Update

Well, Tuesday morning I thought blearily how dark it all looked even though the lights were on, and Ian told me we needed a new microwave. Then he found the shower wasn’t working. But the radio was. We then realised that – if this is possible, we seemed to be on reduced power. It came back onto full later in the afternoon, and all the ‘broken’ items immediately worked again. Power has been on and off for the past few days and yesterday was the only day when it has been consistent. However we really can’t complain – although it is a bit of a pain in the rear to have to keep resetting and retuning things.

It has also got increasingly cold. Wednesday it was so cold I had to light a fire. It was 6 degrees colder inside than outside!! I put the heating on but it didn’t take the chill off. When I started to lose the feeling in extremities I checked the radiators and they were all off, Ian checked and the boiler had blown out. Probably on Saturday. It shows how the house holds its heat and cools down gradually. Boiler now relit and house at liveable temperature again.

It s getting noticible lighter in the evening. Last chicken went to bed at 4.50 yesterday, which always co-incides with sunset. Although it seems to be getting darker in the morning. Not possible I know, but it is still dark at 8.00.

Seperated the quails becuase of pecking, and had four eggs yesterday. It would seem that the pecking seems to come before the egg laying. I have three quails outside of the main cages, and none of these have laid eggs, so hopefully I will be able to make up a couple of ‘family units’. I had said I was going to sell them (again), however now they have started laying (again) I will perserve (again).

I had to go to Carlisle yesterday. As the car didn’t start (although it started Weds and again this morning), I had to get the bus. The bus could not go over Warwick bridge so went through the villages. There were lots of skips full of household belongings. All very sad. But in Carlisle itself it was magnified. United Utilities had a big trailer in the centre, answering peoples questions. There were loads of Citizens advice people helping people with insurance claims etc. There were stands with free rubber gloves as they are warning people about touching anything which the sludge touched because of contamination with raw sewerage. Carlisle was also full of little groups of people talking about their experiences. I think a lot were in shock. When I was in Tescos, a lady burst into tears because they didn’t have any carrots. The person she was with who I guess was her daughter said to me that this lady had ‘lost everything’ when her bungalow flooded, and she hadn’t seen her cry.

I was quite glad to get home. Although it is quite interesting watching the clear up, there are also so many hopes and dreams that were destroyed. It was horrible seeing the small shops where their entire stock was in a skip outside. And some of these houses are going to be pretty unsaleable now I guess. McVities which is the second largest employer was flooded and they are saying that they may never reopen. This will be a major blow.

And of course Hexham still has no drinking water.

So all in all, we were incredible fortunate. I really don’t think that we complain too much about our very insignificant problems!

We still have the two horses in our stables. Mike has a stable lady come down twice a day to see to them. I think in total she is here for an hour and a half each day – which is a lot for two horses! They look out of the stables and of course the dogs are fascinated. Basil is feeling a bit intimidated!

Not sure what our plans are for this weekend, however, it is getting to Jumble Sale season – and we have no where near enough junk…..!