Rubbish Woes.

It seems I spoke a bit too soon. Last night we were among the 11,000 homes that lost power. The first time it happened was about 7.00. Luckily the central heating had already warmed up the house. I even had a candle burning in the sitting room (a Christmas present that I began lighting to get rid of the smell of the carpet adhesive). After turning off the router and anything else that needed we headed off for an early night. We were just enjoying the soft light from the collection of candles glowing in various jam jars when the lights came back on, only to go off for a short while an hour later. Today I could see from the flashing of one of the clock radios that we had another power cut at some point.

This morning we woke to a quiet world without wind. Later on we had some hail showers which melted away fairly quickly. Driving to work I could see some of Exmoor looking white under hail and possibly snow. It had all gone by the time I came home but the wind is picking up once more.

The other thing that I saw as I drove to work was that our rubbish hadn't been collected. Also animals or birds had been ripping at some of the black sacks. I had some work gloves with me so was able to clear up the mess hoping that the dustmen had merely been delayed due to the weather conditions. However on my return home not only were the bags still there and ripped again but even though I had been to the Co-Op I had forgotten to buy more bin bags. Faced with the problem of what to do with the rubbish which wouldn't be collected until next week I had 2 choices- bring all the rubbish back down to the house or somehow get our redundant wheelie bin up to the top of the drive. Having decided  on the wheelie bin option (I think they are a bit of a blot on the countryside which is why I hadn't taken it up before) I then found that I couldn't fit it in my little car. Nothing for it but to put on a warm hat and drag the bin all the way up by hand. Doing so I discovered that not only does hail sting mightily when it hits you in the face but it also hurts when it falls into your boots, until it melts when it is just cold and wet. Having got all the rubbish bags into the wheelie bin and weighed the lid down with a stone I rather enjoyed the walk back down the hill. On the far side of the valley I could see sheets of grey dropping down from the dark clouds as more hail made its way to the ground. The high hedge provided some shelter and obscured any hail heading directly towards me.