Torrential Rain.

Phew! What a day. After only 3 hours sleep I was up bright and early, 6.00 to be exact, to prepare for a full day of teaching. I was in school soon after 7.30 but even with nearly an hour and a half to prepare we were rushing to get everything ready before the children came in to start their day. I have only taught that class once before so as well as trying to remember 28 names I wasn't familiar with where things were in the classroom and everything took that bit longer. Luckily they are a nice bunch of kids and they will soon get used to the fact that I put things, usually papers, down and then can't find them when I need them. At lunchtime I wrote up reading records, made notes on the morning's maths and drew a 6ft forest tree for the afternoon's work on rainforests. Then I had a 5 minute break before starting the afternoon.

The forecast this morning was pretty dire with 70 flood warnings but the rain held off until mid-afternoon. When it did arrive it was accompanied by strong winds and the playground looked like one enormous puddle. So for once the children stayed indoors at playtime. The weather worsened just before home time which wasn't fun for the parents waiting to collect their children. We do have some covered outside areas but the wind was driving the rain right in. I'm teaching all day in the same class tomorrow and normally I would have stayed in school to prepare as much as I could but I suddenly realised that I might be facing flooded roads on the way home. So I abandoned everything and jumped in the car. There was already a flood across the road just after Shirwell but I was able to drive through it and make my way home. Although there are a number of different routes I could take to get home each of them has one or two places that is prone to flooding. 

Once home I reinforced the dams on the road, peered nervously at the stream and checked out the latest weather reports. Oh joy! there will be a respite in conditions and then the severe weather will return on Saturday. As well as the floods the high winds have blown down trees, blocking roads and taking out power lines. Well there is nothing more I can do so we shall just have to sit it out.