General Chat

What a caper.
Extreem weather and winters just started.
Take special care.

David I have just rung the fire brigade to see if they can help pump away some of the water that has at least affected 8 houses .We are in a queue(not surprisingly )
I think it will be new,freezer,washing machine,tumble drier at the least.Not sure about the new tiles.
I just let Chester out and he was almost doggy paddling in the deepest part of the back garden.

AND my wellies leak :-S :-S :-S

I am trying to make Chris go for a sleep as he is dead on his feet and freezing.James is trying to relight the fire.Hannah and John have slept through it all :-|

We daren't flush a loo or run any water as Chris said he looked down the manhole and the water is right at the top.

OMG Jane I feel so sorry for you and after all the trouble you have had already. You all must feel devastated.

Oh has just told me that sandbags won't do any good. The only thing they are good for is if you have a surge of water.

Whew, what a dreadful night! I have just been into the paddock/lake! to give Millie an early morning run and guess what it is raining AGAIN! Gosh Jane, I do feel sorry for you particularly after all the commotion you've been through, and now this! We are fine, no damage, just lakes of water, but the Cabin is elevated off the ground so no problems with water coming in. Do hope everyone is ok, and staying warm and dry.

Stay warm and dry till it subsides.
Where would the Fire Brigade pump the water to in the circumstances?

It rained all night here.Has eased of but forecast to get worse.

Hi Liz, glad you are all ok. Our orchard has gone down quite a lot over night and the water coming down the garden is now going down the drain again. It was last night when I looked before going to bed.

Oh off ringing so I think I will wash my hair while he is out of the way.

Just went in to clean Hogwart out and he was in the run bit and I talked to him but he just stayed there for a while before going back in his box.

Saw a fox this morning just over the back field and it looked like it was limping a bit, it was'nt going very quickly anyway. Perhaps it was just hunting for mice.

I bet Jane and Chris are having a sleep and I don't blame them.

Afternoon everyone,

Oh Jane i'am so sorry to hear your flooded , what a night you must have had , you must be worn out !!
Hope your pumped out by now and can get a few hours rest.
We have a strong wind here and now sun shine , no damage here and i never heard much in the night .

Been to sons for coffee ,had to the long way round to his as the town is closed off ready for the lights switch on later this afternoon.

Glad to hear that you are ok Mel and Mandy, I think the wind is getting up again!!!! no rain - yet! in fact it has been quite sunny here and the 'lake' is looking a lot smaller. Have just seen the news on the beeeb and the pictures are quite awful,makes me realise how lucky we've been!

Well am I tired or what :-S.The firemen decided not to pump us out as it wouldn't have that effective.They had a good go at the culvert and ditch which was blocked .Actually I think the blockage is in a pipe under the road or pavement.At the moment some highway men(not the ones on horses) are shoving some long piping down a big manhole and while `i was watching them a big spray of water shot up on the other side of the road.So something clearly happened.They are now in the process of putting a BIG pipe down.They were saying that all ditches alongside the road need to be cleared out.(I've been saying that for yonks)
So I don't know if the blockage has been dealt with or not.The water level is going down now although the garage is still full.Shoes all sorts floating about :-S

I have taken photos and put them on the pooter.But for some reason I can't work out how to email them.I will ask one of the men when they are awake.
I think I am almost too tired to sleep (if that makes sense).I think its best I stay awake until I go to bed and let Chris and James stay sleeping for now.
I will have to take Hannah and John to the station sometime after 4 as they will be back off to London.Hannah kept giving me a hug (which started to make me weepy ) so I had to say no more hugs please.

Sorry I haven't read any posts .Just keeping you up to date with crossed eyes :-|
Can you hear Chris snoring????? He is on the settee.Chester is adding his bit too.Bless his little white socks.He has been just a tad bemused ,but loved all the water in the garden.He thought it was great fun.But Meg the Collie when she was let out for a wee this morning got such a fright when she stepped out the back door into all the water she ran and hid under a bush.It took my neighbour ages to get her in again.

I haven't heard anything from my sister about her daughters house.Not sure if that is a good or bad sign.
MY EYEBALLS HURT so will get off the pooter for a while.
My kitchen sink is making some strange popping noises :-S

OH JANE. What can one say, After all your troubles, I bet you would be pleased not to see water for a year. !!! I know it's not much help, but if I can help in any way, let me know. Ros could have me over there in under an hour. Can you still cook ?? I mean is it safe to cook. ??? Like us,I expect you have bright sunshine and clear blue sky's. But OMG how it takes so long for the water to go down to a normal level.
I hope the men have cleared the blockage outside, then a least it will have somewhere to go.

We had a lot of rain last night but thank G it's dry at the moment. There is no chance of floods as we are quite high up in the village. My bird feeding station has been ripped from the lawn by the winds. It was flat on the lawn with a massive mound of grass and earth around the spike. It was a good 18 inches in the ground !!!

I listened to the radio this morning. The floods were all over the County. With roads cut off. to Villages. Where the Hell is all this rain coming from, and how much more is to come.???? I know that if the USA gets it, it follows that it comes here.

Ros is pulling up all the old tomato plants, from the greenhouse. I have sweept the drive and around the garage door. to rid us of all the leaves that have gathered in the corners. They get whipped up in a whirlpool, so are easy to collect.

Hows is everybody today. not suffering like our poor Jane and Chris.

Carolyn has just popped round, she has been ringing at a nearby Villiage, One of the ringers, bought in some Bread Pudding. which she knows I like, so has bought some for me. Next she is going to get the receipe IF I LIKE IT. I know it will never taste like my Mums, but as long as it's close I will live with it !!!

