Builders due - Storms return...

I could use some very colourful language to describe today because the weather has been abso-bloody-lutely diabolical...

We had slept last night with the shutters closed for the first time in ages - that was because the left hand one had kept me awake the night before as it rattled on its hook.  With the shutters closed you get no concept of time so apart from getting up to answer a call of nature at 4.44am we slept through unaware of the carnage the weather was reeking.  Our builders were due today but we had been keeping an eye on the weather and John had planned to call them today if the weather was bad to delay them as he wants to make sure that when all the glass is sealed it is sealed properly to provide as water-tight a structure as possible.  

We have managed so far without a conservatory but as I keep saying we hadn't appreciated just how much protection the temporary structure John had erected had given us and on a day like today boy oh boy how we miss it - I have some serious rising damp in my trousers as I have had to dash to and from the bedrooms.

We woke at about 7.00pm and could hear all sorts being blown around and the rain lashing down accompanied by thunder and lightening and this was the view that greeted us - it was barely daylight and it looks like the middle of winter.

My beautiful Poinsettia, which I have been nurturing since Mum gave it to me before Christmas, had been blown to smithereens and I have been left with an interesting stick in a pot!  Garden furniture was strewn all over the place and our soakaway in the front garden was barely coping with the rain.  Poor Sharon and Sean - it is the last full day of their holiday and there is no sign of it letting up as the day progresses.  Mum has phoned to say that several of the villages are without electricity and the Kastembena Supermarket in Kissonerga has had its roof blown off as a mini whirlwind passed through the village.  

We are being well and truly battered by wind and hail at the moment and John has just been out for some more wood for the fire and says it is strong enough to be on the Beaufort Scale somewhere.  

We are very grateful that we have the log fire to keep us warm as it has been a really, really cold and miserable day today.  Just take a look at the temperature outside this morning and compare it to the temperature outside last week (albeit a little later in the day admittedly) the only consolation is that the house is warm inside and we have plenty of food so we don't have to venture outside today.

We have had periodical respites from the onslaught when the sun has broken through briefly but the Droushia rolling mist has never been very far away and no sooner has the wind died down than it whips back up again with force bringing more rain and hail with it.  Global warming seems a million miles away I can tell you.  

With no chance of getting outside today we have had to find things to do indoors - we are all inside and after running round like whirling dervishes driving us demented the cats have eventually setted down - Chivvies is in his basket so John is having a cuddle with Minnie Mou on the sofa whilst watching Under the Hammer where they are featuring a house from Yeovil!  Well I say watching but it appears to me that they both have their eyes closed at this juncture!  That's gripping daytime TV for you - enough to send you to sleep!

I decided I would try and resurrect the gecko that Graham had tried to cut from some hardboard using the one that Vix had made me as a pattern.  He did a brilliant job until the wood split as he was cutting the last foot and so it was missing.  I had bought some beautiful green glass nuggets when we visited Jumbo's the other week with the gecko in mind and with nothing much else I could be getting on with by way of DIY I had nothing to lose by fiddling about with it.  Vix had some fantastic craft equipment which she used to give her gecko a lovely textured finish.  I had nothing but found some old nail varnish loafing in a drawer going thick which I thought I would use to colour and varnish the body.  I started off by smoothing out the edges as they were quite rough from being cut by a jigsaw that struggled with the hardboard and snagged quite a bit.  Then I painted the body with the nail-varnish and then finished off by using the nuggets to finish off the feet and give it some eyes.  

It is a very different gecko to the one Vix gave me but not too bad for a first attempt and I am sure I can find somewhere to home him.  I may have to put it where the Home Sweet Home sign John's Mum gave us used to hang as this has become a casualty of the weather.

The day went from bad to worse when the power went at 3.15pm so we were kicking our heels waiting for its return.  John and I have now caught up on all the local news having read the Western Gazettes from cover to cover!

The power returned at 5.00pm so we quickly took advantage and got a chilli con carne on the hob for tea.  We had the remainder of the strawberries for afters and they really caught Chivvies attention as I was hulling them - he is such a nosey little bugger!