Windy.

It stayed dry for most of the day and didn't rain until I was on my way home from work. I'm finding it harder to get up in the mornings than during the holidays, maybe it's because I know my first task is my exercises which I didn't do for the last 12 days. Or perhaps I need fueling by chocolate? It is still fairly mild so I had some time to spend outside before going to work. For a change I didn't work up in the scree garden but instead tidied up all the smashed bricks & concrete which were dumped on the grass when the old chimney was pulled down. Obviously no garden fairy (or man) was going to clear up the mess so I picked up all the smaller pieces and dumped them in a soft part of the parking space, after moving the gravel to one side. Then I had a therapeutic time smashing the rubble with the back of a large axe, sensibly wearing safety glasses. Now the lawn doesn't look as if someone has fly tipped on it.

This term I am teaching history to my Year 2 classes. It's more about developing research skills but we will cover some British monarchs. So no messy 'making' afternoons to clear up. Today they were making web charts to show their knowledge about any real kings or queens and it wasn't a lot. I don't think Queen Victoria would have been amused to hear that she dyed her hair red with wee (Horrible histories!) but she probably did 'wear posh shoes' and I liked 'they used to think they could do what they liked'. Hopefully they will have a few more facts at the end of 6 weeks.

Windy.

The 12 Days of Christmas are over and during that time I have; relaxed, eaten well, enjoyed the company of friends, stuffed myself with chocolates, spoken with both our boys and generally had a proper break. But now it's time to get on and organised. The chocolates are put away, the jobs list book is open again and I'm back on my diet. I won't weigh myself for a week but my first goal is to lose the Christmas weight. Then another half stone would be good. I'm going to work on toning up so I need to find some more exercises (that don't involve my knees) to add to my routine. I haven't made any big plans as I might be lucky and have my second spinal operation this year. So I need to make sure I get as much garden work done as possible because I won't be able to do anything for a couple of months after the op. And when I'm not outside I hope to continue the de-cluttering and general sorting of our belongings. That's a massive job by itself.

The weather has continued to be stormy, strong winds with frequent showers. I was tempted to jump in the car and go for a nice long walk along the beach but that wouldn't get the gardening done. Instead I continued working on the scree garden. The wind roaring through the trees sounded like waves crashing on the shore and I had the satisfaction of another section of garden cleared. 

Stormy Again.

Peter was up and off to row before the sun came up this morning. As I'd had a decent night's sleep I got up at almost the same time and was soon getting on with the housework. After a quick breakfast and skim through Fb I wrapped up and went out to do some gardening. This was partly due to general enthusiasm but also because the forecast was for rain later in the day. Indeed it started to rain as Peter returned from his rowing session.

I couldn't let this stormy weather pass without a visit to the beach to watch the waves. It would have been a bit foolish to go down on Friday but today the wind had lessened and we went down to the beach half-way between low and high tide. Wrapped up well we were protected from the rain but I didn't take too many photos as I didn't want the camera to get wet. Today the waves were about 10ft high but we could see that the waves had been pounding the vegetation a good 10ft above the usual high water line.There were a lot of sand and shells right up on the top of the cliff presumably thrown up by extra strong surge waves or blown by the wind.

Back home we dried off and I got on with preparing school work for next week. I can hear the rain coming down heavily now and the news has announced 80 flood warnings in place at the moment.

Dry.

We're having a brief respite from the stormy weather but more storms due tomorrow. Apparently it's all linked to the storms over the east coast of North America.

We reconnected everything this morning but our internet is running at the speed of an arthritic snail, 0.1 Mb to be precise. I couldn't get online at all this morning so suddenly there was no communication with our widespread family, no chance to prepare stuff for work and no relaxing puzzles listening to my current favourite pieces of music. Instead I had a good long session picking up leaves and moss in the scree garden and then I'll finish the day with more ironing of duvet covers. The postman brought me a large parcel from Romas, more goodies - mmmm. I'll be back on my diet next week but for now I'm indulging.

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.

Mild.

The house is quiet once more as our friends left this morning. We now have a few days to relax before getting back into work mode. It has been great to have company but we are not used to such late nights.

The weather has stayed mostly dry today so after Sam & Kate left I was able to get another section of the scree garden cleared. We had some very heavy rain yesterday evening and more is forecast for the next few days including severe flood warnings. Luckily it is quite mild so there shouldn't be any risk of ice.

Grey and Wet.

After staying up late last night none of us got up too early today. Sam and Kate took Milo out for a walk and got back before the rain came down heavily but apart from that we have all been 'relaxing'. The biggest event of the day has been Squeaky scratching Milo on the nose. Patch and Speedy spend most of their time being put outside due to the fact that those 2 greedy cats cannot help jumping up on the forbidden kitchen counters to see if there is any food they can steal.

I had a look to see if I could find any pictures from last night's festivities in town only to find that due to a lack of sponsorship the usual free concert in the Square had been cancelled so there would only have been the fireworks display.