Morte Point.

It was a wild and stormy night. The shipping forecast last night gave gale force 8 for this area and the winds continued into today.

Early morning at the top of the drive.

I had the day at home so the morning was spent hoovering ,chopping wood and clearing up. I had a carload of stuff for the dump then I rewarded myself with a walk at Morte Point. This is my favourite local walk because the rugged landscape reminds me of Cornwall , where I grew up.

I spotted three seals down in this gully. We usually see the seals in this area but you do have to know what you are looking for. One can be seen just on the edge of the shadow in the gully.

I took lots of photos of the seals but they were quite far away and most of the pictures were of the ' that dark smudge is a seal' variety.

Despite a heavy shower as I arrived in Mortehoe the skies eventually cleared though the wind remained really strong.

I took lots more photos but I'll save them for a later past.

Autumn Returns.

The weather was much cooler today, sunshine and showers. I was called into work for the morning and it started to rain just as I drove home. The lanes are beginning to look more autumnal, leaves turning brown and fewer flowers. At home I tried to get some work done in the garden but apart from burning up a big pile of brambles, rain kept stopping play. I had some urgent letters to post, (usually I just give my post to our friendly postie), so I drove to the nearest post box at East Down. The boys wanted to go to the pub so I drove them down and they walked home along the footpaths.

The Pyne Arms in East Down.

(The Prancing Pony?)

Indian Summer.

Today we had the most glorious sunshine. In fact it was positively hot. Just like a summer's day. In fact better than a summer's day seeing as it was grey or rainy for the whole of August. And what was I doing today? Soaking up the sun in the garden? Roaming the countryside looking for those special shots? No, I was teaching all day. An easy class and we had a fun day though the big topic of conversation is the fair. It's a really big event in their lives. One lad was telling the class how he was going to the fair yesterday but couldn't because his sister had broken the car window. I was rather surprised because his sister is a petite 10 yr old but it turned out that the window switch had broken. Dad was getting a new car today which was 'like a jeep'. 'Ah' I said, ' you're getting a 4 wheel drive vehicle.' I was treated to a very odd look and told ,'yes, it will have 4 wheels.' Obviously elderly teachers can get a bit confused about cars.

I couldn't resist taking a few shots of the flowers in the lovely evening light.

I walked round the garden yesterday, putting off doing some mundane weeding, and I counted 50 types of flower still blooming. Some ,like the aubretia,honeysuckle and the roses have just a few flowers left but others are still giving a lovely display.

A Quiet Weekend.

Yesterday was sunshine and showers again. I had to drive into town to collect Romas and water was pouring down the sides of the country roads and right across in several places. It seems strange to have flooded roads along the tops of hills but here the roads are always much lower than the adjacent fields probably due to 100s of years of erosion before the roads were surfaced. Even the verges are higher than the roads so any water goes straight onto the road. I feel a bit obsessed with the weather lately but it is even heading up the news on the radio. This last bout of rain has flooded 100s of homes in Northumberland and sadly 2 people have lost their lives. That is not to mention all the problems people are having in other countries.

This morning we went to church in Ifracombe and afterwards we went for a short walk by the sea. It was very windy but reasonably warm.

Ifracombe is a town that is in decline with a lot of social problems. It had its heyday in Victorian times when people came to walk along the cliffs and enjoy the sea air. There are some interesting buildings but many are in a state of disrepair.

It was surprisingly crowded this morning but maybe people are taking advantage of the reduced rates at the local holiday parks now that the school holidays are over and it certainly wasn't a day for sitting on the beach. Note the Hockings ice cream van, they make real ice-cream and only sell it from these vans in the local resorts. It is delicious creamy ice-cream but today I managed to resist as I have been a little indulgent over the summer.

On our way home we called in at the local re-cycling centre,(dump), to drop off some rubbish and yet another old monitor. It doesn't cost anything to leave stuff, (food/kitchen waste is not allowed and can only be put in the fortnightly roadside collection). You are expected to have sorted your rubbish into stuff for the compactor, wood, garden waste, old metal, tvs/monitors, old electrical goods and resaleable stuff. The money they make reselling goods goes towards the cost of the place. I am fascinated by the things they have and occasionally buy something- eg. plastic garden chairs £1. I hate to see things chucked away so if I have stuff that is not suitable for the charity shops and unwanted on freecycle then I would rather give it to be resold. It was quite busy this morning and one older lady had to overcome her British reserve and ask me why I was taking pictures of the dump. I explained that I was taking pictures of anywhere that was interesting. "Oh" she said.

More Rain Expected.

When will this rain ever stop? Yesterday we had sunshine and HEAVY showers. I got Romas to finish repairing the drive and overnight we had 60mm of rain. So by the morning it was wrecked again. I've never known it to be so bad in all the years we've been here. The forecast for tonight is just as bad so we're going to put wood right across the road as well as the soil that we've been using to create dams. Hopefully that will keep the worst of the water away.

This is just a view through a gateway on my way home from school. Finding good views used to be a lot easier when I had my old Landrover. Not only could I see over the hedgerows but I could climb up on the bonnet to get better shots. Sadly the chassis rusted out and it failed its MOT. I was able to sell it on ebay for a good price to a bloke who imports 25 year old landies to the US, repairs them and sells them on. Now I have a tiny Micra which is a lot more economical but doesn't drive off road or get me through the floods.I was driving home feeling rather cross because I had waited over an hour to give Romas a lift home from town only to find out that he had gone home on the bus, (which the college had told me wasn't running), and hadn't thought to ring the school to let me know. Teenagers! I suppose it's time I sorted myself out a mobile phone again. I did have one but the kids would never answer when I phoned them and after the first £10 credit ran out I didn't bother. Then when I did go to get credit someone had pinched the simcard!

Cheery news at school, a little boy with Downs syndrome who has had heart problems since birth, had heart surgery in the holidays. They were able to do the procedure through his groin and he is back and running around and as happy as ever.

Just been watching "Super Doctors" on BBC1, (should be available on BBCi player). A bit gruesome but uplifting to see this doctor and the work he is doing in Malawi.

A Better Day.

Today the sun shone, occasionally, and I was able to get out into the garden to wash stones though I kept getting distracted by all the butterflies.

And then this would happen.

Yesterday we had 55mm of rain in 24 hours, half of it in just 2 hours. All the rain that falls onto the hillside gets caught on the road and then channelled down our gravel drive. Yesterday's deluge not only washed out most of the gravel that Romas had been barrowing up from the stream but overran the yard and threatened to flood out the waste water treatment thingy (septic tank). So out we went, clearing ditches and creating dams across the road to divert the water onto my neighbour's fields. Note- wearing shorts with wellington boots in heavy rain results in lots of water inside the boots. Peter had to try 3 different routes home last night to get round the flooded roads. When the postman came today he told me that many farmers' lanes had been washed away .

However, I've been reading a few blogs written by people in Louisiana, ( Thanks Julie for the 'Round the world' link,) and in comparison it wasn't all that bad.

Just another beautiful butterfly.