OMG poor you Jane, what a nightmare. If you have to replace a lot of things will you be covered on your insurance. I think we are okay here, not near any rivers. I was awake in the middle of the night and the wind was howling, surprised to see everything quite normal when I got up this morning. What is going on with this weather :-0

If I lived close to you Mel I would join you too for a wander round the craft fairs, don't seem to get any around here. No boot sales either until next March, that's something I like to do on my own, am very methodical, go up one side and down the other. When I've been with my daughter we always get seperated and she will ring my mobile and say she's done and on her way home, and I'm only half way round.

Have made a start on the Christmas cards so I'd better get back to it before I end up spending the whole afternoon on the computer.

Oh Jane, my heart goes out to you, it just hasn't been your year one way or another. As David says, where would we be without the emergency services. I do hope things soon dry out for you, I can't imagine what it must be like for you.

I was watching TV footage on the BBC News channel this morning of the floods in Malmesbury. We used to go that way (before motorways!) on our way cross-country to Cornwall and it's hard believe it's the same place. I was saying to Carmel just this monring, all the pretty places we used to liked to go - like, Evesham, Upton on Severn, Bewdley, Pershore etc - they are all probably dreading getting flooded, as they have been in the past.

Although the was sun shining here, we haven't ventured out. It's still a cold blow round the side of our house as I know from going round to the bin! The wind and rain in the night were awful on our front dormer.

I had a pooter problem with my photo software on here this morning, but the 'nice man' on my help line sorted it all out for me remotely. Isn't technology wonderful (at times!)

C Y A L - stay warm - stay dry. Especially Jane :-S

How awful Jane! I hope the water is going down now........more mess and things for you to sort out as if there hasn't been enough!! .

We live a quarter of a mile uphill of a river but are too high for that to have been a problem. We would have been fine, the water is racing along the ditch in the field over the bottom fence, but we have water pouring in from the neighbour (with the barking dog) at the side of us. :-S It means our arbour at the bottom is sitting in a pool. Totally unecessary and so annoying as they have blocked the ditch up at the back of their bungalow, forcing the water onto their garden and into ours under the fence!!! :-S What on earth do they think a ditch is for?? :-| It was only yesterday that OH was picking up and putting back her fencing panels for the umpteenth time......they keep snapping and flattening our new shrubs.......but do we ever get a thank you....no!! One of the roads in the village has been closed since yesterday........never known it be closed because of floods before. No more rain today thank goodness.

Glad your new home is raised up Liz. They have had to move some of the ponies here that graze alongside the river.

Glad you are still dry too Mel.

As any one who has experienced will know flooding is very serious,no laughing matter.

The causes apart from the persistent torrential rain are within our control to an extent.

I have noticed that once it's as bad as it is now it doesn't take much more rain for there to be surface water again,damaging property and disrupting travel.

The drains in our system cannot cope because I suspect the smaller drains are not being cleared of obsruction regularly as they once were.

Our local council cleansing departments used to have this as part of their job.But you seldom see them clearing them now.Result,big problems.

Government ought to be petitioned to make drain cleaning a priority until the drains are able to cope with little more than a shower.There after to clean then regularly.

Ann,glad you are ok, your neighbours have done (blocking the ditch) exactly what our old neighbours did in Somerset! They owned the ditch at the bottom of our gardens as our boundary went to the edge of the ditch, with their field beyond that,and the b###s just NEVER kept the ditch clean so the water could get away to the river; result was that flood water came into our garden and stable!! the water didn't bother them as their garden was higher than ours and on a slope, so all the water from their garden and field came straight into us!!! like you, what the h## did they think the ditch was for?!!! :-| No wonder we fell out!!! OH watching the Grand Prix, weather in Brazil sounds a bit like ours! pouring with rain!!! usual rubbish TV later, (apart from Country File) thank goodness for the history/geographic channels! not sure if we will watch The Secret of Crickley Hall' As my small grandson would say, 'it's full of scary bits'!bits'!!!!

I am looking forward to Crickley Hall tonight. There's not much on the telly I watch at the mo. I have been watching the silly Christmas movie on the True Movie channel.

I watch country file in the week on catch up. Last weeks was the same as the week befores!! I was most upset.

Some people around here chuck their grass cuttings and hedge clippings into the ditch, Liz. To be fair, the previous neighbours nextdoor didn't help by filling part of it in so they could have a gate in the bottom fence and walk their dogs in the field. I doubt they put drainage pipes through when they filled the section in. Same as you were, we are lower than nextdoor. I think it might be worth trying to find out who owns the field and whether they would clear the ditch. I think landowners must have a responsibility to maintain ditches?

David, the local council around here have been really busy this Autumn, digging out the drainage channels off the country roads, but I agree it is ages since I saw one of those lorries with the big nozzle down the roadside drains!

I went to another little craft fair at the place we have our bead classes today. It was from 4.00pm to 6.00pm, very unusual on a Sunday. There were 2 jewellery stalls, one very cheap, the other very expensive, but nothing very interesting there.

Well, the rain is back, hammering down on the conservatory again!! I hope it doesn't last long.

Yes, we are looking forward to it as well Mel. I wonder if it will be just as creepy this week!!

You've persuaded me - I shall be watching and shut my eyes in the scary bits!!! Like you Mel, we can't find much to watch these days- even the channels we like tend to be repeats! At the moment we're watching 'Indian Ocean' with Simon Reeve, which we recorded earlier on, and it's very watchable but a wee bit depressing. Not rainiing here again yet, it should get drier and colder this week, if it can just stop raining it will be something! We went to a local Craft Fair last week and I was able to get the rest of my pressies, so I feel quite 'smug'!!!