Wednesday - Getting our Flood Defences sorted...

The weather is awful at the moment or at least awful for so early into the Winter - this sort of weather usually doesn't arrive until January/February so it can only mean one of two things - the bad weather has come early and so will be over quicker or the bad weather has come early and it is going to be a long long long horrible extended winter.  I know which scenario I prefer!  

I have never seen coloured lightning before but I did last night and having looked it up on the internet apparently it is not that uncommon.  It looked for all the world like someone had blown up a bloody great Christmas tree as plumes of red and green shot across the sky.  The photograph is off of the internet as I had no chance of taking one but it gives you a bit of an idea of what it looked like.

The great lake of Droushia continues to grow over the fence - god help whoever buys that particular building plot as it is constantly waterlogged.  I remember a similar photograph from last year but that was mid January!  

I would normally have been going to craft today but with all the problems we have had with the rain we needed to try and alleviate the problem as more bad weather is forecast for this week so I cancelled craft so that John and I could go into Polis to get some guttering and get it erected.

En route we stopped in the village to check the post and have a look at the nativity tableau that Denise, Annette and crew erected the other week.  We have rather a posh tableau in the village now - all characters complete and in proportion!  It may not mean a lot to the older Cypriot generation for whom Easter is the big celebration but I am guessing that the influx of ex-pats over the years has changed the younger generations view of Christmas.  All the towns and villages, no matter how small now have Christmas lights and tableau.

We managed to get the guttering we needed so that we could try and stop the water coming off of the conservatory roof - after some discussion and a first attempt that then had to be modified we managed to get the guttering installed with the downpipe emptying into the front garden.  There is nowhere else for the waste water to go as we have no drains and we don't want to dump the water into the septic tank. Chivers kept us company whilst we were working - there must still have been some wildlife in amongst the herbs for him to stalk.  He soon disappeared when John got the hose out to test the water flow off of the roof into the gutter and out into the garden.  We were glad that we got the job done as the darkening clouds meant that we knew the guttering was soon to be tested to its limits. 

And tested it was with torrential rain, driving rain and the first lot of heavy hail.  The rain is bad enough but the hail wreaks havoc on the plants as it batters them to pieces.  Such a shame really as the garden was looking very lush and healthy up until now.

The new guttering was doing its work but there was such a downpour that we were bound to get some water coming in under the door - the sheer volume was too much - it was manageable though - fortunately.

 

We battened down the hatches - it is a favourite occupation at this time of the year.  John has been trying to empty one of the large gas bottles so that we can get it replaced and know that it is full for when Mum and Dad are here so he had the gas fire on full.

The cats love it when it is warm and Chivers found the best place to settle down was to be snuggled up on John's lap - with wild weather outside who can blame him!!!