Severe Storms.

Yesterday's weather map looked scary with flood warnings for the whole of the west coast of the UK from Scotland right down and around Cornwall with quite a few severe (lives at risk) warnings. The wind raged all night and at around 6.00 there was a massive crash of thunder overhead and the electricity went off. It came back on, then went off again for a while. I leapt out of bed to unplug the hub, pcs and tvs. Later we found that the house phone had got fried by the electrical surge. Luckily we have a spare. And the rayburn was there to boil a kettle for an early coffee.

Peter went into town later and heard from someone that the thunder caused chaos with the horses over at the stables. I saw that they had the generator going but even if I had gone over I don't think I would have been of any help as I don't know the horses and they don't know me. I'm just hoping that the report of damage was exaggerated as that could only mean that the horses injured themselves in their panic.

We had frequent heavy showers (and some thunder & lightning) with strong winds blowing all the time. We've kept the internet unplugged for most of the day so I've been able to catch up with washing and ironing of sheets. Later I wrapped up and went up to work in the scree garden.

When it rained I went under the shelter and got on with hacking off the terrible textured artex on the wall. I couldn't finish during the summer as the swallows nest in the room behind and I didn't think they would appreciate the banging. I was sensible today and wore a dust mask and safety goggles. The only problem is that the goggles keep misting up.

We had one more power cut during a storm this afternoon so we've been keeping an eye on the news and weather forecasts. It looks as if the next storm due on Sunday will not be quite so bad. North Devon has been the worst affected area of the country this time with flooding in most of the coastal villages. Pilton Park was completely under water, the Square was flooded and there was more flooding along the rivers.