IceMaiden wrote:Same goes for anyone who goes mountain climbing with absolutely no equipment or hiking in totally inappropriate clothing (someone was rescued off Snowdon a while back after setting off late on a Sunday afternoon wearing summer sandals and no coat),send them the bill for the helicopter or boat fuel. Apart from wasting time and resources they could be stopping someone genuinely in trouble from getting help and risking the lives of the rescue volunteers.
You're absolutely right, IceMaiden! I've been saying it for years. Irresponsible people should pay for the services if they deliberately put themselves and rescue services at risk.
Well said!, if you want to take a risk feel free to take responsibility to get yourself out of trouble rather than put other people's lives in jeopardy . We're scampering out doing the outdoor chores before next storm Dennis the Menace rolls into the west
It occurred to me yesterday that I've got to the age when I'm letting the weather dictate my life! In the morning, I had had this urge to drive to a nearby town and perhaps look at a tourist attraction that I last visited over thirty years ago. Bit windy out, but it'd be something different to do this weekend. But when I saw that Storm Dennis was going to strike in the afternoon, I really went off the idea! Hurried into my own town (which I do pretty much every weekend and it gets boring after a while), got my groceries, and ran back. Then I just sat indoors all afternoon listening to the wind and rain when I should have been getting fresh air!
Next weekend, I'll be driving to South Wales to stay with my friend for a couple of days. The area always seems to get the brunt of these Atlantic storms. Anyway, I had a look on the GOV.UK website for flood alerts in Wales. As of the moment, the entire country has 61 flood alerts (flooding is possible - be prepared), 74 flood warnings (flooding is expected - immediate action required), and 1 severe flood warning (severe flooding - danger to life). And this one severe flood warning is just a few miles upstream from her house! I know this village got it bad last year, and it looks as if it's about to be repeated.
Stephen wrote:It occurred to me yesterday that I've got to the age when I'm letting the weather dictate my life! In the morning, I had had this urge to drive to a nearby town and perhaps look at a tourist attraction that I last visited over thirty years ago. Bit windy out, but it'd be something different to do this weekend. But when I saw that Storm Dennis was going to strike in the afternoon, I really went off the idea! Hurried into my own town (which I do pretty much every weekend and it gets boring after a while), got my groceries, and ran back. Then I just sat indoors all afternoon listening to the wind and rain when I should have been getting fresh air!
Next weekend, I'll be driving to South Wales to stay with my friend for a couple of days. The area always seems to get the brunt of these Atlantic storms. Anyway, I had a look on the GOV.UK website for flood alerts in Wales. As of the moment, the entire country has 61 flood alerts (flooding is possible - be prepared), 74 flood warnings (flooding is expected - immediate action required), and 1 severe flood warning (severe flooding - danger to life). And this one severe flood warning is just a few miles upstream from her house! I know this village got it bad last year, and it looks as if it's about to be repeated.
Here in West Wales its stormy but manageable, I got out to top up the fatballs and suet-packed half-coconuts, highly popular with the birds, a few minutes ago and it was ok. Friends and relatives round Swansea are badly hit though, the Neath area particularly. We've arranged next weekend in the country in Sir Gaerfyddin (Carmarthenshire)so like yourself hope the weather plays along! A shame for all the families who'd made plans to go skiing for half term, so many flights cancelled.
I enjoy a good storm when I'm indoors, listening to the whistling wind and pounding rain and occasionally looking over to the window and watching tree branches toss and bend. I've had a lovely morning unpacking CDs and DVDs and arranging them on shelves - items that had been boxed up for about eleven months as it wasn't worth taking them out in my new place until I'd saved up for shelving units on which to store them. I had the soundtrack of the musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 playing (I've never seen the musical but the songs are really stirring) but I could still hear the howling wind and lashing rain in the background, and I drank my way through several steaming hot teas and coffees as I worked. It was dark enough to have the lamp on, casting a rosy glow, and it all felt very cosy and snug (and still does!)
Having said that, I feel sorry for people whose travel plans have been disrupted - and it's terrible to think of people's homes and businesses being flooded.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.
"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.
Sounds like a very pleasant way to spend a morning Anita.
