Sunshine coming up!

The weather has been nasty for almost the whole of 2014 so far. Temperatures around freezing or even above it, cloudy, raining water and sleet. Although there was some days with snow coming down, there wasn't much snow left anywhere. About the only wintery thing left was the ice everywhere, and even that was melting. (The climate change: it melts glaciers! :-)

So instead of pretty white snow everywhere, we had slosh and ice until they melted. On some areas the ground had frozen already, meaning it was impermeable for the water. Puddles in the city, new mini lakes in the fields, flooding rivers in the coastal plains. The flood damage is minimal, but there will be some damage from the ice on the fields. (The ice will freeze the grass and block the oxygen getting through, choking the plants. Fluffy snow works as an insulation, solid ice does not.)

Now the low pressure zones have shifted and the wind is coming from the north east. Nice cold air from the north. The forecast says -10C to -20C for the next few days. I think even the Russian tourists who came to Finland for New Year Holiday would be satisfied. 

Anyway, here's a picture to match the topic, taken yesterday. Even though the sun is up for about four and a half hours (half an hour more from the solstice already), it certainly wasn't up yesteday, at 11pm.  There was an inch of fresh snow and I was one of the few people about, so I thought I would snap a few pictures of fresh tracks on the bikeway.

Ok, so taking a pic with the flash on didn't work. I tried other settings, too, and here's a better shot.

All white now, and the bikeways underneath were not very slippery either. Snow on smooth ice can be slippery, but either there wasn't much ice, or there was plenty of gritting sand, too. I think it's even possible the sand was frozen into the ice, creating a sandpaper like surface.

I'm not sure if they used sharp-edged gritting sand or maybe I rode on somewhere I shouldn't have, (the gritters are supposed to use tyre friendly sand on bikeways) but I've got some patching to do today. There's a leak in the tyre... sigh.

Things I saw today, Mon 25 Nov 2013

The first interesting thing I saw today was a trailer. Someone had driven on the bikeway to drop the trailer here. (Driving on bikeways and sidewalks is not allowed without a good reason, like: it is the only route to get there.)

Whoever it was dropped some kind of ski track making machine here. I guess they expect this snow to stay... we'll see. The snow is only 5 inches deep. That's enough for the kids to take their skis and sleds out. .

And while riding downtown I heard this before I saw it. For some reason, the hydro power plant has opened some gates and is letting the water go. I guess the dam is near overflowing. But I expect the price of electricity to increase, now that the power company has to recoup the money they don't get because they have to waste the water!

If I Can't Decide

The snow I wrote about in the last post is gone. With all the rain we've had lately it couldn't stay long. So I swapped the studded tyres out. Actually, I put the summer tyre on an old clunker front wheel so I can just swap the wheels instead of having to deal with the tyres every time. (Never mind that the wheel gives odd clicks every now and then. And the balls in the bearings... not all of them were the same size. One of them looked like it had peeled off the shiny outer layer. Clunker, indeed. ;-)

But look at the forecast for the next few days:

Now you see why I have a problem. With all that sleet coming down, there's a good possibility that there might be icing. But cloud cover and above freezing air temperatures should mean that the bikeways will stay warm enough and ice free.

So What Should I Wear? Or maybe I'll bungee the other wheel on the  bike and swap as needed...


Edit: Guess what? I closed the browser and went outside. It had snowed while I had been writing about lack of snow! ;.)

White Stuff From The Sky

It's this time of the year again: Some white stuff falls from the sky, stays for a day or two and then melts again. Last Friday there had been some snow, but mostly it was more decorative than all-covering blanket. There's been some snow flakes and frozen puddles before, but either it was too dark to get photos or I didn't have my camera. No pic, no proof! :-)

Then there was supposed to be a snowstorm at night. I was a bit disappointed after all the hype in the news. No big storm here. It missed us, although there were some fallen trees around here too. Oops, sorry, those were from the storm that ripped all those leaves off the trees. The big storm  left just a few centimeters of snow. But enough for us to leave tyre tracks on it, and for the snow plow men to take their machines out for a ride.

And here's a short video clip before/after the snowfall.

What's wrong with this picture?

A nice bikeway. With the stones on the curb tilted so the edge is sort of rounded and not very high.

Detour to avoid bumps.

The gravel on the side is level with the road. A much smoother ride, at least until the ruts in the gravel get deep enough...

Open letter to the bloke in front of me

(upping an old rant from the drafts)
<start rant>
As we were approaching the intersection, I noticed you slowing down and looking over your shoulder. "Ah, a clear sign of someone who wants to do a left turn", I thought and positioned myself more to the right.

Then there was the hand signal. Anyone could have no more doubts of your intentions as you raised your left hand. Excellent.

What was not excellent was you slowing down and inching right. Which blocked my route so I had to brake. Did you expect me to pass you on the left? I'm not going to do it, as it is both illegal and stupid to do so.

I lost momentum and I had to accelerate again. That move you made cause me to arrive about one second late at my very important meeting with the telly. I'm glad I didn't miss Emmerdale because of you!

<end rant>

Autumn 2013

Here's two pictures I've taken recently. First one from last week shows the grass turning brown and the leaves turning yellow. Also note the fisherman on bike. :-)

I think the next one is one of the best shots I've taken this year. I actually stopped, which helps. One can't get perfect shots while riding a bike. And I took a few seconds to think what's in the view finder. Of course, the scene was pretty too.

And here's a clip on youtube. More of the same.