Storm Eleanor

Hi there, beautiful people.  Just thought I'd pop up on your screens with a quickie to left you know what's going on around these parts.

Storms.  Rain.  Hailstorms.  That's what's occurring around here.

We've been battered by storms and deluges coming in off the Atlantic for what seems like weeks now.  I'm finding myself with just the occasional short window of weather good enough to walk around the 'hood before some more of the stuff comes back and hits me.

Our latest storm was Storm Eleanor.  She hit us on the night of 2/3 January with 50-75 mph winds. 

She was relentless through the night.  She huffed and puffed and shook my little house.  I could feel my little house shudder and its granite walls are 12 inches thick! 

Here's what it looked like on the morning of 3 January in my 'hood.

It shook up the sea on the west coast, where I live.

The heavy seas breached the sea walls and coastal roads became flooded.

As the tide subsided and the storm eased,  the occasional car braved the roads.

But there were no pedestrians to be seen.  The water was above wellie-height.

A coastal restaurant car park, flooded.  No cars left here overnight, fortunately.

Many houses were flooded along the coastal area.

(Photos from the Guernsey Press FB)

Eleanor was a particularly noisy storm.  She blew without pause all through the night, battering the house and the windows, augmented occasionally by rainy squalls and intense hailstorms. Sleep was sparse. There is a fair amount of flooded fields inland too.

So whilst the storms choose GB as a favoured destination, our little islands fresh food takes another hit.  This time I give you the fruit shelves.

We felt sorry for the fruit that's left.  Why don't the vultures want those two coconuts sitting huddled together on the top shelf?  Or the solitary melons left in their boxes?  Heartbreaking sights indeed.

We're hoping the storms will abate soon.

The cargo boats will get through.

The field opposite the house will dry up and the ponies will be able to get out grazing again.

I'll get some washing out on the line without fear of it blowing into Mr Neighbour's garden.

And I'll get out walking again.

Another storm is on it's way, but not forecast to be as bad as Eleanor, which was one of our worst storms in recent years, apparently. 

 But it's alright, Storm Eleanor ...

I'm alright where I am.

A la perchoine.



Storm Survivors ... Well, Mostly

Back home again.

Bertie The Cat was my first port of call, I snuggled on the sofa with him for the prerequisite amount of time. 

When I could contain myself no longer, I checked out the garden for storm damage, followed by my omnipresent shadow Bertie. 

 Storm Katie has been the latest of so many storms that have hit us this year.  We were in Southampton when it hit on Sunday.  It seems it hit Sussex more badly than the rest of the south of England and the Channel Islands, so we got off lightly.

I don't know how the island fared, so I wanted to check first hand out in the garden. 

It seems to have survived ... mostly.

The hyacinths are still standing proud

A late-flowering variety of daffodils have come through

Tulips have sprung up in the two weeks we've been away and have survived Katie

Arum Lilies have come through too

But, oh dear, my poor Banana plant has been burned by the wind :-[

That will need some serious cutting back PDQ in order to survive through to summer

No garden fence panels succumbed to Katie's wrath and my decrepit Leaning Sheds of Guernsey are still standing.  So, most of the garden has survived.  Just that poor Banana plant has taken one for the team, brave little soldier that it is.  Fret not, matie, Mummy' s here ...

A La perchoine

The Calm Before The Storm

Everything looked pretty calm on Saturday. 

M&S pink cashmilon sweater with button cuff trim and jeggings, H&M denim shirt.

With Cotton Traders quilted jacket.

And then off I go for a beach walk on a nice sunny day.  It was really quite warm so no need for scarf to protect the neck from winds, of which there was pretty much nothing.

We have BIG tide shifts.  I'll take a picture some time of this view at high tide.  Big difference.

You can just about spot some surfers in this pic.

The sun and the clear blue skies were out again on Sunday.  Good start to the day. 

Then, a simple "See you Wednesday" when on the phone to SD who is meeting up with us at the start of our forthcoming holiday, was responded with "No, you're travelling on Tuesday". 

