November 6th already seems an age ago. It arrived as a wonderful change after 48 hours of continuous rainfall, which saw 116 mm fall locally. The Met Office forecasts had suggested 2 wet days, but gave no hint of the scale of deluge.
In the end, I spent a couple of hours getting sodden on the second morning, clearing out leaf debris and sticks from our access track channels and culvert to avoid losing too much roadstone.
Our under-the-track land drain was blocked with acorns, compounding the run-off issues of the central channel, but sorting this out had to wait until a couple of days later, when Fiona impressively dug the track out to clear it, whilst I was off on one of my infrequent Agog sessions.
But November 6th dawned dry, very mild (up to 15 degrees by midday), and with very light winds, even if the skies were overcast. Our honey bees seized the moment for some late-season foraging, and I made the short video below to record this activity. It’s wonderful to see that even the colony which was trashed last December by Storm Darragh, and lay open to the elements for days on end, is still quite active.
In my last post, I wrote at some length about the unfortunate ill effects I suffered from attending a concert by Welsh harpist Catrin Finch and sound engineer Lee House, (Saturo) when the volume and very low frequency sounds made me feel physically unwell. I’d largely forgotten about this when I headed off with Andy to Mark’s and it was a complete surprise when he handed me as a gift a CD recording of one of Catrin’s other recent musical projects, which he’d picked up at another local concert.
“Double You” is a collaboration between Finch and Irish violinist/fiddler, Aoife Ní Bhriain. They first worked together during Covid to produce their own interpretation and online recording of a classical Bach piece for a Welsh /Irish music festival which had to be cancelled in its physical form.
This sowed the seeds for further work together as the pair realised they had many things in common – classically trained musicians, native language speaking, recoveries from recent cancer therapy, and “living in small countries which suffered from historical Anglo-Saxon oppression”. Which clearly still rankles enough to make it into the notes accompanying the CD.
We both love this album and its music, which is unlike anything else we own. A unique blend of their own composition influenced by both traditional folk tunes from the two countries, as well as classical music, and woven together into their own style. If you like music to sit down and switch off to, on long winter evenings, it’s perfect. The recorded sound quality is superb, and the album was produced locally in Wales by the brilliant team behind the Bendigedig label, Theatr Mwldan, Cardigan.
It uses their familiar small, top quality digibook format with 48-page booklet, with excellent notes about the tracks, and no tacky fragile plastic CD case. It’s a physical treasure. But it took me a few reads of the notes to work out the several plays on the “Double You” title, and track listings which all begin with ‘w’. And indeed the links to honey bees, and B for Bach.
(There’s a popular story about bees being taken to Ireland which I’ve written about on this post:)
“Apparently when St Aiden left Wales, after being under the tutelage of St. David, the bees which he’d tended followed him to his ship as he prepared to embark and sail to Ireland to continue his mission.
He returned the bees to St David only for them to follow him once more as he returned to the ship. Again he returned the bees to the monastery. The third time that they followed him, David let Aiden take the bees with him to Ireland where in due course they produced an abundance of honey.”
Well worth considering as a gift for any music lover this Christmas, and I’m delighted that it’s confirmed that my Saturo experience was probably a one-off creative glitch. Catrin Finch has amazing virtuosity and versatility. Though if you read this review of the CD, you’ll read that she said this:
“Most of the audience don’t actually care about virtuosity at all. They just want to come away from a performance having been moved.”
I agree, and you can judge for yourself by listening to the clip below. Are you are moved by this beautiful music on this excellent, live, pre-launch recording of one of my favourite tracks from the album, “Whisper”?
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After another spell of damp and grey, a forecast change saw temperatures falling, and a series of frosts. With the sort of wonderful dawn sky colours that have always have me quickly pulling on extra layers over my nightshirt and long johns, as the wind had swung to the North.
Grabbing the camera and tripod, and a mug of tea, I dash to a spot – anywhere will do, looking South and East. Rushing, since a minute or two can often see spectacular colours fade. It’s then a case of long exposure times on the self timer, to capture the richness of hues.
