Storm Gerrit.

We've had some wild and stormy weather these last few days. The sea, when it's not been hidden from view by torrential rain, has been whitecaps as far as the eye could see and far too rough for even the brief dip that Vytas and Sally had hoped to take.

We've had a lovely couple of days with Vytas and Sally visiting. Yesterday, despite the steady rain, we drove to Devil's Bridge to walk down and then up the many steps stopping frequently to admire the thundering waterfalls. All the recent rain had increased the amount of water forcing its way through the rocks and the waterfalls were much more dramatic than on my last visit with Peter. And we were treated to bonus waterfalls as the water poured down the slate steps as we made our way up. Unsurprisingly we were the only people visiting the waterfalls (there's an automated turnstile at the entrance). I took a cautious approach and made sure to hold on to the metal rail at all times. I don't trust wet slate and there were a lot of fallen leaves on the steps as well as all the puddles. How daft would it be to slip and twist an ankle? No mishaps occurred and Sally and I were both wearing waterproof over trousers as well as heavy raincoats which helped keep out the rain. By the time we got back up to the top we were ready for a hot drink in the nearby hotel. (Peter's bad knee stopped him from joining us on the trip and he's just had a letter postponing his knee injection to March which is very disappointing.)

The storm began to worsen in the evening but we were all nice and cosy at home enjoying a veritable banquet of a Chinese takeaway meal. We were all startled by a flash of lightning which was so bright it was as if somebody had used a camera flash through the window. Afterwards we played a LOTR escape room type of puzzle game which was difficult but fun. Lots of lateral thinking and collaboration required.

The storm raged on this morning with thunder, lightning and torrential rain which made Vytas and Sally delay their departure until they could actually see the road.

Vytas trains hard for his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and likes to keep up his daily stretches and exercises which is why I kept finding him taking up strange positions often combined with going out for a run.

There was a short sunny interlude after they left but by the time I had cleared up the kitchen and then restored the spare room back to being my study and thrown the first lot of washing in the machine the storm had returned. I was just settling down to checking out the village FB page and seeing somebody reporting their power had gone out an hour before when click - off went our power. It was off for awhile with much complaining from Peter when at last it returned but who knows for how long. With that thought in mind I did my Duo and then blogged.

And as promised here is the Boxing Day Dip filmed by Dave B. If you watch it I appear (purple jacket with my back to the camera) right at the beginning when 'The Gathering' appears on the screen.