Floods.

It's been an exciting day. Woke up this morning to heavy rain and the stream behind the house flooded up to the top of Paul's culverts. My wood and mud dams across the road were doing a good job of protecting the drive so we weren't too worried.

By mid-morning the stream had dropped from this to at least a foot lower. Big sighs of relief. We had tickets to see The Hobbit in the afternoon but went in a couple of hours earlier as Peter was rowing first. I went to the library and the bank and checked out the shops but then the heavy rain drove me into Lindsay's for a coffee  .... and a slice of white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake. Really enjoyed the film and as it is still a novelty to me 3-D impresses me no end, and better definition  too! I did mutter darkly at the plot changes but they are only to be expected. A bit disappointed to see a 'Spielberg moment' ie characters sliding down a steep slope but there you go. Everything else was pretty good and I've already printed off the sheet music for the Dwarves song. 

Driving home we were stopped by the police at the hospital traffic lights and told there was no way through. The Muddiford road which runs along a small river was flooded for a considerable distance and there was flooding on the Shirwell road where we turn off. We couldn't even go the very long way round through Braunton as that was cut off by floods too. The police advised that we go back into town and spend a couple of hours in the pub! Even as we were turning round a fire vehicle towing an inflatable dingy came past on blue lights. We went down to The Reform and exchanged flood stories. High tide will be at 1.00 am and the people in one street by a normally small river have been warned that they will be flooded then. After a few beers (Peter) and coffees (me) we set out again and this time although the cones were across one side of the road we went round and I drove carefully through a number of not so small floods. Coming home I was thankful that there hadn't been any flooding at home and I went out and added more reinforcements to my little dams on the road. 

Brayford (near school) earlier today. Photo from the Web.

Flooding at Braunton. Photo from the Web.