We’re so fortunate to have an uninterrupted, horizontally wide-angle view from the height of our side of the valley across such an interesting landscape. Almost as wide as the estimated 135 degrees that one of our eyes provides. Which means there’s more than enough of interest to take in, without moving one’s head. Add in the subtle pre-dawn bird song at this time of the year, and even on those mornings when there’s little cloud interest, the double waves of colour changes are, for me, intoxicating.
I’ve briefly referenced Rayleigh scattering before, back in October 2015, but here’s what AI came up with today when I googled…
“Why are there 2 waves of sky colour changes at dawn?”
This response seems to add more information in a concise form than I could find elsewhere, so I’m copying it below, interspersed with illustrative images.
The two “waves” of sky colour changes at dawn (and dusk) are due to the interplay of Rayleigh scattering and the sun’s angle relative to different atmospheric layers, including clouds and airborne particles.
The colour variations are the result of two main phases as the sun approaches and crosses the horizon:
1. The Deep Blue/Purple Phase (Nautical and Astronomical Twilight):
This occurs when the sun is still a significant distance below the horizon. The upper atmosphere (where the sunlight is reaching) is illuminated, but the direct path to the observer on the ground is in the Earth’s shadow.
Scattering: Sunlight that reaches high-altitude air molecules is scattered via Rayleigh scattering, which heavily favours shorter wavelengths (blue and violet).
Result: This causes the upper atmosphere to take on deep blue or even purple hues. The effect can be enhanced by Chappuis absorption from the ozone layer, which further affects the balance of colors seen. Your eyes, adapted to the dark, are particularly sensitive to these subtle colors.
2. The Yellow, Orange, and Red Phase (Civil Twilight/Sunrise)
As the Sun gets closer to the horizon and eventually rises, its light has to travel a much longer distance through the denser lower atmosphere to reach the observer’s eyes.
Increased Path Length: The extended path means that most of the shorter-wavelength light (blue and violet) is scattered out of the line of sight.
Remaining Light: The longer-wavelength light (yellow, orange, and red) is scattered less and continues along the path to your eyes.
Role of Particles and Clouds: This effect is often enhanced by larger particles (dust, water droplets, aerosols from pollution or natural events like volcanic eruptions) in the lower atmosphere, which scatter the remaining light and can illuminate the undersides of clouds with vivid warm colors.
Essentially, the first wave is primarily the result of blue light scattering high in the atmosphere before the sun is visible, while the second wave involves the intense reddening of light that passes horizontally through the maximum amount of lower atmosphere as the sun rises.
If you want a lighter interpretation which will likely bring a smile to your face, watch this very clear and enlightening YouTube on why the sky is blue, by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and his sidekick Chuck Nice.
On one of the mornings, with plenty of time to observe and spot smaller details, I noticed a bright star close to the lovely crescent moon. 
This turned out to be in the constellation Virgo, and is called Spica. It’s one of the 15 brightest stars in the sky, and not even a single star, but rather two bright blue stars, so close together that our eyes can’t separate them, and which rotate around each other every 4 days.
Their combined light is about 12,000 times that of our own sun, and they sit 25 light years from earth. (Which equates to 25 x 9.7 trillion kilometres from earth, for those unfamiliar with just how far a light year is in land based units). That’s very far away from us! Spica’s name comes from the Latin for ear (of grain) and reflects the fact that in ancient mythology Virgo’s 7 main stars stars are taken to represent a maiden holding a sheaf of wheat.
I also spotted the planet Venus, as another bright ‘star’ a little to the North East of the moon and Spica, and just appearing above the horizon, as the moon rose higher as dawn progressed. A bit more research (as someone completely ignorant in such matters), pointed out that this wonderful, waning crescent moon was about to reach its furthest point from earth in an entirely predictable cycle. And it won’t get this far away again until 2043. By which time, for one reason or another, I’m unlikely to be here looking for it!
