A blustery day

Goodness, but that was weather. Real weather.

The Met Office had been forecasting Armageddon-like weather for Thursday all week. Deep, dire warnings. Severe weather alerts issued for the whole of the United Kingdom. Storms and tempests of biblical proportions. If you don’t absolutely have to leave the house, then don’t.

So I didn’t. Not that there was all that much wind at 07:30 when I had intended to leave. Lots and lots of rain, it’s true, but no severe wind to speak of. Just your average winter gale, really. But I wasn’t feeling all that clever. My digestive system wasn’t feeling all that clever. In fact, I was engaged with a minor argument of sorts with the said digestive system. I really didn’t want to go out. Probably would have, had it not been for the weather, but I really, really didn’t want to. So I didn’t. After all, the weather man had said not to. (And probably it’s just as well, for shortly after I rang in sick I was accosted by a startlingly disagreeable headache which stayed with me resolutely until sometime mid-Saturday. Resisted all pain killers and made me feel distinctly sick. Not nice!). And then the wind hit.

So here is me, wrapped up warm, draped around a cup of tea, in the lounge room during one of the most spectacular storms that has hit the UK in decades. It was a bit alarming, watching the trees across the road bending and swaying and rattling in the wind gusts. The actual wind speed itself probably wasn’t much above 50 or 60 miles an hour, but the gusts were much stronger, and howwwwwwwwled in from the west. We have found where the leak in the lounge room window is – if the wind howled in from the west it blew rain in through an unsealed bit where the window frame meets the wall. The Builder was about to go out and fix it, when the weather convinced him that would be a bad idea! (It’s fixed now) The wind whistled and howled and whomped, and the rain fell and fell and fell.

But really, in Tupton we got off very lightly indeed. Very lightly. Some branches blew off various trees. My propagating tent got blown down the garden and all the recycling bins got blown over and fetched up down by the soon-to-be-dismantled raised beds, strewing recycling stuff all over the place. For some reason I thought it a good idea to go out and collect them. Didn’t bother the second time. But that was it, really. Elsewhere, 11 people were killed in Britain, by falling trees and branches, by flying walls and roofs, by toppling lorries. Many motorways were closed. Many places were flooded. Many roofs were ripped off. The Builder had to go into Chesterfield on the bus during the afternoon. Took 45 minutes to get there and perhaps 35 minutes to get home. Normally takes 10 minutes or so. The traffic on the A61 was at a standstill, because the M1 was closed due to trucks that had been blown over, and all the traffic had diverted down the A61. Clarissa took 3 hours to get to work in Leeds in the morning and as many to get home again in the evening. Tabitha was marooned in London after all the trains to Cambridge were cancelled and the coaches were running several hours late. Happily she has friends in London and went to stay with Alex.

And not just in Britain. The storms blew across us, took out France and the Netherlands, crossed into Germany and Austria and then made their way into Eastern Europe, spreading chaos, death and disaster in their wake. Rhona, who is a member of the email group I used to belong to (before I ran away with The Builder and was disowned!) was stranded in Nuremberg after trees fell onto the train line when she was trying to get home. Bavarian efficiency swung into action and all the people on the trains, and from the airport were diverted to emergency accommodation where the Red Cross and local emergency services provided blankets and pillows, soup and sandwiches, then breakfast in the morning.

I think in Tupton the worst of it was around 2pm. That was when the winds really picked up and became really quite exciting. Almost the eeriest bit was when the winds fell silent. Everything was completely, utterly silent for just a few seconds, until the winds whooshed back in. The birds had all vanished, apart from the seagulls who are over-wintering on the wetlands. I think they were quite enjoying it, having roller coaster rides up quite high, on the wind gusts. The wetlands were being blown about all over the place. You could see the spray from the kitchen, and very clearly from the bedroom.

I was at home again on Friday. Not a nice headache, not nice at all. And not getting any better. So now I have a headache, a sickly feeling and a bout of this-is-rubbish depression! And still it was windy. Actually, had it been any other day, we would have been discussing how windy it was. But in comparison ¾ a nice gentle breeze!! And not raining. And strangely mild for January. Another day spent in my lovely, light, cosy lounge room with the cat for company. The Builder went out in the morning and the afternoon. He’s got a bit of casual work lined up for next week.

Then on Saturday we went out and spent our Christmas money and vouchers, plus £10 left over from my birthday money. With the money we’ve bought two sweet cherry trees (one of them is a Stella!), one sweet apple tree, one bramley apple and a pear tree. Also, I have bought a Victoria plum to replace the one we had to leave on the allotment. It was one of the three trees (morello and apple being the other two, both of which are planted in the garden with a sweet cherry tree, also from the allotment) which Tabitha, Austin, Julia, Freyja and Alex gave me when we were all gathered for Christmas in 2002. So in its memory I have bought a new one which is nearly as tall, but nothing like as wide in the trunk! The Builder has now planted them all. So in the orchard we now have 9 fruit trees, with perhaps room for one more. The path is hedged at the top with blackcurrants to one side and raspberries to the other. It will be hedged lower down by red and white currants and by red, white and green gooseberries. The Builder had hoped to dig at least one of the hedging beds today, but it has continued to be very wet and rather windy. Yesterday was a really, really mild day. It felt a lot like March or even April when the planting was happening. I was beginning to think that I was running a bit late with the spring seed sowing!

They’re promising us some really proper winter weather next week. We can but hope.

Freyja reports that all the ducks on the weir she overlooks ran away during the storm. I wonder if they ever came back. She also reports a really exciting story about a concert she went to in Newcastle. Only I can’t remember the name of the artist she went to see so can’t tell you about it. If she emails it to me, I’ll post it here for us all to enjoy.