March Roars In Like A Lion ...

Hallo out there! I’m actually sat in my car writing this, trying to charge the battery on my IPhone. It’s 1 pm now and we’ve been without power for around ten hours. 

March suddenly came in like a lion in the South Hams of Devon!  In fact, virtually the whole of England has been severely affected, causing the usual chaos. Last night my friend’s husband took 16 hours to get home from Exeter, a mere 35 minutes drive away.

The problem is, you see, we are just not geared up for this sort of weather. They were calling this weather front The Beast From The East, as it came down from Siberia. Then, on top of that, we had Storm Emma coming up from Spain, so we were being hit on all fronts!

Certainly, the last time we had snow in this part of Devon was ten years ago, and it was nothing like this.  The wonderful thing, as always in unusual situations, the community spirit really kicked in. Drivers with four wheel drive vehicles were offering to go and visit vulnerable people, farmers were turning out with their tractors to rescue people from cars stuck in the snow, and even offering to get medical staff to their shifts in Hospitals. As the staff were saying, you can close schools, shops and offices, but you simply can’t close the Hospitals. 

It’s like going back to the olden days, being without power, because you don’t realise how much that affects everything, including, these days, the landline. We have oil for our central heating, but the pump is worked by electricity. How we take these things for granted in our everyday lives.   Fortunately, I have a wood burner in the lounge, with endless supplies of logs from the garden, so when I’ve finished writing this, and the battery is charged up a bit more on my mobile, that is where I shall be, hoping that our power is restored before it gets dark. I could really do with a lovely warm hot chocolate at the moment. 

The snow does look very pretty, of course, but it is miserable if you have to drive in it. In fact, the local Police are still advising people not to drive, as the conditions are so treacherous.  Tomorrow we will have sheet ice apparently. 

My youngest grandchildren were thrilled about the snow of course, and have had a great time out with their sledges, which sold out very rapidly, as you can imagine. 

My poor little chickens don’t like it at all.  This morning when I went up to see to them, I heard a lot of squawking going on, and found that the door to their little cubby hole had frozen, so the automatic door hadn’t worked to let them out.  Bless them, they’re still laying eggs though. 

By the time I write my next Post, I’m hoping that this will be just a distant memory.  Keep warm, and more importantly, safe out there if you are affected by the weather. We really thought that Spring was well on the way, with all the daffodils in the garden, but, no, it turns out that Winter had a real sting in its tail! 

I’ll close again for now, but see you again soon.