I agree with your sentiments about the weather, although I didn't appreciate waking at 5.00am hearing it howling round the house. I do feel very sorry for those who have been badly affected, thankfully the worst storm damage I've ever suffered has been the loss of a few fence panels and some battered plants.
floragord wrote:Here in West Wales its stormy but manageable, I got out to top up the fatballs and suet-packed half-coconuts, highly popular with the birds, a few minutes ago and it was ok. Friends and relatives round Swansea are badly hit though, the Neath area particularly. We've arranged next weekend in the country in Sir Gaerfyddin (Carmarthenshire)so like yourself hope the weather plays along! A shame for all the families who'd made plans to go skiing for half term, so many flights cancelled.
The geography of Neath is a bit strange. There's the river, but the Neath and the Tennant canals run either side of it. My friend's garden backs onto Neath canal, but even though they're side by side (with a towpath in between), the canal is quite a bit higher than the river. And there's a large flood plain for just this sort of thing. So even if the river bursts its banks, I wouldn't have thought the town of Neath itself should be that badly affected. But a couple of miles upstream, you have charming little village of Tonna, and that is much closer to the river level which is why it's affected by this severe flood warning.
I do feel sorry for anyone directly affected by this. Must be dreadful to see water pouring into your home like that.
Sounds like a lovely day Anita. I am currently sitting in the dark with just a few tea light candles as we have a power cut. Half the town is also flooded with many roads closed. I actually think I’ll just go to bed.
"What a lot of trouble one avoids if one refuses to have anything to do with the common herd. To have no job, to devote ones life to literature, is the most wonderful thing in the world. - Cicero
"Did I ever tell you the story of the empty barn?"
"Och, there was nothing in it."
"It's the ash! It's falling!" yelled Julian, almost startling Dick out of his wits...
"Listen to its terrible groans and creaks!" yelled Julian, almost beside himself with impatience.
Anita Bensoussane wrote:I enjoy a good storm when I'm indoors, listening to the whistling wind and pounding rain and occasionally looking over to the window and watching tree branches toss and bend. I've had a lovely morning unpacking CDs and DVDs and arranging them on shelves - items that had been boxed up for about eleven months as it wasn't worth taking them out in my new place until I'd saved up for shelving units on which to store them. I had the soundtrack of the musical Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 playing (I've never seen the musical but the songs are really stirring) but I could still hear the howling wind and lashing rain in the background, and I drank my way through several steaming hot teas and coffees as I worked. It was dark enough to have the lamp on, casting a rosy glow, and it all felt very cosy and snug (and still does!)
Having said that, I feel sorry for people whose travel plans have been disrupted - and it's terrible to think of people's homes and businesses being flooded.
Nothing like battening down the hatches when the weather's dodgy! It was dark enough at 4pm to light the fire & lamps, and a heavenly log fire scented candle to write letters by. I deeply sympathise with anyone whose home is flooded - many years ago our mains waterpipe froze one winter and with a sudden thaw burst. We were slogging away at the hospital and by the time we'd been contacted and got back ceilings had fallen in, and we were out of the house for 6 months whilst it was more or less rebuilt - not an experience I'd want to repeat.
We've visited Neath a few times Stephen but didn't know there was a canal, we'll have to look out for it, and would like to see the castle ruins too. Hope you enjoy your weekend there, looks fairly calm after Tuesday according to the Countryfile weather for the week ahead!
The main problem in Lymington with this latest burst of rain and wind has been the side-effects rather than the actual weather - I was up at Royden before the main storm on Sat lunchtime and the Lymington river at the R ford was only a few inches higher than usual. Thanks to building of luxury executive homes on part of the former 'water-meadows' catchment area South of the High Street and its hill in the 1970s, there is now less land to soak up the rain when it runs downhill towards the sea. And with stronger sea-defences on the marshes and fewer outlets for the streams into the sea, the rain cannot run across the fields into streams thence into the sea, so it just piles up in the fields and lanes inland of the sea-banks and gets deeper and deeper! Fortunately there are no houses immediately adjacent.
We have now had a huge pond in the lane about 30 yards inland from the seawall, the whole width of the road and about 15-20 yards long and several inches deep, for a fortnight and the fields are too sodden to soak any of it up. (No sign of the authorities rushing to pump it out either...) And on Sat the ditches further along started to overflow, so yesterday there was another huge pond in the lane further along, nearly up to the top of my boots - I measured it and it was 11 inches deep. I've known that area since I was an infant, and this is the deepest flood ever; we didn't even have floods there until they built the new housing. (The only time it's been near this deep was in 2014.) It's not as bad as the flash floods in rivers in the N, but a common factor seems to be the removal of natural catchment areas!
. We're scampering out doing the outdoor chores before next storm Dennis the Menace rolls into the west 
