Monday 1 February 2016

Stormy Weather!

Hi honeys
I hope everyone is safe, well and staying warm.  You know I keep saying I wish I could hibernate through Winter?  Right now, I mean it more than ever...
Stormy Weather
Did you hear about Storm Gertrude honeys?  If not you can read a little about it here.  A little before 3am last Friday morning I was awakened by such a heart racing, scary as all got out crash!

Our bedroom window is always open a little and I'm guessing the wind had caught our window and slammed it shut with the aforementioned nerve shreddingly loud crash.   This is seriously so not the best way to be woken out of a sleep honeys, it's really not.  I've seen way too many horror movies to be woken up like that!


I have to say, Hubby was incredibly unfazed by it, but he's never been a stressed out kinda guy... ever.  A dear friend once said that Hubby was "so laid back he was positively horizontal" (lol Miriam honey xx) and she's completely right. The world could be ending and he'd be in the kitchen making a cuppa :) (don't ever change sweetheart xx)

Unforgivably though, other than causing me to just about have a heart attack (not to mention that I already have (way too) high blood pressure so i shouldn't really be getting freaked out like that) Storm Gertrude scared our furbaby!!!  There she was all hugged next to her Daddy happily napping and crash!!  

She's already a very (really very) nervous wee dog so she doesn't need some dumb storm scaring her under the duvet, which it did, bless her.  She shot under the duvet and hugged her Mum, poor baby.   Scaring our furbaby was enough to make me very unhappy with Gertrude but look what she did to our garden...
Storm Gertrude damage
 Our poor berry shrub is being crushed under an around fourteen foot wide section of fencing because the storm literally just snapped three eight foot long posts buried (a foot down) into the ground using cement. In the lower image you can see another huge section (this time around the side of our home) has been torn out and thrown as if it's made of cardboard.  There was so much debris and broken wood littering our poor garden honeys.

With already shredded nerves and Gertrude, if anything, just getting started outside, we all gave up and went downstairs to follow the storm on the news while it tried to lift our home out of the ground. Of course I couldn't have known it at the time but this was to be the start of a far too exciting weekend :/

Long story short honeys, I have no idea how I managed to get through my shift at work on Friday (I didn't get home until after 11pm) but thankfully I did.  The weather continued to bug everyone all through the weekend with (really) high winds, heavy rain which eventually turned to hail stones, sleet and a little snow, which of course was washed away by the next batch of driving rain yesterday :/

As I write this the rain is lashing against the living room windows and the wind is howling outside. The product of (according to the BBC weatherman) Storm Henry.  The Met office have already named the next storm after Henry which is to be called Imogen apparently.  Did I mention I want to hibernate through Winter?

While trying to pretend yesterday was a normal day and not one resembling the end of the world I snuggled on the sofa under a fluffy blanket with Jade and had fun knitting :) More about that tomorrow though honeys, lack of sleep is really catching up on me. I feel drained so I'm going to go have a shower, get into my jammies and then off to bed with the dvd box set of The Munsters :)

Till next time dear ones, stay warm and safe. Be careful if you have to be outside and hey mother nature, we've all been good, can we have Spring now please? Huggles always honeys xx  

6 comments:

  1. Oh my! That is one gale force that wrecked havoc on your yard. I would have been terrified also at that crash. It's lovely to be indoors all nestled in your Jammie's when there is a storm brewing. Does the electricity go out when there is a big storm such as this in Scotland?

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    1. Hi Rhonda, bless you for worrying about us honey xx We've been very lucky in that we didn't lose our power this time but others unfortunately did. We do keep supplies of candles, matches and torches(flashlights) with batteries in the cupboard at the back door just in case. This has been very scary weather and goodness what a mess it's left behind :/ I'm so hoping we're through the worst of it now. Thank you for caring honey, that means so much to me, sending heaps of huggles xxx

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  2. Oh Rosie how scary!!! So sorry about your garden and poor berry shrub. That's a terrible way to wake up and poor little Jade! Ugh. I am hoping it all calms down over there for you. We've had WEIRD weather in San Diego, with electricity going out, tons of rain and high winds. We've had palm trees snap and trees fall over on cars and car alarms going off all over the place. San Diego is NOT built for any weather except 70s. The draining system is terrible! Our windows are quite old so it makes the wind sound terrifying. I've talked to our landlord about getting new windows in so it doesn't feel quite like a tornado. So sorry about your sweet yard. Stay safe and warm oxox

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    1. Hi Heather x That's so sweet! Worrying about us when you have the same awful storms going on xx Oh angel I'm so sorry you're having to put up with this too, what is happening with the weather? I can't even picture palm trees simply snapping like that! That must be terrifying. The posts that used to support the fence in the back garden were 4 x 4 and 8 foot tall with over a foot deep in concrete and they just snapped. The drainage here is shocking too, poor Jade just steps onto the grass and she sinks past her ankles bless her ewww! and she hates being muddy especially her paws bless her. Hubby has managed to book tomorrow off work to start on the clean up and repairs. I'm hoping we can have a rain free day for it. Please be careful honey, take care of you ok? sending heaps of hugs always xxx

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    2. Oh poor little Jade! I had such a visual of us stepping into squishy grass and sinking. I can't imagine it's a good feeling, cold and muddy and sinkie. Does she bark during the storms or just hide and snuggle? I can't wait till we get a dog but I thought these weird storms we've been having might be quite scary! It's made me grateful we don't own a house because if a tree was to fall on our place, we wouldn't have to pay for it. Often I wish we owned a home, but I'll take renting for now :)

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    3. Hi Heather, poor wee Jade does so hate storms, they scare her terribly, wee lamb. She doesn't bark but she does make these awful crying noises. She's usually fine though if she's snuggled under a blanket and is hugged. She can't bear being muddy, especially her wee feet. Quite understandable though, what lady can bear having muddy toes! She'll even get back from walkies and head straight into the bathroom when her coat's been taken off to tell us she wants her feet washed. Steps straight into the shower and just stands there :)

      The insurance industry, for all of their playing on people's fears about their homes, really are a necessary evil I suppose. If we have a mortgage in the UK we're required to have insurance. Common sense really, protecting against exactly the kind of storms we've been having but that's where they win! The deductible is usually high enough so that it's cheaper to just pay for the damage ourselves. For instance, replacing the posts, strapping etc for the fencing cost us around £130. our deductible is £60 so after filling out the book length form to make a claim and waiting however long, we'd have gotten a cheque for around £70 and our premiums would have increased. You see? they win! It's a necessary evil though because the damage, as bad as it was, could so easily have been so much worse. Never mind, only a few weeks now till we change from Winter to Spring and I so can't wait to start work on the garden and see things grow. Have a fabulous weekend angel, sending heaps of huggles xxx

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