I mused that this moon and Spica were so far away from me, which instantly brought a familiar old Dire Straits verse to mind:
Here I am again in this mean old townAnd you’re so far away from meAnd where are you when the sun go down?You’re so far away from me.
From their excellent 1985 Brothers In Arms album – (gosh, 40 years old now!). Their 5th studio album and the first album to ever sell over 1 million copies in a CD format .
In fact the moon’s greatest distance away from earth was on November 20th, (406, 691 Km to be precise) but by then there’s not even the slimmest crescent, so one can’t easily see the new moon in the (then) daytime sky. Have a look at these charts showing how the moon, courtesy of its slightly variable orbit, moves closer and further from the earth during each month. (Thanks to the excellent Time and Date website for these). 
On the 20th, I spotted what I thought was yet another bright light just above the horizon, a little to the North of where Venus first appeared. And then it disappeared. And then reappeared a little later. Zooming in, I realised that it was a distant, but bright, and slowly falling small fireball. At first I wondered whether, at about 6.45 am, it was the gas burn from a hot air balloon. Only after videoing it did I discover there were multiple repeating flares, complete with spirally snaking smoke trails.
I have no idea what was causing these, but imagine they were some sort of military style flare. Where or why these were being let off, at this time in the morning, defeats me, but the video below demonstrates them quite well, given that they’re at the limits of my camera’s vision.
It was on one of these mornings, that it dawned on me how remarkably detailed and predictable all this information relating to distant space is. In big part because astrophysics is a science that has evolved, and has been studied over millenia, with increasingly significant resources. It embodies scientific accuracy and detail.
Yet I then considered how different meteorology and the study of our climate is, compared with astrophysics.
Its experts admit that serious data on weather only began to be collected around the 1850’s – by chance a period when the earth was finishing one of its coolest centuries in recent times. Even with all the cumulative years of data, and modelling using the huge new supercomputers of our (state owned) renowned Met Office, and its roughly 2,400 staff, its forecasts struggle. Like many other similar establishments worldwide, even just 24 hours ahead, their forecasts are often seriously inaccurate.
I accept that the climate is a hugely complex and chaotic system – witness the recent example of rainfall quoted above, followed shortly afterwards by serious Met Office amber warnings for us here about the impacts of rain and winds from the advance of storm Claudia. In the end, locally, it was just quite a typical wet and windy autumnal day. Although Monmouth suffered from dramatic (and largely unpredicted for that area) flooding. 
Such inaccuracy of short term forecasts has worried me for sometime. Particularly since we’re reliant on the same climate scientists and their computer models to predict not just weather, but much longer term changes in the climate. And of course aided by “trusted news initiative media”, (established by our very own trusted BBC – whose impartiality and veracity has taken another knock recently!) such opinions are used to shape everyone’s attitudes to what is being increasingly anxiously termed the climate crisis.
A recent change of language, morphing from simple climate change. Which in turn replaced global warming, when the data around the 2000’s didn’t really justify continued use of that term.
By coincidence COP 30 has just finished in Brazil. 
An insane (to my mind) global jamboree which saw 56,000 delegates flying in from around the globe – to argue about reducing emissions which might contribute to climate change/crisis/global warming – take your pick.
It seems that without the heads of the 3 largest fossil fuel polluting countries (U.S.A., India, China) even attending this session, global enthusiasm for such events might itself be cooling. After much wrangling, the 160 countries were split 50/50 on whether they could even agree to a policy document firmly reducing further fossil fuel exploitation – hardly a high barrier one might imagine, given the UK’s trail blazing of this strategy for many recent years. This is further interesting insight into the global backdrop to the UK and indeed Wales’ race ahead to try to rapidly decarbonise domestic electricity production through the massive roll out of renewable technology: principally through large scale rurally located “energy parks” featuring combinations of ever taller, yet still fundamentally unpredictable, onshore wind turbines, solar PV arrays and battery energy storage systems. Having become familiar with our own small scale battery storage systems this year, it’s clear that these are hugely expensive ways of storing electricity for a couple of days of very limited use at most.
