General Chat

We'll be thinking about you on Monday, Joan.

If it's any slight comfort - the first year is always the worst. It does gradually get easier after that.

This is a depressing time of year in any case. Roll on Spring!
More daylight, and things growing in the garden.

Thanks to everyone for your welcoming words.

I don't have much to chat about at the moment due to the time of year, the garden is looking drab just now but it's just too dark & cold to get out there to do anything, I noticed today that there are some branches of all sizes scattered around but not lifting them until we get some better weather.

Monday is going to be a really sad & difficult day as it will be 1 year since I lost jack, can you believe it's a year, where does the time go, our daughter is coming over to mine for a wee while.

Joan.

Oh boy!!

Here comes hailstones and snow eeeeek

Hi Joan
Glad to hear from you and that you survived the storm intact except for the bird tables.

Im so glad for you too that you didn't loses power!

Hope fully the worse has passed now and as Gwyn says, the days are stretching now and the mornings brighter so wont be long until Spring.

Glad everyone else is safe & well and looks like we all survived without any damage to our properties.

Take care and keep warm <3

Florence in the hebrides

Good to see you on here Joan, I did think of you and the others who were in the firing line for the worst of the storm. It must be frightening for you and I am pleased that you came through it. Leave the other bird tables down until it is a bit milder, no point in getting cold.

Stay in touch we like to hear from you. And I too hate the long dark nights.
It will soon be snowdrop time. <3

So good to see you posting Joan <3

What a bonus that your power stayed on, but I'm sorry that the wild weather makes you so frightened. It must have been awful, especially in the dark, when you can't see what's happening to make the loud noises. :-| :-|

Already I'm noticing that the afternoons are lighter longer and it gets light earlier in the morning, so hopefully it won't be long until we see a real difference.
Like you, I will be pleased when that happens :-D

Hello to everyone on the thread, so glad to hear everyone is doing ok & have got through the storm intact.

Once again the storm saw me very worried, I have never liked the high winds even when hubby was here but now that I am on my own I get really scared.
Yesterday it was quite windy through the day but I thought we were going to get away with anything more serious, however as it started to get dark last night the winds picked up into something much more serious, the banging against the front windows was horrendous & I had visions of the glass breaking & I fully expected the power to go off but actually stayed on which was a blessing.

Today it is less windy, all my bird tables have been blown over & I managed to pick up 2 of them but it is soo cold I gave up.

I'm still finding life difficult without Jack, but I try to busy myself with vrious things, night time is the worst time, the long dark nights are really difficult, looking forward to when we change the clocks & the nights will stay lighter for longer.

My love to all looking in, take care of yourselves.

Joan.

Morning all
Sleepless night as torrential rain and then the wind picked up again!

Its now very stormy still here and has been snowing in the next village!!

Shelves are empty in the shops and ferries are on amber so may not sail again.

Glad you didnt lose power AG, neither did we so very lucky.

Stay safe all and keep warm.

Florence in the hebrides

I feel extremely lucky not to have lost power, nor to have suffered any damage.

Many parts of Scotland still have no power, and some won't have it back until Monday or even later.

I'm glad everyone else on here is OK - at least I'm assuming Joan is.
I can see from the PowerTrack map that her area does have electricity today.

We have the storm in full force just now, quite horrendous but we have power.
AG glad your power stayed on!

Hope those of you in the red area don’t have any damage. Pleased you have stayed safe. Hope that continues. It has just been very breezy here and 10 degrees but nowhere near as bad as forecast.

Florence -
yes, some people locally have no power, but mine is OK, thank goodness.

It's gone off in a very random way
In this village, some houses have power and some don't - and not in groups, but just odd houses here and there, randomly on or off.

Apparently it's a local transformer fault.

I haven't gone out to look for damage, but haven't heard any crashing or banging, so hope everything's still where it should be! I'll have a look tomorrow in daylight.

It has been VERY, VERY windy here and we are obeying instructions and staying indoors. There are no trains, buses or ferries, the schools are all closed, the surgery is only partly staffed, for emergencies only and there are only a handful of cars on the road, which looks a bit like a lake.

When I got up at about 8am it was high tide and the sight was magnificent. The waves were breaking right up over the road and the spray was reaching half-way up our drive. It is now beginning to calm down - slightly! OH had one of the "red alerts" on his phone yesterday and again this morning. This is apparently the first time it has been used in Scotland and it was sent to 4.5million people in the Central Belt.

I was going to post this earlier but we had a power cut just after I finished getting lunch and it very kindly came back on as I was about to get tea!

The only visible damage is minor, but we haven't ventured outside to look at the roof yet. There is no sign of chimney pots on the ground, or slates, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It was apparently the strongest wind ever recorded in the UK.

Keep safe, everyone. :-)

ArgyllGran, i checked on the power map to see if you had power and some are off in that area.

Gwyn, with over 30 years of living here, Im always prepared lol

Joan , hope you are safe and well. Can you message us if you have power?

off to make early tea tonight.

Florence in the hebrides

It hasn’t been too bad here, although it is very windy. My sister is staying for a couple of nights, so I took her to Esme’s school bakery this morning. That is an experience which she won’t forget :-)

We then drive into town to have lunch in a cafe. They have just set off to drive to Leeds, only half an hour as it is their youngest granddaughters birthday, they will be back this evening.

I hope everyone in Scotland is OK, it looks bad up there according to the news reports.

I hope it doesn't get too bad for you in the north.
Hoping too that Joan doesn't lose power, as she is in rather an exposed location I think.

Conditions have eased here and we actually saw the sun for a brief time, but we have been warned that things will get wild again later :-|

Well done on being well prepared Florence. :-D

Keep safe everyone <3

it is 10 degrees here, dry and sunny with a brisk but not horrendous wind.Think it is supposed to get worse overnight.

Same here, Florence.

It was windier about 10am than it is now.
Maybe it's the calm before the storm!


ADDED -
Half an hour later:
It's windier now!
The lights keep flickering slightly, so fingers crossed the power stays on.

Afternoon all
Hope everyone is safe and well.

Very windy here at 7am and thought storm had come early but....it died down until last 10 mins and its now picking up. Think it will be worse for us late afternoon.

Its actually quite mild outside as I went for a small walk around and out to the bins.

Have filled flasks and tea all prepped to have about 4.30pm anyway so as always well prepared.

Stay safe all

Florence in the hebrides

Afternoon all
My nurse finally came at 4.45!!! However my left calf has reduced by 6cm and my ankles 3cm so she was very pleased with me. So now she has ordered new stocking in smaller sizes which takes about 2-3 weeks and revisit me to see which onw fits the best.

Over all a good result!

Now the "storm" coming tomorrow is looking pretty awful for those in the central belt including Glasgow, Northern Ireland etc and further south. We are still set for a bashing as per.

So I hope everyone secures their items outside and is prepared if you are in the path of Eowyn. Fill a flask etc is all you can do really and stay safe.

Flat calm again here just now and a pleasant day. I noticed yesterday I have a yellow crocus in full bloom, rose buds, still have leaves on my geranium too, which is a bit barmy!!

Off to have some lunch now

Florence in the hebrides