~rain, rain, sun & more rain~

 

the weather here for weeks and weeks has been just dreadful

the jet stream has been stuck and sending wave after wave of storms at our small country in from the atlantic to the west.

 

here in the forest we have had a lot of flooding although nowhere near as much as the poor folk on the somerset levels and more recently along the thames.

 

on friday a huge storm came rolling in and we had a 'risk of life' warning placed in lymington and milford-on-sea which is five miles from us with winds expected to be 70-80 miles an hour.

 

friday is usually our shopping day so we went out early and it started to rain heavily. coming out of the village the roads were clear but it started to rain heavily.

by the time we came home we were faced with this...

 

 

  this is the west of the village~the bottom end of the small road the shops are on~to the locals the village is actually the single short road the shops are on. we luckily live about five minutes away up on the side of a hill.

 

those of you that know brockenhurst will know there is a ford at the bottom of the village (locally known as the watersplash). the flooding you see here is from the stream that feeds the watersplash that had burst its banks. but it had also been fed from smaller streams that cross the forest and of course because we had had so much rain for so long the land itself is totally waterlogged.

 

it probably became much worse but we managed to drive through without getting stuck...the car you see on the right of the last photo was being attached to a landrover to be pulled out as we went around the corner. we got home and stayed home as the gale started within an hour of us closing our front door.

 

my oh my did it howl and roar.

 

 i went to bed early with my book and was convinced that the bedroom window would blow in and we could physically feel our little home shake. the power went off at 11.30pm but luckily my radio is a wind-up one and so we were able to keep in touch with what was happening locally via radio solent. as well as no electric or heat we also had no internet access, not even through our mobile phones~we could only assume the mobile antennas had been blown out.

luckily we have a gas cooker so was able to have hot drinks and cook. our power came back on 11 hours later but my mum and sister who live down the road had no power for another further 5-6 hours so they came to us and our warm home.

 

yesterday could not have been more different...

 

 

glorious blue sky and warm sunshine...

i went around taking photographs of the new life pushing up through the soil, just to remind myself the spring is on its way...

 



 

 

and i sat on my patio charging my crystals and myself...

 

 

gazing up through the tangle of rose and jasmine to the blue...

 

 

we made the most of the day and pottered around the garden, trimming, re-potting, moving the ferrets cage, chatting to calv over the fence as he did some work to his shed.

by tea time we had worn ourselves ragged and i could hardly move...the risk i run when its nice, i do wayyyy to much and then the m.e and fibro kick in, protesting and telling me that i should go carefully when its nice and not push myself...which of course i ignore.

 

yesterday was also the first really nice day the kittens have had since we had them and they have been allowed out into the big wide world...

 they have really grown up...now at 6 months old...

 

 

magpie is growing into a big cat and is the most adventurous...

 

 

 

i had forty fits when magpie first climbed onto our room~he gets up via the fence and my nook. however the pitch of our roof is a gentle slope and so i no longer feel so concerned...

 

 



 

 

this is nelson who has been visiting our gardens since he was a kitten. he has grown into a big cat and is not at all sure about these new kits on the block. several times he has chased them both in through their cat flap~on one occasion he came in himself as he chased a terrified leveret...

 



 

 

 leveret is much smaller than magpie, not quite as adventurous and she loves her little toys much more. she will carry them around the house and play with them. she also enjoys following me into  the bedroom at bedtime and will lay on the bed with me while i read...