Stormy times

Well, I am back with a couple of days worth of tales from the Old School. I had a bit of an electricity outage yesterday so was unable to blog. In short, a very busy day work-wise. Again. They really are making me earn my pennies at the moment! I popped outside briefly to see what they were getting up to and there were only two men today, not the usual three, but they were sat having a rest and chatting. As I was having a look at the progress something caught my eye and part of me wished it hadn't! The most mahoosive beetle I have ever see. This thing was like something that should have featured in Jurassic Park! It had to have been over 2 inches long!

HUGE beetle

 Back at work for another little while and I heard Rambo causing a commotion and barking again. I think the birds swoop down and fly either into or through the porch and it drives him mad. Here he is staring at them.

Bird watching

 The men were working away and digging up the patio for the trench that will hold the outlet pipe for the drains.

Men at work

By mid-afternoon it was apparent the forecast of a big storm were probably right. The clouds started to drift ever closer and it began to get very dark. I got my candles out and ready, just in case. Very gloomy indeed.

Storm blowing in

It didn't take long for the rain to begin and I cannot tell you how much water fell in a relatively short time , with a lot of help from the wind and we still had a little bit of a leakage seeping through from a few holes still around the windows where they have either fitted new ones and we are waiting to seal on the outside or through the old ones which have not been replaced yet. How and ever, I was shifting boxes of books onto the chairs to avoid any water damage and anything else that had to be saved. I even moved the sofas out of the direct hit coming in from the end window and that was heavy work!

Slight leak

More leakage

I had called the men in from the porch as I was moving stuff around on the corridor as they just had no shelter and didn't come in of their own accord.  When I had gone down to get them I noticed that Rambo's bed was missing from the porch.  Yes, he had done it again. I had to fish this out of the trench which had filled up with lovely muddy water. Idiot dog.  Straight into the washing machine for that!

Sopping bedding

 The storm really took it up a notch shortly after I had cleared the corridor  and the electric finally gave way after a huge rumble. Rambo was in the porch barking at every clap of thunder. Have a look for yourself.

So I resigned myself to an evening of relaxation and no blog. I honestly did not quite know what to do with myself, but I managed in the end!

My evening

And so it was a restless night as I was up and down to check on Rambo. He was fine and excited for most of it. The electricity did come on at around 9pm but flickered a lot so I took myself to bed. It hadn't passed completely and I woke a few times in the night but I think the worst had passed.

This morning was very foggy first thing and I had a big file to finish so I cracked on with that. As the fog cleared pretty fast the sun came out and stayed out for most of the day. An aerial view of where the drain will be running.

Out pipe

 As you will have seen from the video above, the wind really did get up and there was more damage to the trees. They really have taken a battering this year. The leaves have been stripped of sections and the are looking a little sparse in areas. Hopefully they will recover.

More tree damage

 I have decided that as I have forgotten to leave anything out for my dinner to head down to the restaurant for the evening and feed myself up there and relax by the river a while. Hopefully no more storms will blow in and the weekend can be a little more productive here this week. I need to replant some of the corn from the raised beds as it is trying to burst through the glass already! I will leave you with the aftermath. It is truly awful, as you can see.

What storm?

Leka nosht.

A x