Some days seem to be filled with turmoil and 6 December 2013 was certainly one of them. The day before we had high winds, the edge of an Atlantic storm. The morning news was full of gale force winds, storm damage and floods. In our little office and in the wider world there was turmoil too. Continue reading Turmoil – first published 6 December 2013
23 June 2016
The Storm finally broke late last night. The rain hammered down, lashing against the windows, thunder clapped, lightening flashed. At one point the flash and the bang arrived at the same time, the storm was directly overhead. Sleep was hard to come by with the weather gods at battle outside. When I woke this morning Commando was getting into bed grumbling about floods, a ten mile detour to get home from work and the boiler not working. It wasn’t the best start to the day but at least the rain had stopped. Continue reading Storms, floods and a muggy walk
October 28 2013 and the world outside my morning window was a scary looking affair, trees blowing all over the show, rain hammering down. The news was full of it, the worst storms in decades had finally hit the south of England with ninety mile an hour winds, torrential rain and flooding. I say finally because the weatherman had been warning us about it for days and I was beginning to think it was a bit like all those barbecue summers they promise us, not going to come to anything. Continue reading Going to sea in large vegetables is a bad idea – first published 28 October 2013
28 March 2016
“Just a little further,” CJ said, still looking at the pigeons surveying the storm damage. Usually that’s my line and I wasn’t sure of the wisdom of going much further when the storm seemed to be gathering all around us. “I’d like to see the greylag geese.”
Despite my misgivings, we carried on. Maybe our luck would hold. If not I could blame CJ, although that wouldn’t be much use when we were both soaking wet. Oddly, the sky over Portswood, where it had been black and dropping rain earlier, was now blue, probably because this black clouds were now in front of us. Continue reading Just a little further
28 March 2016
It turns out the storm chasing me on my walk back from Moorgreen was actually Storm Katie and, despite the sunshine when I reached the village, she hadn’t finished with us. Last night the house was pounded by rain and buffeted by howling wind. It kept me awake, worrying my roof was going to come off. This morning all was well, apart from a lot of debris in the garden. While I was surveying the non damage I heard someone in the garden next door saying ‘oh bugger,’ over and over. The carport roof next door was peeled back like the lid of a sardine tin. As I’m pretty sure that roof was only held on by blu tack I was hardly surprised. Continue reading Storm damage
27 March 2016
With one last tearful look at the old workhouse come hospital I turned for home. I still wasn’t sure whether I was glad or sorry to see it go*. It was certainly an interesting and historic building but there seemed to be too much sadness attached to it for anyone to think of it fondly. I imagined the wrecking ball coming down and thousands of ghosts escaping into the air. There wasn’t a lot of time to dwell on it though. The rain was falling and the sky to the north was an alarming shade of black that even the cheery daffodils on the verge couldn’t brighten. Luckily I was heading south but I’d have to hurry if I was going to outrun the storm. Continue reading Stormy weather
Mostly I don’t feel old. Well, not until I look in the mirror anyway. In my head I guess I’m twenty, maybe twenty five. On 3 October 2013 though, I felt ancient. This was down to Ashleigh. This was the day she turned twelve. How did that happen? How could I have a twelve year old granddaughter? It just wasn’t possible, not when I was only twenty, or maybe twenty five. Where did all those years go to? Continue reading Storms on the horizon – first published 3 October 2013
1 to 4 July 2015
Annoyingly, Wednesday was a beautiful day but I had to go to work. The sky was brilliant blue as I crossed Cobden Bridge and the river looked like it was made of deep cobalt glass. The little ships cast perfect reflections like an upside down, underwater world. The colours seemed especially bright and fresh in the morning light and I could see flowers blooming on the houseboat deck garden. When I reached the slipway two men were trying to get a boat in or out of the water, I couldn’t quite decide which. Their car was right at the bottom of the slipway, back wheels in the water. It looked like a precarious business and I was glad it wasn’t my car. Continue reading Sun and storms
At the end of January 2013 the weather wasn’t playing nicely. Gales, rain and abandoned umbrellas filled my walks to and from work. At work the RNLI saga continued, much to my exasperation. Some weeks seem to be nothing but a series of irritations and this was one of them. Continue reading The calm after the storm – first published 30 January 2013
10 & 11 October 2014
On Friday night I had two major problems and a zillion minor ones. Major problem number one was that I still couldn’t get onto my blog to reset it even if I knew how. Major problem number two was that my email was slowly filling up with non delivery notifications for emails I hadn’t sent, hundreds of them. It didn’t take a genius to realise the two things were connected. For once Googling got me nowhere. In the end I rang LCN, the blog hosts to ask for help. Continue reading Boulevard of broken dreams