Dark and blustery

(Photos today from Neil and a few years old.)
I started writing this post during a brief power cut at 6.15 yesterday morning, but all I could think of to describe was the darkness. The wind was howling, the temperature down to eight degrees out of the wind, and there were few stars to see. Not that I ventured onto the roof in my slippers for long, for fear of being blown off it and/or freezing. Then the lights came back on, and normality was restored. Normality right now being, work at the desk on a kneel-up stool (the piano stool is on its way to the bin) surrounded by the bits and pieces from Neil’s room which is still in the being-painted stage and my own clutter which is waiting for the new furniture to arrive.

This happened four years ago – the wait for Ikea, I mean. When we moved house, I ordered some new things for the new house, and we sent off an order to Ikea. There’s a showroom in Rhodes, apparently, but you can’t nip over and buy and bring back; you have to order. We do it online. It’s much easier and more cost effective unless you happen to be in Rhodes anyway. Four years ago, the order was on its way, but strong winds caused boats to be cancelled, and we watched the ferry pass the island for about two weeks before it landed. Our new sofas were having a great, if rough, cruise, while we sat on garden chairs which had seen better days and fell apart beneath us. This time, the new computer table and other things are taking the trip, or, more likely, waiting in a container somewhere, but that’s how it is at this time of year. At least with the new harbour, the big ferry can get in in rough weather – as long as it’s allowed to sail, which at the moment, it isn’t.

The sea has popped into Yialos to flood the road a little but nothing too drastic and nothing we’re not used to. Luckily, there has been no repeat f the storm of 2017, though I expect some of the loose rocks and topsoil has been washed away, and the sea, when it rains, has turned a dark reddish brown as it does when the soil ends up washed down from the mountains and straight into the harbour. I don’t know for sure, the shutters are closed, and I’m not going back on that roof unless I have to.

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Bits and pieces

Really scraping the bottom of the barreli today with a couple more shots of the weather (again) taken from the roof (again) because the only place I saw other than the study and sitting room was the inside of the supermarket. I don’t like taking photos in there, I’d feel like an environmental health officer or something. Interesting, though, how the harbour was lighter than over Pedi, and yet the pics were taken at the same time, give or take three seconds. I was soon downstairs inside again, not that it’s particularly cold, but I only had my slippers on.

Sorry that I’m not able to offer much else at the moment. My days are filled with typing as usual, and I am working on a book which has ‘bitten.’ Sometimes I plough through 30,000 words and find the story stops working, and thus, so do I. This one, however, has caught me and I am enjoying it. I had to break off yesterday because godson number one was decorating Neil’s room beside mine and the doors and windows were open. I retreated to the sitting room for warmth and all afternoon felt like I was skiving off. Not so today, Tuesday. I’ve got my work up to date, been shopping, done my chores and the blog for tomorrow (this) and now I can settle down to an afternoon at the typewriter thing and continue to tell myself a story, which is basilar what I do with draft one of anything.

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What to call this weather

The reservoirs are certainly filling up this winter. Another rainy day yesterday, and I woke up to more this morning, with the forecast suggesting heavier rain later and a storm. Apparently, this one has a name like they all do these days. I wonder if this personalisation of bad weather was created to make us more friendly towards storms and stop people fretting about them. All pretty daft really. I understand when it’s a hurricane (well, I don’t really, but someone must find it useful), but a squall or a typical winter storm…? Whatever.

I wonder if ‘they’ will start naming good weather? ‘Heatwave Harry is stopping by this afternoon…’ ‘Cloudy Caroline can be expected to cover parts of the north-west by lunchtime…’ ‘Watch out for ‘slightly warmer than usual Wendy on Wednesday, and, by the weekend, we expect weather front normal Norman to return as long as Bothersome Billy the Blustering Beaufort (force terrible-two) stays away…’ When will it end?

Needless to say, rain stops play for me, as in, stops me doing anything except sitting at my desk tapping away and hoping there’s enough food in the house to last until it’s safe to get out to the shops, and for ‘safe’ translate as ‘I could be bothered.’ Hence the old photos – still not found those snatched from my camera on January 10^th for no reason. Except Samsung think my card must have ‘gone faulty’ overnight, taken upon itself a good tidy-up, and dumped 1,100 individual files but left behind the folder that housed them. So, with those excuses given, I intend to spend another day at the desk, bar, perhaps, a quick swim to the shop if ‘Sally the shower’ lets up.

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