Time to batten down the hatches

A friend lost her conservatory as the roof from the house over the road came off and flew across the road, her sister was stood at her bedroom window and saw it coming and ran, her window is smashed, she had a lucky escape.

Fearn had a mad dash around with her friend Blue in the park, she's faster than him and he races after her yipping at her to slow down.

We're supposed to get more of these storms as the climate breaks down, I think some serious adjustments may be called for, such as solar panels and battery storage. So many people here are all electric as gas was installed fairly recently and a lot of the island dosen't have it, many relay on oil for heating or old fashioned solid fuel back boilers. I don't think many people in towns and cities realise how dificult and few the choices are in the countryside, especially in remote places. There are still places with poor or non-existant mobile phone coverage and broad band. The place we lived before had no mobile signal and the broad band was so poor that BT couldn't run they're sped cheeker and ended up reducing our bill.

Hi Cat, I'm pleased to hear you are ok.

I was woken up several times last night by the howling of the wind - it sounded horrible. Luckily I didn't have to go out this weekend, nothing in our part of our street seems to have been damaged, and our electricity stayed on. Glad it's nearly over now.

I woke up yesterday to no electricity, it was off all day and only came on in the middle of the night, I didn't know until I woke up to the delightful smell of toast wafting up the stairs from Mum's breakfast.

We had the gas fire on yesterday, something we rarely do, none of the animals had seen it lit before, but Muriel quite liked it, she stretched herself out in front of it warming her belly, but none of them liked not being allowed out, Fearn went out twice for a wee and that was it. My kindle ran out of juice at just the wrong point, at an exciting bit in the book I was reading. That's now on charge, battery operated xmas lights are a goddessend, I think I may get some more, I went to bed with a coil of them on my chest to read by.

We've still got high winds but they seem like half the stength of yesterdays, so I will probably venture to the park later and let Fearn have a mad gallop.

Hope you all stayed safe

My bins are in the shed. However, my area normally gets off lightly; with Weather Warnings.

I'm not going to panic.

The wind is about 55 mph now and it's raining quite heavily, 80mph+ expected about 5am. I hope we don't have power cuts or I'll miss Strictly timorrow, oh no, that the worst thing possible lol.

TheCatWoman said:

Mum and I have sorted out all the candles, holders, lighters and torches, I'd rather be over prepared and feel daft when it's all over than be taken by surprise.

Fingers crossed that they won't be required but to use an old expression 'better safe than sorry'.

Yes, we were upgraded this morning from an amber alert, hopefully the full force wil be on the other side of the island to us, but it will still be bad.

Mum and I have sorted out all the candles, holders, lighters and torches, I'd rather be over prepared and feel daft when it's all over than be taken by surprise. We've got loads of towels ready as our front door has started leaking when the wind drives the rain head on to it, we've just had the bloke out to order a new one, but it won't be ready until about february.

It is meant to be a vile night here tonight as well. I just got in the bins and the horses are in as well, better to be safe than sorry.

Be well and stay safe. Hope it's not as bad as they predict.

Good luck!

Are you within the red alert for a part of Wales?

All the best CW.