• Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Topic: The Storm

This morning we woke up to find that the large elder tree in the back garden had broken off at the top. The top bit, smothered in ivy, had half fallen onto the shed roof. We knew there was more wind to come so we rushed out and hacked it away from the main trunk (in our nightclothes - sorry neighbours) and put it onto the lawn where it could do no more damage.
We really could have done without that!
The storm is still raging and we are worrying about the fence and the chimney pots!

  • From: Gloucester, England
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 1,911

Re: The Storm

Being as mad as we are, my girlfriend and I were out delivering leaflets Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. We got soaked through several times and I nearly lost a pile of leaflets in a particular gust.

Was it really bad down South?
It was pretty horrible here but didn't cause much damage. Mind you it did propel a trailer parked nearby towards my girlfriends car. Fortunately there was a fence between...

Alex McKee's Website

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

A very wet way to spend the weekend!
It was bad here and it's still blowing. We had some sort of old pointing blow down from the roof straight onto our new (scrappage scheme) car. There's a bit of a "ding" on the bonnet so my husband has shot off to Halford's to get paint or whatever it is one has to use!
Mind you the clothes are all drying so saving on leccy.

Last edited by grannynuts (2009-11-19 22:49)

  • From: Gloucester, England
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 1,911

Re: The Storm

It's pretty bad here now. Yesterday afternoon, after I'd foolishly posted the above, I went out to do some tidying up in the garden whilst it's dry and found myself up a step-ladder trimming a hedge in a small gale that came out of nowhere. lol

Today is extremely windy, so much so that I'm indoors for the day by the looks. sad

Alex McKee's Website

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

Yes it looks like the blustery weather is set in for the winter. Hope you didn't get blown off the ladder Alex.have you finished all the leaflets?

  • Registered: 2007-04-11
  • Posts: 672

Re: The Storm

Well, here (Beds, Herts, Bucks) it hasn't been particularly bad.
A bit blustery and wet last Saturday but nothing unseasonal since.
Currently it is about 9C, calm, and mostly clear skies.

  • From: Grimsby
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 2,253

Re: The Storm

It wasn't too bad here in Lincolnshire. A bit of heavy rain but that was extremely brief and did no damage.

Celebrate not that you are English; nor Scottish nor Welsh, nor any other nation of the world; celebrate instead your common humanity.

DanielRM's Website

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

Poor old Cockermouth really has copped it. A settlement at the mouth of two rivers and it looks as if they've built new houses on the flood plain. This has happened in so many places now and we have seen a lot of terrible inundations. Yet as Yvette Cooper said the govt is still determined to keep building on flood plains.
They are citing Cockermouth as proof of man-made global warming during the same weekend that hackers have intercepted e mails indicating fraud (attempting to prove climate change) at the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia University.

  • Registered: 2007-04-11
  • Posts: 672

Re: The Storm

The particularly bad weather has been fairly (or unfairly) localised.
Here, in the three counties region, we have fared no worse than many other areas. And very much better than Cumbria.
My daughter and her husband live in Cockermouth which has been hit particularly badly.
They are fine but road and bridge closures effectively confines them to home.

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

And I've heard that to get out of the area they would have to travel 40 miles. It was 90 but they've opened another bridge now. Mind you it does look a lovely place.

  • From: Gloucester, England
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 1,911

Re: The Storm

grannynuts wrote:

Hope you didn't get blown off the ladder Alex.

Nah, I was OK. smile

grannynuts wrote:

have you finished all the leaflets?

Yes, thanks. Still got a petition to do though...

Besoeker wrote:

Well, here (Beds, Herts, Bucks) it hasn't been particularly bad.
A bit blustery and wet last Saturday but nothing unseasonal since.
Currently it is about 9C, calm, and mostly clear skies.

Welcome back, B.

Good to hear that it wasn't too bad there.

DanielRM wrote:

It wasn't too bad here in Lincolnshire. A bit of heavy rain but that was extremely brief and did no damage.

Sounds like your side of the country got off lightly. We have had some trees down, localised flooding, etc.

grannynuts wrote:

Poor old Cockermouth really has copped it. A settlement at the mouth of two rivers and it looks as if they've built new houses on the flood plain. This has happened in so many places now and we have seen a lot of terrible inundations. Yet as Yvette Cooper said the govt is still determined to keep building on flood plains.

Everywhere has new houses on the floodplain, unfortunately. The government still think that the housing market is a genuine economic powerhouse and that it will provide the way out of the recession, so they won't do anything to clip the wings of that cartel.

Sadly Cockermouth and other Lakeland towns are going to be in the front line of further flooding for years.

grannynuts wrote:

They are citing Cockermouth as proof of man-made global warming during the same weekend that hackers have intercepted e mails indicating fraud (attempting to prove climate change) at the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia University.

To be fair, it doesn't disprove anthropogenic climage change just shows that there has been some serious fraud in British research efforts.

Besoeker wrote:

My daughter and her husband live in Cockermouth which has been hit particularly badly.
They are fine but road and bridge closures effectively confines them to home.

Interesting to hear a personal perspective.

grannynuts wrote:

Mind you it does look a lovely place.

That's why they will recover. I think a few more people should pick the Lake District for hols next year. If we go on holiday at all, we will be heading there.

Alex McKee's Website

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

I have been to the Lake District. I went Youth Hostelling there in the Stone Age. All grey army blankets,metal bunk beds and lots of cold water. It was a beautiful place. As we trudged round Keswick with our rucksacks on our backs I noticed the hotels that looked a bit like Swiss houses up on the hills and I vowed that when I was grown up it would be hotels only for me. I stuck to that!
Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm was lovely to visit. Wonder if it is still open?

  • From: Gloucester, England
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 1,911

Re: The Storm

grannynuts wrote:

Beatrix Potter's Hill Top Farm was lovely to visit. Wonder if it is still open?

It is, they've recently restored the cottage garden complete with heritage varieties of fruit, veg and plants. The kind that would have been in a comparable garden at the time she first moved there.

Alex McKee's Website

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

Apparently she was really interested in preserving the area. Think it was down to her that the National Trust got land up there. It's a National Park now isn't it? I'd love to see the veg garden. Perhaps you can post some pics if you go?

  • From: Gloucester, England
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 1,911

Re: The Storm

grannynuts wrote:

Apparently she was really interested in preserving the area. Think it was down to her that the National Trust got land up there.

Yes, I understand that to be the case too. smile

grannynuts wrote:

It's a National Park now isn't it?

Yep, the Lake District National Park.

grannynuts wrote:

I'd love to see the veg garden. Perhaps you can post some pics if you go?

If we do go, you can count on some photos. smile

Alex McKee's Website

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

Hope you manage to snap Peter Rabbit pinching some carrots - oh no,that was in Mr MacGregor's garden wasn't it?Lol.

  • Registered: 2007-04-11
  • Posts: 672

Re: The Storm

Here the snow has been something of an inconvenience.
Now the roads are clear and almost all of the snow has gone.
The snow outlived its novelty value.

  • Registered: 2009-11-12
  • Posts: 32

Re: The Storm

The snow was very deep here and for a while it was blissfully quiet - lovely. Then when the thaw set in the old Essex tradition of "running your engine for 30 minutes before setting off" kicked in - what a racket! One unforseen result of the recession is that people are not buying new cars round here nor are they affording to repair the old ones. We have a couple of neighbouring fractured exhausts that sound like jumbo jets taking off.