It’s widely accepted that this push has left the UK with some of the highest domestic and commercial electricity prices in the world – check out this map , with consequent de-industrialisation as several companies opt to close energy hungry British factories. Meanwhile, British quoted investment trusts which have invested in such renewable energy projects have seen their values tank in recent months, despite the attractive 10% plus annual yields they offer. Investors clearly see that even such high dividends won’t compensate for capital losses. And this despite the fact that other UK share indices are very close to all time highs. This reflects a global move away from investing in this area: the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), convened by the UN in 2021 to provide investment funds as the “UN alliance bank for renewable energy” ceased operations in October 2025, as most of its big international banking partners withdrew their backing.
What does all this tell us, along with recent UK political divergence over the rationality of Britain’s headlong rush to decarbonise our economy, regardless of cost or consumer/industry consequences? Perhaps that financial movers and shakers, and a significant proportion of the population are no longer persuaded of its merits as a major plank of government policy.
Trying to be clear about my own thoughts on this has been challenging – I’m convinced that the climate appears to be changing; but I suspect it always has. I’m convinced of our own responsibility to live our lives to minimise negative impacts on the environment for both future generations and the wider natural world; yet increasingly aware and frustrated that personal individual choices and (often significant “experience” sacrifices) will firstly have had no meaningful impact, and secondly are completely out of sync. with how most of the population, including the politicians driving government policy, behave.
This thought journey has developed along with my own deep dive into what I consider to be the most significant risk (of many) in constructing enormous wind turbines in an inhabited (albeit low density) location – that of infrasound. For anyone intrigued to learn a little more about this, I’m including my own summary notes as an appendix – with links – at the end of this post. As reflections of my views at this time. Of course, if the facts/information changes, I may opt to change my mind: as I would hope most rational and intelligent people might.
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But before that, I should close with recording the delight of witnessing the return of “our” woodcock. I stood and watched 7 fly in or over our upper hay meadow on November 17th at dusk, and for once managed to take a few discernible still images of them – always a huge technical challenge. I now view their return here, after a several thousand mile migration to and from Eastern Europe, as a seasonal highlight. As much as I value the return of our swallows in spring.
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The recent frosts also produced the delight of a low, but attractive, triangular shaped ice vase in one our blue bowls – clearly the greater depth of water is a factor in how quickly ice forms on the surface, and perhaps the likelihood of a chink in the surface ice allowing the expanding, and still chilling water beneath the thin surface ice, to be forced through this chink, and spill out onto the growing ice rims.
I hope to make a YouTube soon to capture the several different ice spikes and vases that I’ve seen over recent years.
I’ve written about the physics of what happens to allow such structures to form, here.
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APPENDIX:
So Far Away? Sadly, I don’t think they will be.
What is infrasound? It’s simply any very low frequency sound outside the lower range at which our ears can hear it – for most people below 20 Hz. It’s all around us from natural and man-made sources at low and irregular levels. Elephants and blue whales even use it to communicate, since it travels very well over large distances. Much further than the sounds we can hear.
What is the issue with wind turbines and infrasound? (and why don’t developers tell you about it!) Inevitably, even new turbines generate sounds – from the gears in the hub, to the swooshing of the blades. None of which are likely to improve as the machinery ages. However, the infrasound is generated as pulses of huge air pressure changes (which are inaudible) every time a blade passes in front of the large metal tower.
Why is this a big deal? These pressure pulses of infrasound travel many kilometres from the turbine, and unlike audible sounds will penetrate any buildings in their path, and indeed our bodies, and the cells that make them up – property insulation or headphones can’t keep them out. Of course, being made by a wind turbine, they’re both very regular, but also vary in amplitude or strength according to atmospheric conditions – wind speed, temperature, humidity. They’ll also be influenced by, and interact with the land’s contours and the presence of infrasound from other nearby turbines.
