ABIGAIL....TO GERTRUDE AND HENRY,WHAT NEXT....Brrrrr

So far, Abigail, Barney, Clodagh, Desmond, Eva, Frank, Gertrude visited, all, it seems, in quick succession.  Now we expect Henry's imminent arrival.

Gertrude stormed in last Thursday night, (28th January 2106) and raged all of Friday. Late in the day there was a lull in Gertrude's activity and I went out to get some provisions, such as were available. Bridges closed to traffic, meant absolutely no buses, no transport of any kind that would deliver anything and also trains were cancelled.

Passing through the check-out with my few bits of shopping; 'passing the crack' (chat) with cashier, a young lad from the high school :

Him politely: It's getting chilly out there now.

Me: Gertrude  has been raging all day.

Him: - mischievously- what set her off then!

Yesterday, Saturday, we had snow and windy gusts. It felt really cold...it pierced through you.  I was wearing four layers indoors and a long padded coat plus hat outdoors. By nightfall the snow was nowhere to be seen.

Heavy snowfall pitted its sound against the windows during the evening.  Eventually, peaking out from behind the curtains, I saw a settled covering of white.

 
Today,Sunday, the last day of January, we had snow lie all day.  It was another four layer dressing day. There were some light snow showers, also a period of bright snow reflected sunshine.  We went for a walk  zipped up in wadded coats, our hats on, thermal gloves to keep hands and fingers toastie warm and walking boots for grip.








Now we await the arrival of Storming Henry, chasing in close on the heels of Gertrude.  Oh joy! (Not).

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE

Last night I sat in my chair, the walls around me  shook and creaked and the roof screeched as it lifted. The roof thumped back into place, screeched and lifted again...and so it went on for the whole evening and during the night, with the wind howling and shrieking.  

The wind was described  by the meteorological office as a gale: believe you me, it was nothing short of a storm, from where I sat.

 Not The Storm- A Really Wet Day In 2011

SUPERMARIO AND THE KNOTTED BALLOONS.

If an astrologer had described January as being a time of personal bombshells, I would not have entertained the suggestion.  Well....it was.  It took the whole of  February for me to stabilize. Like all eventful times though, the repercussions go bubbling on.  They, (the repercussions) certainly kept me occupied and busy, the distractions were useful.  

Sculpt of a boy [having a power struggle] with a serpent and a lion- in the forecourt of The Canongate Church on The Royal Mile Edinburgh

All that said, I am still humbled by those who have been forced from their homes by wars  and the aftermath of storms and floods. I care about the people who are forced to the margins of our society by the uncontrolled actions of those we were meant to trust and those whom we are expected to trust.  There is much unrest in today's Global politics; these are dangerous times.

Smokey

I was alerted to some photos sitting in a biodegradable bag by my desk, because it was biodegrading.  The pictures have been sitting there a long, long time.  I originally found them just when, with a whoop of glee and self-satisfaction, I thought I had completed the long careful task of copying old originals and restoring them.  Glumly, I saw I had not. That is why, that batch of pictures sat and sat and..... well, you get the picture, they were waiting for a new burst of enthusiasm for working on, which never came. 

However, while tidying up my digital picture folders on  my computer - the first 'efficiency' stage - I allowed myself to be drawn in to recent memories. In Edinburgh during Hogmanay, what could Super Mario and his compadre have been up to with these policemen? Not selling them their knotted balloons, Surely?

Miscreants, do not end up here, at Edinburgh Castle, these days.  Tourists do and quite right too.

Here's a clock dressed up for the Christmas season in one of the Edinburgh stores. Another hour to go before closing time.

 Lambs have been appearing. One of the three Suffolk Ewes produced triplets.  A North Country Cheviot  ewe  was introduced to one of the lambs to help with the milk feeds. It was amusing to see the lamb scampering between its siblings and its two mums. Here's a very recent picture of one of the Suffolk ewes with her twins.

DELIVERIES IN RAGING STORMS

Storms are raging over Shetland.  Elsewhere in the far North of Scotland there are gales.  To give some perspective, a Gale is anything about wind force 7 to 9,  (anything less than 7 is rather windy) and a storm is wind force 10.  Force ten is really  fierce.

In our gales of about wind force 8 today, Royal Mail delivered our post.  The poor post woman who arrived on our doorstep, (to my surprise) looked quite dazed and battered; she said it was really difficult to hold on to the post she was carrying and delivering.  

The seas rage, the winds blast, scream, push and shove; it knows no chivalry.  The lifeline ferries to the islands take shelter and stay in port.  There will be no deliveries of the everyday commodities to the islands that we take for granted.  There has been little let up in the gales and flooding this week causing transport and domestic chaos in many parts of the UK.

In view of the extreme weather conditions the management of Tesco Limited, have chartered a Hercules Transport plane to make four deliveries of commodities this weekend, to the storm bound Shetland islanders. I am not aware of any other major food and goods retailer that has a presence on the island, who would do this.  