Picture the opening scene in 4 Weddings and a Funeral.  Definitely some expletives filled the air.  A mad dash to check the flight details confirmed she was, of course, totally correct, for she has a fresh young brain!  We had a day less to prepare for the trip.  Yikes!

  A storm descended on this household.  A quick damage-limitation conversation resulted in a Plan B (a mess of scribbled notes as we emptied our OAP brains on to paper - not literally of course, that would be awful.  And messy.  And counter-productive, for we had a house to clean, not mess up. 

The essence of the list was Fast Track Everything.  

There ensued more mad scurrying and storming around throughout the day working to Plan B; sorting out the cat food and stuff; laundry, organising and cleaning;  and a first attempt at packing!  And only then were we on top of things.  

But this was so not how I'd envisaged my day when drinking a leisurely first coffee of the day before the storm erupted.  Fortunately I was a little ahead of the game, having last week completed the more serious prepping of laundering and ironing sofa and dining chair covers.  I took solace from that thought as I scurried around like a whirling dervish.

I usually tell myself that my OAP blunders are in some way endearing and typical of an aging lady, but messing travel dates is one BIG non-non, and only some serious diarising and checklist templates can avoid this in future.  I'd better get on to it.  Immediately.  But after I've finished this post.  And when I've had a G&T.  And then caught up on The Night Manager on TV.  Yeah, you get this picture too - I am a serious procrastinator so be prepared for a repetition of this post in the near future! 

Do you have forgetful moments?  Do you get yourself in a pickle?

BTW, I'll have the technology to continue posting whilst I'm away so it should be business as usual.  Provided I remember :-)

A la perchoine.

Outfits, Vets and Automobiles

 It's been a busy couple of days so sadly I've had little time to put together anything more than a simple post with a few piccies. 

And as usual, the busy days are the days when the sun shines in a cloudless sky, the wind drops and the spring vibe is all around.

Yesterday was pretty much used up by picking up the new car - well, new to this household but not a new car per se.   But it is a capacious estate car that welcomes with its electronically opening boot any large golf bags and trolleys you want to throw at it and its comfy interior and pokey engine sing out "take me on holiday with you". So it's wish is my command - it just may have a little trip away later in the summer.

The lengthy buying process seems to involve hours of sitting round a salesman's desk, drinking coffee, chatting and filling in lots of pieces of paper.  And I mean hours!!  Then going through pretty much the whole process again a few days later ... only with slightly different bits of paper.
Whilst the spring sun works its magic outside, without me.

What a gal wears when picking up the "new" car.

The White Company wrap top in taupe jersey with Accessorise taupe mix scarf and Next sculpt jeans.

And layered with a White Company swing cardi, as the day was sunny but quite chilly.

The route to the garage along the west coast road is littered with the debris of our recent storm - piles of small rocks, vraic (seaweed) and mounds of sand lie along the roadside, lifted up from the beach by the sea's might.  The Storm With No Name coincided with a spring tide, so huge powerful waves crashed over sea walls for some hours on Wednesday evening.

And today was filled with a trip to the vet with a sick pussycat (on-going problem, he seems OK now) and some family time including a meet-up - with coffee & buttered Guernsey Gache :-) - to make plans for a forthcoming holiday.

  Yippeeee!!!  We have two lovely family holidays coming up soon - I am very excited!

The busy day called for something ultra-easy, so Next black jersey wrap top with East embellished scarf over M&S jeggings.

And outdoors with my M&S puffa jacket. 

The quietened sea is just about visible in the background.  Sorry, the shot is taken with that little Canon again,  it doesn't take a brilliant picture but it fits in my pocket, so hey ho.

A la perchoine.



Windows Force 10?

We have been belted by The Storm With No Name.  75 mph winds.  Apparently the letter K was the next in line for storm naming but for some reason (a paucity of male K names?) this one is unnamed.

