After 4 years of living on Scilly I have finally succumbed to Windfinder. Never before had I looked at the website until last week. I had heard references around the island of 'oh it's green, don't think we'll be rowing tonight', well green is a mill pond! It hasn't taken me long to work out, red, not so good, pink, don't even go there. I have now officially joined Will and Jessica's 'We Hate the Wind' club after another day hiding away inside. Normally I love days snug and warm inside while the weather rages outside but this, as I am sure most of the country agrees, is just ridiculous.
Last Tuesday was the first day where the weather really came in. All winter Will has promised me big storms as he avidly watches the forecast, and so far I have been smugly proven right in not believing in forecasts. But Tuesday!! Jessica, Amelia and I were happily playing in the hall, I thought it to be quite windy outside until there was some clattering to be heard where upon some investigation of very quickly sticking my head out of the door, it turned out to be the roof tiles. So I decided that actually it was very windy. I managed to freak myself out because I couldn't get a hold of Will on his mobile, and the noise of the raging wind outside was so loud the whole house felt like it shook, and to be honest I think I was quite right to be a little scared because it turns out the corner of the roof was catching and was thinking of taking off.. Oh how my heart bled for my dear husband when he turned up home from work and stood watching his nemeses rip at his roof (Will very Impressively built this house some 20 years ago). When he went up to the attic to investigate he ended up stuck holding onto the roof with his fingers poking outside, trying to keep it in place. It was at this point that our saviour appeared in the form of Tony, Mr Handyman-builder-there is nothing I can't fix/build/do really, oh except maybe dance (sorry!). So yes this crazy, wonderful, fool of a man proceeded to climb onto our roof in hurricane weather, with rain lashing down and batten down the roof. I chose ignorance, and kept myself busy with the kids as I over heard pieces of conversation like 'the worst thing that will happen is the ladder will blow down and you'll need to come help me down', really?! that's what you think the worst thing can happen is, cause my mind was just trying to work out whether a helicopter could come from the mainland in this weather to do medical pick ups!!!! But we survived, the roof survived and to be honest it has given us that kick up the bum to sort out all the jobs that need looked at on the outside of the house, rather than just prettyfication *sigh*
It is fascinating taking a walk around the beaches now. Watching waves come battering in and not even breaking over the quay but just flowing over is crazy. Our patio windows give great views of Highertown quay to watch the crashing waves, leaping into the air you can't help but stand giving an 'oooh' 'aaah', I was more impressed by this than Old Faithful. Along the beaches though it looks like someone has come along and sliced the dunes in two then scraped it all away. There are cliff drops every where, the slope for taking the gig boats down to the water is gone, there is just a drop! The things that have been uncovered, there is a boat with a tree growing out of it that no one has seen for decades, and I'm afraid a lot of rubbish. Jessica found a flip-flop exactly her size and hunted the length of the rest of the beach to find its friend, in vain sadly, but she still insisted in keeping her 'flip-without a flop' (I'll buy her a proper pair for summer). Lower town quay and up the slope to the hotel looks like it has had a snow fall with the covering of sand that it has taken. Old quay now has a very substantial hole it in, I mean there are huge chunks of concreted stone ripped from the quay, the power of the waves to do such damaged is extraordinary and quite frankly scary.
Hopefully that is the worst of it over. Those of you with interest will be happy to know that the chalets still stand, although maybe not too happy to know that includes the shower sheds...x
Last Tuesday was the first day where the weather really came in. All winter Will has promised me big storms as he avidly watches the forecast, and so far I have been smugly proven right in not believing in forecasts. But Tuesday!! Jessica, Amelia and I were happily playing in the hall, I thought it to be quite windy outside until there was some clattering to be heard where upon some investigation of very quickly sticking my head out of the door, it turned out to be the roof tiles. So I decided that actually it was very windy. I managed to freak myself out because I couldn't get a hold of Will on his mobile, and the noise of the raging wind outside was so loud the whole house felt like it shook, and to be honest I think I was quite right to be a little scared because it turns out the corner of the roof was catching and was thinking of taking off.. Oh how my heart bled for my dear husband when he turned up home from work and stood watching his nemeses rip at his roof (Will very Impressively built this house some 20 years ago). When he went up to the attic to investigate he ended up stuck holding onto the roof with his fingers poking outside, trying to keep it in place. It was at this point that our saviour appeared in the form of Tony, Mr Handyman-builder-there is nothing I can't fix/build/do really, oh except maybe dance (sorry!). So yes this crazy, wonderful, fool of a man proceeded to climb onto our roof in hurricane weather, with rain lashing down and batten down the roof. I chose ignorance, and kept myself busy with the kids as I over heard pieces of conversation like 'the worst thing that will happen is the ladder will blow down and you'll need to come help me down', really?! that's what you think the worst thing can happen is, cause my mind was just trying to work out whether a helicopter could come from the mainland in this weather to do medical pick ups!!!! But we survived, the roof survived and to be honest it has given us that kick up the bum to sort out all the jobs that need looked at on the outside of the house, rather than just prettyfication *sigh*
It is fascinating taking a walk around the beaches now. Watching waves come battering in and not even breaking over the quay but just flowing over is crazy. Our patio windows give great views of Highertown quay to watch the crashing waves, leaping into the air you can't help but stand giving an 'oooh' 'aaah', I was more impressed by this than Old Faithful. Along the beaches though it looks like someone has come along and sliced the dunes in two then scraped it all away. There are cliff drops every where, the slope for taking the gig boats down to the water is gone, there is just a drop! The things that have been uncovered, there is a boat with a tree growing out of it that no one has seen for decades, and I'm afraid a lot of rubbish. Jessica found a flip-flop exactly her size and hunted the length of the rest of the beach to find its friend, in vain sadly, but she still insisted in keeping her 'flip-without a flop' (I'll buy her a proper pair for summer). Lower town quay and up the slope to the hotel looks like it has had a snow fall with the covering of sand that it has taken. Old quay now has a very substantial hole it in, I mean there are huge chunks of concreted stone ripped from the quay, the power of the waves to do such damaged is extraordinary and quite frankly scary.
Hopefully that is the worst of it over. Those of you with interest will be happy to know that the chalets still stand, although maybe not too happy to know that includes the shower sheds...x