Well, 2016 has dawned with a dry cold morning, perfect for walking the dogs and such a relief not having to don waterproofs. There is more rain forecast but for the moment we are relishing this brief respite from lashing rain and buffeting winds. We are so lucky to have been spared the horrors that the north of England and parts od Scotland are suffering as result of Storm Frank, though is a lot of flooding in the Teifi Valley but it is mostly just fields that are under water and some roads & bridges have been impassable. We have had torrents of water rushing down the yard and cutting channels in the surface but so far there has not been the damage done as in previous years.
The winds on Wednesday night were hideous, so much so they removed the entire covering of one of our poly-tunnels which now stands in skeletal glory, its grey metal ribs exposed for the first time in about 10 years (the plastic has done us very well!) There is no question of attempting to replace the plastic until the weather is more settled and so it will have to stand in its nakedness until the spring. Unfortunately it is the tunnel that we use as a lambing shed, so the veg. growing tunnel may have to become a a home for the sheep in March.
Whilst having friends calling and we were in turn calling on others as usual over the Christmas weekend, the holiday was very different for us. Instead of spending Christmas Day in the bosom of our family (for perfectly amiable reasons) we went down to St. David's cathedral in Pembrokeshire for Choral Mattins. It was wonderful. The choir of St. David's is superb and the choice of hymns, carols & anthems really demonstrated their skills & it was marvellous to sit in that beautiful ancient building and feel it reverberate with the power of the organ and the sweetness of the choir as it has done for so many centuries.
After such an uplifting experience we then drove a short distance to the lovely Whitesands Bay for a good walk along the beach. It was surprisingly busy there considering it was Christmas morning, many people obviously taking an opportunity to walk their children & dogs before returning home to the turkey. There were even some brave souls swimming in the rather billowy sea, some in wetsuits, others not!
Yesterday I drove into our local town along a road that gave superb view of the flooded acres by the river Teifi. As I approached the outskirts of the town I saw a car had stopped on the opposite side of the road and a woman flagged down the few cars to stop while she crossed the road to where a sheepdog was crouching in the hedgerow. It was clearly very disressed and had obviously been out in the weather for a while. The woman approached the dog slowly with her hand out to it and it allowed her to catch hold of it and take it to her car. I guess it must have been a stray from a nearby farm that had got lost in the stormy weather. I hope it has been re-united with its owners, I'm sure the person who rescued it will do all she can to find out where it came from. It really has not been a Christmas for man or beast to be lost out in the wind & rain.
No comments:
Post a Comment