees are able to get plenty of nectar to make honey. It also means that fields should be the usual yellow and green that we would expect at this time of year. Now is the time for people to take their token “this is me with a sunflower” images.
I looked at the landscape as I walked, and I did not see much evidence of flooding. Fields are not flooded. Walking paths are not flooded. Neither are fields. One river I checked was flowing at a relatively low level today. The rain around here has been gentle.
A Walk Between Moments of Rainfall
Today I woke early, shopped, studied German, read the news and then studied WordPress Child themes. It rained on and off, and I took a break from studying to go for a walk and I stayed dry almost the entire time. I carried a Sea to Summit three litre bag with me, in case I needed to keep the phone etc dry. For a moment I thought it would start raining but it didn’t so I stayed dry.
The walk was short, just one hour, as the conditions are not ideal for walking. The views weren’t good and the probability of being caught in the rain was high. I also wanted to walk a route where I did not soak myself and my shoes. On the route I walked, cars were unable to bully me like they do on other routes.
The course I am studying now is WordPress Building Child Themes and so far I find the course interesting. I have only gone so far as to create a child theme and ensure that it works. That’s when I took a break for the daily walk. I enjoy studying JavaScript, Angular and other ideas but there is a lot to learn, so I thought that by returning to WordPress. I could focus on learning how to use functions, and understand concepts individually, and then return to Angular, JavaScript and more. I want to step my learning. I don’t want to simply finish a course. I want to understand a concept first, and then finish the course.
I still have a lot to learn about CSS but at least this is a technology where I understand the ideas, even if I have not played with all of the tools, or learned of plenty of solutions yet. That is the point of step learning. You learn, get comfortable, and move on. I can also learn what I learn now, to move my entire website into a CMS with different sections having a different look. I have aspirations, and they will force me to learn how to implement them in WordPress.
I will spend more time studying, now.
A Walk Under Storm Clouds
Sometimes you look at the sky above you and you think that walking underneath it is not wise because a storm could break but you remember that you saw that rain should not come before 1800 so you take the risk and you go for a walk. You look towards Geneva and you see that it is dark and that it looks as if it may be raining. You feel the wind coming from that direction and you worry that the weather forecast was wrong so you change the course of your walk.
The wind blows against you as you walk and you hear one or two sounds of thunder. You are not far from home and you know that if you had to you could run to shelter, whether it’s underneath a bridge, at a petrol station, fountain or other.
At the same time you don’t worry that much. Usually it rains for a few minutes at a time and then it stops, so whether you’re caught in it doesn’t matter. That’s why I didn’t have rain equipment with me. If and when I am worried about the rain I dress for the weather. Today I had a dry bag if I needed it but nothing more. It would have been more interesting to film for a few minutes, than to worry about. Weather in Switzerland is boring for the most part, expect for that flood and mud in one town, and hail in two different cantons.
That’s why you don’t run, and that’s why you don’t rush if the weather changes. Even hailstorms are over within minutes so you could easily shelter under some trees for five minutes and stay dry. I miss the rain that could last for hours or days in a row. The Swiss weather has rain like we have showers, quick two to five minutes and then that’s good until the next day.
A few days ago it rained every day for months and I got used to walking in the rain. I thought nothing of it.
They did advise for people not to walk in wooded areas because of the risk of trees either falling or destabiliing. They said to keep to the normal paths. Hail has already caused millions in damages in Switzerland, just weeks after the Swiss voted against laws to mitigate global warming and weather weirding.
Usually I would be prepared for any weather, if I had planned to walk, but I had planned to run so I was lighter than usual. No water, no rain coat etc. Without a phone call I would have avoided the rain easily.
The Storm Missed Me by Five Minutes
Today I saw that they were expecting a storm and I was really looking forward to a sudden downpour, lightning and more. I also thought that it would trap me at home and that I’d have a day without walking or cycling. In the end I saw that the doppler radar no longer expected any rain etc so I got ready for a bike ride and went out. I could see that the clouds over the Jura were nice and dark, threatening to become an active storm. I still continued my bike ride. I went from near Nyon to Mies, up from there towards Commugny, then towards the Versoix, up a road and had not explored yet.
During the ride I saw a few fresh roses, so I stopped to photograph and smell the roses. I didn’t see as many people walking and cycling as I would usually expect. They were wisely hiding from the rain as I should have done. I had a cycling rain coat, so if the rain had caught me I could have been slightly less drenched, and cycling clothes are not usually dry at the end of a ride anyway.
What is less fun is hail and thunder. Both of those things are dangerous. Small hailstones hurt when they hit you. I know from personal experience. Not only is hail painful, but it’s cold and it can chill you to hypothermic levels within minutes.
It didn’t hail, but it did rain and thunder, and it missed me by five minutes or less. If I had been that bit slower, my bike and I would have been soaked. As things were, the rain didn’t get me.
Day 59 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Thunder As I Got Home
For once I walked in the drizzle, rather than the rain but I could hear thunder as I got home. I have almost reading Thirst: 2600 Miles to Home during this walk. Poetically I was listening to her about walking with a storm on its way whilst a storm was thundering over the Jura.
The rain became heavy just as I got close to home so today I am not drenched to the bone, and in need of a change of clothes like yesterday. I started today’s walk by running for the first two and a half kilometres, using the Guardian’s running podcast week three, for the fourth time. I didn’t run last week and I prefer to give my legs time to acclimate to running before pushing too much.
I spent most of my waking hours today working on the website. I’m still working on the front page and I think it’s almost ready to go live. It’s built with CSS, a little javascript, and grids. I have it behaving as I want it to behave. It looks good, whether viewed on a “desktop” or a mobile phone.
What I learned while working on the front page has helped. When I was making web pages mobile-friendly a week or two ago was bare bones and I didn’t change much. Now when I re-worked three or four pages today I used CSS where I could. I replaced tables with CSS and with pages where I had lists I used CSS to enhance lists. There is one page I still need to re-work, but I need to think about how to do something interesting.
See you tomorrow.
Day 56 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A Ride Towards Storm Clouds
Today I had a ride towards storm clouds. I was cycling in the sun but as I looked towards Geneva I could see that it was dark and grey. I questioned whether to turn around or whether to keep going. It started to rain but I was reaching the half way point.
I didn’t turn around. I continued going and I passed families or groups on their bikes going slower than me. I flew by them and then I headed down towards the lake before turning right and going through a forest road. On this forest road, I saw children and parents on the road so I had to slow down as I passed them.
During this ride, I avoided passing through Versoix because it’s unpleasant. I prefer being in the countryside. I think that I spotted two people on bikes playing Pokemon Go. I assume this because they went to where I know there is an Ingress portal but it did not change.
I saw what I think was a young child and two parents start to head up a steep hill that I have found difficult to go up after some rides and thought “If that child makes it up that hill I will be impressed.” I didn’t slow down to see whether this was the case or not.
I haven’t cycled through Nyon or any big cities yet, because I don’t feel comfortable doing that for the moment. The countryside still feels like the safer place to be.
Day 48 Of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Calves And Their Mothers
During today’s walk I saw calves and their mothers. Their mothers were mooing me away but I was taking video so I didn’t move until one after another started to approach me. By then I had the footage I wanted to have. I had a strong fence fixed with wooden posts and a bush between myself and the cows so I calculated that the risk was low enough not to bolt.
@richardazia