YOU KNOW WHAT CUSTOMERS ARE LIKE

 The supermarket employs a physically disabled man to look after the trolleys/carts.  He takes them from the various parking places, and retrieves those trolleys that have been lazily left by users anywhere they fancy, usually in places that are a nuisance to other shoppers. We always greet each other when Larry is in the car park, or in the store.  

Larry was getting ready to move a crocodile of trolleys as fork lightening appeared, followed by rolling thunder claps that were a few seconds apart.  I was seriously worried that Larry might be taking a risk handling all that metal as he guided a long line of trolleys to their parking lot by the store entrance. I suggested to him  that he waited a bit to see if there was a safe period to move them, and I explained why....."I've got to move them"... he said "You know what customers are like. "  ...."Forget that," I said..... "Your safety come first."  I was glad to see him remove the strap he uses to keep all the trolleys together when he moves them out; he and the trolleys were going nowhere.  I guess no senior manager in the store would think about this  electrically charged weather in conjunction with  risk management.

 The  sudden fierce storms, lightening and torrential rain took us all by surprise, I sheltered in the doorway of the store with a lot of other people with the same idea, to keep dry and wait for  it all to abate. The people around me were dressed much as I was, in lightweight summer clothes.  The difference was, they had vehicles in the car park and I did not.  Frankly, I did not fancy walking home in that stormy weather and  torrential downpour.   The ubiquitous cell phone comes into its own at times like this, especially if you are carrying one, with its batteries fully charged.

I called for help from Hubby, who drove to the store to collect me.

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia

JUST THINK - IT COULD HAVE BEEN WETTER

I thought about photographing the burnt black and torn leaves of my nasturtium plants, the bowed bunches of chives and my urn-shaped strawberry pot, which was being used for a bit of floral colour rather than soft fruit. What is extruding from the urn looks pretty sorry for itself. 

Then I changed my mind about creating pictorial evidence of the havoc wreaked on my plants, because of the storms and the torrents of rain that ripped through this area last weekend.  Instead, I started to tidy up my salad and herb patch as best I could in between more showers of rain.

Meantime, on the washing line, where washing swayed in the wind while the weather looked deceptively promising, with the next unexpected rain fall, the towels got damp and the bedding ended up as wet as it was when originally pegged out to dry. It could have been worse, the washing could have been wetter.
 

(A wash from another time drying in the wind).

REALLY SEVERE WEATHER HAS ARRIVED

Oh boy! we're supposed to go out tonight, to a child's birthday tea. He lives on a very exposed hill. Storms are raging. Heavy rain has arrived as well. There have been destructive winds up to 100mph recorded south of where I live; mind you, I don't think we've fared much better. We just have fewer standing trees than most other places, therefore, there won't be the same devastating outcomes if trees are felled by these fearful winds. Undoubtedly there'll be structural hits. We have baited breath wondering if it will happen to us in our own exposed place. All our roof tiles are nailed down. Apart from hearing the whole roof move, we have never lost a tile. We did lose a concrete wall a few years ago, a heavy, pegged down Wendy House 'flew over the rainbow', landing in another part of the garden, and we sustained damage to the pebbledash/harling at the front of the house.

I hear all ferries to various islands have been cancelled, no surprise there. Better safe than sorry. Hopefully, any fishing boats have had time to get into a port or a safe haven. On land, bridges will be closed to all traffic in the current severe weather conditions. I truly hope any long distance truck drivers and their high-sided vehicles are parked securely off the roads. This is no time for pedestrians to be out walking either. 

As regards our outing, we will have to assess the weather conditions at the time.

IS THERE MORE TO COME?

What else can happen this week? 

Monday night: the distinctive throbbing sound of a helicopter flying low over our rooftop was heard. The blades whizzed. It was not the type of craft we might see in these parts, for example, the air-ambulance is bright yellow. The helicopter hovered around for quite some time in the dark, particularly in one position not far away.

The reason: A seventeen year old lad had fallen over a cliff walk. The accident was, fortunately for him, seen and reported quite quickly. The life boat was alerted as were the coast guard and a search and rescue helicopter from further down the coast. The crew found the injured boy and winched him up taking him to hospital. Very few people survive falls in that area. We know much more about the survivors because they have lived to tell their tales. So far, I know of only one survivor who now apparently leads his daily life relatively physically unscathed. 

At about 10.15pm last night,(Tuesday 14th September) we heard the most awful crashing sound. Had our neighbour had an accident with a large tractor perhaps? There was nothing to be seen out of our window but the usual night scene of farm equipment at rest. The street was also quiet. Then we heard the crashing noise again. Hubby and I looked at one another. It couldn't be surely, not with the day of torrential rain and hailstones we had just had. Just as we verbalised our thoughts, the sky was rent with lightening twice in quick succession. 

Today is Wednesday, the week is not over yet.