There is a German word, Dunkelflaute, which describes a gloomy, windless weather system, that is cold. We have had that here for the past couple of months, interspersed with periods of just wet, windy and nasty. Germany is currently suffering a major bout of Dunkelflaute, and that is placing a really heavy strain on the European electricity network. Germany's electricity generation includes some 20GW wind capacity, and currently the turbines are not turning. The knock on effect, combined with two country interconnectors being down, is that the power grids are doing all they can to reduce peak electricity use. In the UK, you might spot a slight fluctuation down in power. Here in France, if you are on the extremely interesting Tempo electricity contract, it translates into Red Days. Days when daytime electricity is 3 times the unit price of the regulated tariff. Tuesday to Friday was like that, and tomorrow will be too. It is rather constraining!
The run into Christmas isn't totally fun when your feet and hands are always cold, and you are keeping the lights off as long as possible! There are odd rays of joy - the very last cyclamen flowers are still going in the One Acre Wood for example.
There is little to photograph at the moment, as nothing much changes with the dull weather, and when you do take a photo, such as of a small amount of water in the lower pond in the Wood, it is singularly underwhelming.
I have had to resort to searching trail camera archives to find pretty photos.
The jay is handsome, although not as handsome as the male pheasant (who knows it too!).
However today, my spirit bird is this rather hacked off female pheasant. I can feel my blood pressure boiling over the stupidity of HMRC and the unfairness of the amount of tax they suddenly feel I need to pay every month. This is not good for me, so I need to go and find somewhere warm and cosy and try to forget about it all. Being near computers only makes it worse!
Isn't she splendid? Actually, just looking at her makes me feel better!
Anyway, I hope your week is not affected by Dunkelflaute, and now I had better get back to writing Christmas cards!
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