A Wet and Windy Weekend

Over the weekend storm Desmond did his worse, his rain lashed down and his winds lifted and shifted everything they could, although thanks to his brother Barney a couple of weeks ago we had re-located and battened down almost everything moveable.

Desmond must have got annoyed at the lack of things to move about the place because he flipped the Eglu 'arse over tit' ... luckily no chickens sleep in this overnight, they were tucked up in their dripping henhouse.  Yes, the rain was battering the side of the roof so violently that the tiny gaps in the boards were enough to let the rain drip down onto the poor birds for most of the night.

Yesterday was all about stripping out the henhouse completely letting it dry as much as it could in the light drizzle and refilling with dry bedding and newspapers after a liberal puff about of Diatom.  When the chickens inspected their living quarters at bedtime they must have been very relieved to see things back to normal.

We suffered almost the same fate as the chickens, but once we pinpointed the main drips coming in from above the windows on this side of the house, jugs and towels were all we needed to keep us dry.  We definitely need to do some repairs before we finish our renovations by having the house painted grey in Spring of next year.

Jugs were emptied on a regular basis, watching tele it was like having a goldfish in a bowl blowing bubbles behind us as we sat on the sofa.

But we have fared so much lighter than many, both further afield in the UK and closer to home.

Our journey back through our nearest village Llanrwst yesterday was one of wonderment that the river could rise so quickly, and completely change the landscape.   This picture is of the park, the white building in the background is the public toilets, to the right are the famous standing stones, the only building safe above the water line is the wooden tea room which stand on tall stilts, whether those stilts will survive being submerged for this length of time we will have to wait and see.

The famous Tu Hwnt ir Bont tearooms, stranded in the flood water.  The bridge has been closed for over a week now as there is no road to drive over to.

Fields under water ....

.. with tall trees looking like bushes and no fences to be seen.

Sorry for the blurry shot, that I took while LH was driving past.  This shows the flock of sheep trapped against the fence, their field was under water and they were lined up on the last narrow piece of  ground along the roadside.  We had knock after knock on our front door as folk stopped to see if these sheep were ours .... the perils of being one of the few houses close to the main road.  We explained over and over that their owner had been identified and informed but he was obviously busy elsewhere, hopefully saving more of his animals from floodwaters.

A final picture taken late yesterday afternoon before darkness fell.  The rain had stopped but the water cascading from the hillside was filling up the field opposite at an almost visible rate.  

This morning the rain has stopped, the wind has died down and the sun is shining, and while we still have the sound of running water, it is water flowing down the hillside through our new soakaway system and into the drains.  Our newly installed systems have all done their jobs amazingly well and the new drains that we installed at the roadside have even kept this notorious wet section of road drained and safe.

Reverse Advent - Days 6 and 7

Two trolleys of food for the local Foodbank, during their collection over the weekend.  

(This is an old photo of mine from earlier this year as I didn't want to bring attention to myself photographing the donation in Tesco on Saturday, but you get the gist.)

Sue xx