Wild Weather

There have been landslides covering roads into Hay, and trees down around Bredwardine. Children have been sent home from school early, and the buses haven't been able to run in places.

I went across the river on Saturday, onto the Offa's Dyke path, because I'd been told that one of the big oak trees was down in the first meadow when the path comes out of the woods. I thought I might make it during one of the rare sunny spells, but the rain was soon coming down again. The river isn't as high as I thought it might be - I've certainly seen it higher than that - but the little island in the middle is totally underwater, and I wouldn't like to fall in!

The tree was always on soggy ground - there was a spring that came up between its roots, and flowed down to soak into the grass at the bottom of the slope.

Later in the day, there were power cuts, some spreading as far as Abergavenny. I managed to cook my dinner in between the power failures, and spent the evening reading Hobson's Choice by candle light, with a tankard of Old Speckled Hen.

This lunch time I went into Flow to buy candles - the box containing my emergency supply was nearly empty. The woman there said that candles had been selling very well in the past few days.