Stormy.

This morning the news was full of weather warnings for the expected storm caused by a severe depression over the Atlantic. It does seem as if the weather keeps throwing up new extremes this year. The warnings had gone to amber (possible ) for flooding and strong winds. The advice to travellers was to leave as early as possible and the train companies said that tickets could be used on any time train which you can't normally do. The morning was extremely wet and windy so I wore my wellies for my trip to town. Great for splashing through all the puddles. It has been a lot warmer than yesterday as we lost that icy wind.

Mid-morning I met up with a group of friends at a garden centre for coffee and we were almost soaked just walking across the car park. Claire came with her twins who are such placid souls. The only tears were from Albie at the end of the morning. It was comical to see a big fat tear rolling down his cheek and all because he didn't like having his coat put on. 

After having a great time with my friends it was then back into the rain and a massive traffic jam as the whole of North Devon tried to get into town for some last minute shopping. By driving through the industrial estate I avoided a lot of the traffic but driving down from the bridge into town involved a lot of stopping and starting. Once I turned off to head to the re-cycling centre the roads were clear again and soon I had emptied yet another car load of stuff that was no good to anyone. Then, having parked at Lidl's I took 2 more big bags of stuff to the charity shop. By the time I was driving home the rain had almost stopped. Maybe that's it for us, the worst weather was supposed to be east of Plymouth and further up country.

The house is now clean and relatively tidy so tomorrow will just be for cooking and decorating. Now that the spare rooms are being tidied up I can't help popping into them when I go past. This is the room that had the wall and wardrobe painted. It's only a small room but there is enough room to flip the sofa bed into a double bed. OK, I'll admit that for the photo I moved the boxes that were on the sofa but they will be sorted eventually.