Weather Damage

The "drought" continues - last night with high winds and lashings of rain, which continued through the day leading to flooding in some places we drove through. Woke up (later than of recent days thanks to our newly installed red curtain) to see that the fence on one side of our garden had suffered quite a bit of storm damage.  On closer inspection, it looked as if the clematis was the only thing stopping it collapsing altogether.

So it was out into the garden to shore it up.  Under the direction of Su the Engineer, we managed to brace the fence and lash it together with some old washing line. Good enough to hold until tomorrow when the rain should have passed through and we can do a better repair before we go away, and spare our house-sitters from worrying about it..

We also had to brace the fence on the other side (where the decking used to be) as that was swaying quite alarmingly in the wind.

After that, I took Bella out for her morning stroll. Found pages of a Just William book scattered over the road, stuck down by the rain - took me back many years!

The wind had worked its devilment on lots of plants as well as on our fence.  These willow whips offer an opportunity if someone wants to start a plantation…

The blossom that was on this tree only yesterday now garlands the gutters on either side of the road.

And this blossom has carpeted the ground underneath, giving Bella a nice background to pose against.

What looked like an oversize pipe cleaner had found its way into some trees overnight. Blended in quite well with the fir tree, I thought.

After breakfast, it was down into town for Su to nip into Marks & Spencer briefly. I parked illegally, with other people while the drought weather continued to do its worst.

 Getting ready for our trip abroad next week, we thought that we might miss some essential cultural ingredients while away, so off we set to Ikea. Unfortunately (phew!), the traffic queues to get in were so long that we quickly abandoned that plan, and went on to our second essential cultural item - dim sum at Dynasty. A delicious feast ensued - a month without dim sum will be a burden, but we will be consoled by spinakopita and other Greek fare. Talking of Greece…


This day a year ago we hired a car and circumnavigated Rhodes, continuing past Faliraki and Lindos. Found a great (if slow) fish restaurant at Plimiri Beach.  Really enjoyed the south and west of the island with its forests and empty beaches - by far the best part of Rhodes. Lesbos sounds as if it may have similar terrain - we will find out next week!

This is already another record-breaking month for the blog with more page-views than last month's all-time best. Final figures on Tuesday, and thanks again to all our readers worldwide.