A storm force 10 was raging outside and a storm of a similar force was a-raging here inside PP Towers too.  Me raging with Windows 10! I had no pictures to post as, after hours of ferocious and frustrating right-clicking and control c'ing in an attempt to move photos from camera to folder, this defeated lady had to step away from the laptop with what little decorum she had left. Empty-foldered, bruised-fingered and storm-worn.   Hmmnn, Windows 10, severe gale force 10 ... coincidence?

Does anyone out there know how to get Windows 10 to perform this simple task, speedily and without drama, just as all of its older Windows siblings were able to do with relative ease?


I leave you with a picture of calmer times and calmer waters ... and one transferred to you via Kindle.  No frustration, no drama, no expletives, just a simple task simply performed by a simple electronic device.

Photo courtesy of Evoke Photography

And calm times we do have today.   The force 10 storm has now left our shores but, alas, Storm Windows Force 10 will still be raging in this household :-(.

A la perchoine.

And just when I thought it was safe to step out in the garden ...

... along came Storm Imogen.  Gale Force 10 winds battered our shores with just under 80 mph winds being recorded in the area.  There are some atmospheric photos on FB  of our poor little island taking a right pounding.  My little olive tree was nearly blown inside out!

Of course, the photo is not as clear or as dramatic as I would have liked, I couldn't quite click the nano second it was doing one of its touch-the-ground bendovers ... and of course I took it from indoors from behind rain-splattered glass!

Talking of touch-the-ground bendovers, leading up to retirement I had a vision of me waking bright eyed and bushy tailed and heading out on to the "terrace"

(for that was my vision, reality = same old patio)

 wearing The White Company yoga style clothes and doing a session of tai chi before sitting cross-legged on a stylish cushion pad to contemplate my navel in deep meditation, thinking profoundly deep thoughts which would lead to me saving mankind and the planet.

The White Company, Loungewear

Storm Imogen is the reality.  No meditation gonna happen out there.

I too was getting a pounding on Storm Imogen Day.  It was a both a designated gym and a 5:2 day.  Not really anything like my vision for retirement, eh?  A double-whammy of self-inflicted hardship.

I'm not inflicting pictures of me in my Lycra on you, dear reader, count your blessings!

But what you do get are pictures of my day's

500 scoffacious calories.

The top one was how lunch looked, Pao's Asparagus Soup.  It is truly yummy!  I'll give you the link to the recipe below.  I haven't been able to find anything other than full-fat evaporated milk on the island, so I calculated some extra calories for that.  If anyone finds the skimmed version that the recipe calls for, please let me know. 

It must be an American thing as the recipe measurements are in cups.

The link: http://www.dce.org/resources/recipes/archive/pao-s-asparagus-soup/

The evening meal was some sliced marinated chicken which I'd cooked on Saturday, and warmed through in the oven with some kale (with the dregs of the previous day's salad chucked in for fun).  I added some boiled carrots for colour, and, well, for nutritional purposes too, I 'spose.

This dish was yummy too but not as yummy as something that is only 100 cals worth of yumminess.

OK, let the Word Police pull me up for repetition of "yummy", but yummy it was.

Now here's the thing about 5:2, and the same goes for all diets I expect.  They work super-fast first time round.  You have a break, you go back, and the weight falls off at a snail's pace.  Just 2kgs have departed from this body in 5 weeks.  Queue sad emoticon face ...  Bodies are clever, they remember, they adjust.  But, looking on the bright side - and I'm scratching round here - I expect it's keeping my winter weight off and they do say that weight lost slowly does tend to keep off longer. 

Last time round I found some great recipes for 5:2, mostly on

http://www.lavenderandlovage.com/

and

http://www.fatsecret.com/Default.aspx?pa=recsh

I found it helped to truly engage with cooking the food, rather than just piling a few lettuce leaves and handful of prawns on to a plate.

Hope this helps!

So, I will persevere and hey ho, here's me signing off, ready to fight another day. 

A la perchoine,