Friday 14 February 2020

Friday

Mid afternoon, and what promised to be a pleasant warm and sunny day has suddenly deteriorated into a wet, cold and windy day.   Rather a disappointment as the forecast for the week end is ghastly.   Storm Dennis this time and our town and the neighbouring village are bracing themselves for a downpour and hoping for the best.   There are signs of Spring everywhere, which makes the whole thing worse somehow.   Almost every garden on the estate has a few snowdrops, primroses, hellebores or crocuses out, tulips are poking through and the Viburnums around are in full flower (all of them (including mine) have been badly pruned and are well past the point of no return but the flower clusters are pleasant to look at.)

Out to lunch with friend W (scampi, chips and peas and fish pie with crispy kale respectively) and then a  look in the lovely shop at Tennants where they have such a super collection of possible gifts.  Now back home and just time to order myself a pair of boots in the Hotter Sale with my two Premium Bonds received this morning.

As I write this, hordes of rooks keep swooping over my back garden, blown about by the wind - and they seem to be enjoying it.  I love rooks - they have always been my favourite bird since childhood, when my bedroom window looked out over a rookery (now long gone) and the same rooks that crossed the farm each morning and evening on their way from and back to their rookery now cross my garden as it is on their flight path to the upper dale where they fan out and find things to eat.

I shall now go and make myself a cup of tea and settle down to watch the last episode of Antiques Road Trip for this week.   At last the young man has cottoned on to what to buy in order to not lose a stack of money each night - so fingers crossed for him tonight.

 

19 comments:

Catherine said...

River levels are very high in Worcestershire too so I hope we don’t get too much rain with Storm Dennis.
I really detest rooms but I couldn’t tell you why. It’s just a visceral feeling. I don’t like their cawing at all.
Stay safe this weekend

Catherine said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Catherine said...

It did it again, rooks not rooms

JayCee said...

We have had a rookery in the trees on the hillside above our house for the past 25+ years. Arriving home from work on a dark winter's evening I could hear them cawing and jostling for position as I stepped out of the car. Nowadays I can't hear anything, but that's me not them!

Bovey Belle said...

We had some Rooks starting to nest in the Ash trees behind our stables (trees belonged to Next Door). Unfortunately the Shoot shot through the bottom of the nests, to save their pheasant pullets. Personally, I think it would be the others of the Corvid family having those - I've only ever seen rooks on pastures, after worms, insects etc, but perhaps the Shoot knew better.

We are dreading the storm too and won't be going far. Plenty to get on with inside! I hope the river doesn't rise too much as there are new people who have bought the bungalow on the river and plenty of trees/branches already snarled up on the central stanchion of the bridge . . . They are still doing it up so they can move in . . .

Heather said...

I hope Dennis wont do too much damage and that everyone will be safe, even if their property isn't.
Rooks are such handsome birds and I love to see a rookery in spring with their nests all ready for the new arrivals.
Each day there is something new in the garden at this time of year.
Keep warm and dry and safe.

The Weaver of Grass said...

My son has just been round to do a couple of little jobs for me, Their lane is getting sandbagged and they are just hoping it is not as bad as last time. All very worrying.

thelma said...

My daughter is also getting worried in Todmorden, so won't be coming up this weekend. They have a flood manager in their town.

wherethejourneytakesme said...

Hope everyone affected stays safe - the river levels are so high now it won't take much to make them spill out. We have a host of magpies here - as many as eight or nine in the garden some days.

Amanda said...

My Dad used to call daffodils "dummy-dils" because they'd come up so early and so often get beaten down by late snows or hard spring rains. Being in Florida now, I really miss spring, and especially bulbs. I so miss jonquils, iris and hyacinths. But all this talk of storms - makes me feel too much like it's Storm Season and y'all are "in the cone." Not at all a happy place to be. Hunker down, as we say, and stay safe!

Joanne Noragon said...

I wonder if naming the storms only makes them seem worse.

Cro Magnon said...

My fingers are crossed that Dennis won't stop my guests from arriving. We'll see!

Rachel Phillips said...

This storm will peak in mid Atlantic. I don't expect any media channels have told you that. It will be less severe than the storm that preceded this one.

Librarian said...

So far, I've not heard any mention of Dennis in our weather forecast, so maybe its path is assumed to be different from Ciara's.
We're in for temperatures as high as 17 C this weekend, though - definitely not our average mid-February weather.

The Weaver of Grass said...

I just hope that Rachel's predictions are correct. It is already raining here and the wind is getting up. All the sandbags are out and we just have to hope for the best.

Thanks for popping by.

Penhill said...

The wind and rain far worse than last week here in the North Cotswolds

Share my Garden said...

I've just been having a read through your posts, as I do when I want to know how things are in the dales, and was saddened to learn of Tess' death. I know that she was a wonderful companion, she must have been a young dog the time that we met when you were living at the farm. You made exactly the right and kindest decision in having her put to sleep and I do sympathise, it is a difficult thing to do.
We popped into Tennants the other week to take a look at James Allison's lovely photos on display in the café and the man and boy clothing exhibition upstairs, which I've blogged on Miss Cellany.

Beachcomber said...

You are as always an amazing role model, Pat
Sue

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