Does turbine size have any influence? Sadly, yes. The bigger the turbines, the longer the blades, the bigger the pressure change pulses which are generated.
But if we can’t hear these sounds, why does it matter? When larger turbines began to be erected in the early 2000’s, many people living close to them began to become sick, with a range of health issues. Doctors called it “wind turbine syndrome”. More recently, scientists from around the world have worked out why – the repetitive infrasound (although we can’t hear it) activates a couple of small areas of the brain (the ACC and amygdala) which are responsible for our normal protective responses to stress, and emotions. MRI scans clearly confirm this. (I now suspect that this is why I suffered my ill effects at the Saturo concert). It doesn’t affect everyone, but around 30 % of the population has a genetically determined sensitivity to this – nothing you can do will alter it. Badly affected people simply can’t cope with the chronic ill health (migraines, vertigo, tinnitus, heart damage and much other internal cellular damage caused by the pressure pulses) from constant turbine infrasound, often worse at night, and are forced to leave their homes on a temporary or permanent basis.
Why don’t developers warn us about this? Clearly, owning up to this problem (that turbines can harm the health of a large number of local residents) isn’t a good ‘sell’. (Look at where a short discussion of infrasound is hidden in the nearby Waun Maenllwyd Wind Energy Hub outline planning application documents. 59th of the list of 60 environmental statement appendices – after all those relating to bats, birds, lichens, views, planes, forestry, archaeology, etc… It’s there, but with a few old references, and questions raised about the veracity of the health problems caused.) Globally, Big Wind is very Big Business. We all know how long it took for the dangers of smoking, thalidomide, asbestosis, Teflon, to be admitted by their proponents. Ask yourself if all the people affected by wind turbines who are interviewed in the documentaries below are making their stories up?
Hundreds of properties will be within less than 2 km of many of the turbines planned – apparently there seems to be no legal minimum distance in current Welsh planning law.
Fortunately, Wales is quite late to this big industry party. Many other countries have already used their communities as unwitting guinea pigs for this new ‘green’ industry. And these rural communities have suffered the consequences of wind turbine development and its infrasound health impacts on them.
I would suggest that future health issues are far more concerning for anyone affected than illusory “Power for prosperity”.
Here are a few films worth watching to get up to speed on what’s ahead for our communities, if permission is granted for these projects:
- “Infrasound caused by Industrial Wind Turbines” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWNx3OJyuo
A half-hour German documentary exploring the issues of wind turbine-generated infrasound. How it’s been measured and how its impacts on health have been recently studied. And how a couple’s life has been turned upside down by it.
- “DOWN WIND – Wind Farm documentary” YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55-jBCjtJ88
A long documentary on the damage done, and battles fought in Canada, where a similar politically driven rush to wind power has wrecked lives and communities (and in a landscape frankly far less beautiful than upland Wales).
- “Separating Myth from Fact on Wind Turbine Noise” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDwsd32SDEY
Given in Copenhagen, Denmark – the heart of the wind turbine industry on 8 Oct 2025. This film is a recording of a very recent lecture by Professor Ken Mattsson, a Swedish researcher in the field of infrasound measurement and modelling for over 25 years.
This contemporary peer-reviewed published paper, by Mattsson, et al. published in Applied Acoustics Volume 243, 5 February 2026, 111156 covers the same subject matter as Mattson’s lecture in more detail with clear sound contour model maps:
- “INFRASOUND AND LOW FREQUENCY NOISE”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXCZ3OyklrE
Another recorded lecture from 2018 about the health impacts of infrasound by Professor Mariana Alves-Pereira, who has researched this topic for 30 years. Much information is discussed, including histopathology slides of several tissue types, which highlight the potential impact of chronic infrasound exposure on many organs in our bodies. She has said in another interview: “I personally would not live 20km away from them… We have identified the wind turbine acoustic signature in a home 12km away from the closest wind turbine.”
- If you’d rather read something, again from Canada, try this good summary article: https://www.windconcerns.com/when-the-turbines-went-big-so-did-the-sickness/