Best time of year.
I must just say that this is the best time of year.
After such a long time of cold wet weather we have just had the first hot weather of this year.
It has come at the right time. May is the sweetest most flowery of months and it's uplifting. The river bank and hedgerows have sprung into life. Everything has grown at least six inches since last week. The first, fresh green leaves have appeared. The hedge bottoms are bursting with fresh young nettles with their creamy bell flowers and swathes of white starry stitchwort, red campion, masses of bluebells and some rich yellow plant that I can't think of the name. The Hawthorn blossom smells wonderful and in another week everything will be smothered in a froth of cow parsley. It's so lovely I'm going to take photos and learn how to post them so you can all see how gorgeous everything looks.
We had a freak storm on Sunday. It was sweltering in the morning. After lunch it suddenly changed and we had a violent thunderstorm, right overhead - no second between lightening flash and thunderclap. It brought torrential rain and hailstones the size of peanuts (big for here). It stayed above us for about two hours and as I was watching from an upstairs window I saw a big brown wave of muddy water rushing down the road. A flash flood! In a second the front garden was two foot deep with muddy water. After the initial rush the water just kept on coming. Having been seriously flooded before I knew better than to open the door. Thank God my land drains at the back of the house were still coping. The back of the house is about three foot lower than the front and is where I've been flooded the worst before. Last year I organised some serious work on a local culvert which was blocked and that saved me (and my neighbours) from being flooded this year. Yay!
After a while, as the water started getting into the houses next to me I saw the neighbours rushing out to pull debris from drains. Going out to see if I could help they started to erect a makeshift dam with planks of wood and flagstones to try and divert the water through the farm. I decided not to join them in that. The water was already in by then and they just sent some of it flooding into the barn thus destroying all the hay and wood that was in there. The testosterone was flowing as fast as the flood!
The farmer was higher up the road doing exactly the same thing but diverting the water into a field - trying to save his barn poor bastard.
Anyway, the rain stopped and eventually so did the flood. Lucy had some friends over and and they had some excitment from watching all this raw nature, especially when I had to piggy back them through the flood water to get them to their parents. They love staying at my house, something always happens. LOL.
I got off lightly for once. The water got into the porch at the front and about two foot into the dining room at the back - easily mopped up. I noticed today though that my front door has warped and the panels have started to have gaps so I suppose I will need to get a new one made soon. Better than having to rip up floors and replaster though.
I feel soryy for my friend, two doors down who went on holiday for week on Saturday. She didn't leave a key with any of us and water definitely got into her her house. We can't get in to dry it out and it will be a stinking mess by the time she returns next weekend.
In other news my best cat ever, Geoffrey, died two weeks ago. Poor little laddie was just worn out. He was 27 years old and a darling from beginning to end. He is buried in the orchard underneath a pear tree. I have two new cats both strays less than a year old and alas, I'm fairly certain one is in kitten, sigh. Stan the labrador is vastly amusing every single day. I do wish he wouldn't belch and fart so loudly and so often though.
After such a long time of cold wet weather we have just had the first hot weather of this year.
It has come at the right time. May is the sweetest most flowery of months and it's uplifting. The river bank and hedgerows have sprung into life. Everything has grown at least six inches since last week. The first, fresh green leaves have appeared. The hedge bottoms are bursting with fresh young nettles with their creamy bell flowers and swathes of white starry stitchwort, red campion, masses of bluebells and some rich yellow plant that I can't think of the name. The Hawthorn blossom smells wonderful and in another week everything will be smothered in a froth of cow parsley. It's so lovely I'm going to take photos and learn how to post them so you can all see how gorgeous everything looks.
We had a freak storm on Sunday. It was sweltering in the morning. After lunch it suddenly changed and we had a violent thunderstorm, right overhead - no second between lightening flash and thunderclap. It brought torrential rain and hailstones the size of peanuts (big for here). It stayed above us for about two hours and as I was watching from an upstairs window I saw a big brown wave of muddy water rushing down the road. A flash flood! In a second the front garden was two foot deep with muddy water. After the initial rush the water just kept on coming. Having been seriously flooded before I knew better than to open the door. Thank God my land drains at the back of the house were still coping. The back of the house is about three foot lower than the front and is where I've been flooded the worst before. Last year I organised some serious work on a local culvert which was blocked and that saved me (and my neighbours) from being flooded this year. Yay!
After a while, as the water started getting into the houses next to me I saw the neighbours rushing out to pull debris from drains. Going out to see if I could help they started to erect a makeshift dam with planks of wood and flagstones to try and divert the water through the farm. I decided not to join them in that. The water was already in by then and they just sent some of it flooding into the barn thus destroying all the hay and wood that was in there. The testosterone was flowing as fast as the flood!
The farmer was higher up the road doing exactly the same thing but diverting the water into a field - trying to save his barn poor bastard.
Anyway, the rain stopped and eventually so did the flood. Lucy had some friends over and and they had some excitment from watching all this raw nature, especially when I had to piggy back them through the flood water to get them to their parents. They love staying at my house, something always happens. LOL.
I got off lightly for once. The water got into the porch at the front and about two foot into the dining room at the back - easily mopped up. I noticed today though that my front door has warped and the panels have started to have gaps so I suppose I will need to get a new one made soon. Better than having to rip up floors and replaster though.
I feel soryy for my friend, two doors down who went on holiday for week on Saturday. She didn't leave a key with any of us and water definitely got into her her house. We can't get in to dry it out and it will be a stinking mess by the time she returns next weekend.
In other news my best cat ever, Geoffrey, died two weeks ago. Poor little laddie was just worn out. He was 27 years old and a darling from beginning to end. He is buried in the orchard underneath a pear tree. I have two new cats both strays less than a year old and alas, I'm fairly certain one is in kitten, sigh. Stan the labrador is vastly amusing every single day. I do wish he wouldn't belch and fart so loudly and so often though.