The weather has not been welcoming.
It has been even worse than we experienced on our first visit.
Horizontal rain, sleet, howling winds.
I was nearly blown off the step at my front door.
A couple of neighbours have stopped by to say hi and welcome.
We went to Paisley today to get a few bits for the kitchen.
It was really odd to hear all the Scottish accents.
I'll have to be careful what I say as they can all understand me.
They are supposed to put [in] the driveway
and the fence up over the next few weeks.
When that's done I'll get some nice pics.
28 November:
We've had such a storm these last two days
it's stopped me from sleeping. It's 4.30 a.m.
The Park home is no different from my bungalow
re: noise in a storm, and I don't have to worry
about a fence coming down.
The rainy view from my sitting room . . .
It's still raining. Such a welcome back to Scotland.
It has been a vertical downpour of biblical quantities for two days;
last night a big storm blew in. Same quantity of rain,
only it's horizontal now.
I had the dogs out for a toilet break.
They couldn't wait any longer, wee souls.
They had crossed their legs for over 13 hours,
point blank refusing to go outside.
Did I mention that it is pitch black at night here?
Can't-see-your-hand-in-front-of-your-face black.
I was walking along the road and one of these
huge plastic gravel bags came flying along in the wind.
I zigged, it zigged; I zagged, it followed as if it was mocking me.
Then it picked up speed and rushed at Hamish,
wrapping itself around him. Poor boy was so terrified he froze,
which was fortunate as I could disentangle it from
Hamish's lead and, by now, [from] me.
I gave it a stern talking to and sent it on its way.
Hamish recovered his composure just enough to think,
"Eek, what was that?", and jump up and over
a little wooden verge wall about two feet. Trouble is,
it's four feet [down] on the other side.
I had to lift him out because left to his choice, he was staying there.
I checked him over; he was fine. Being almost blind now
makes adjusting to the move a bit harder for him.
Hmm, why did I move north? Do I think I'm a wild goose?
On our first night here we couldn't get the cars down to the house
as two workers' vans were blocking the road.
I walked up to my car to get the kettle.
It was still raining and we were all very wet
so another rainy walk was not going to make me any wetter.
On the way back with two carrier bags and my kettle,
I was following the wooden wall. I knew the worker had left
a big saw on the road by his van,
which was parked by the house in the picture.
I thought I should walk in a straight line,
but I forgot the road had a dog leg in it.
In this pic you can see the wooden wall just after
the dog leg where it changes from the kerbstone . . .
My left foot hit the kerbstone; this nearly made me fall.
Not wanting to hit my bad leg on the kerbstone,
I brought my other leg forward quickly,
only to find the ground was much lower.
I started to tumble, but jerked up to try to get my balance.
This resulted in the kettle and two bags flying off in different directions
and the kettle lid bouncing down the road.
A black kettle on new black tar in the pitch black . . . grr.
Meanwhile, I was staggering and skipping in what must have looked
like some manic ritual dance to ward off evil spirits.
It worked because I managed to stay upright.
Mike heard the noise and came out, rescued my possessions
and helped me search for the lid. He was trying hard not to laugh
because earlier when we went to the car I'd said to him,
"Careful you don't trip over that kerb!"
ANDREA ASKS: NO STREET LIGHTS??
There will be nothing this year,
though lots of stars when it's not raining.
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