“What’s Going On?”

In bright sunshine at 10 a.m. this morning it was hard to believe that the meteorologists had threatened us with 48 hours of gale force winds from 11 a.m. onwards. Nevertheless forecasts are now much more accurate than they were in our youth, so we battened down the hatches. Thousands of items of garden furniture and millions of hanging baskets – or so it seemed – needed to be brought down to ground level.

First, the patio furniture was lowered. the two teapots in the bottom left corner are for Nugget’s consideration as a prospective new home.

The hanging baskets required careful handling to prevent causing damage before the gales were given the chance to wreak havoc. Chequerboard fuchsia hanging from the arch over the dead end path is shown in the two pictures before those in which Jackie delicately replaces potted petunias. Having stretched a long arm from its pot it had required tying up. I needed to undo this.

All this activity naturally aroused Nugget’s curiosity. At first he hopped about from the rocks to the gravel,

then took up a position on the back of the white chair in the Weeping Birch Bed. The usual magnification from the galleries will show him clearly tweeting “what’s going on?”.

The Head Gardener found room for what she called “the lucky few” in the greenhouse.

This afternoon we took a coastal trip to see what was going on there.

At Milford on Sea a young girl sheltered along the sea wall in an effort to avoid the violence of the waves and the spray. Kite surfers could be seen in the distance near Hurst lighthouse.

Further along, at Barton on Sea, hardy groups clambered on the rocks.

The Isle of wight seemed shrouded in spray.

At Mudeford black headed gulls bobbed buoyant as corks on the surging waves. Although two skilled sailboarders sped along the surface,

another less proficient pair spent much of their time attempting to lodge and right their sail. No sooner had they seemed upright than they were back beneath the surface. I had to admire their persistence.

This evening we dined on crispy duck, spring onions, cucumber, and plum sauce in pancakes; followed by spare ribs in barbecue sauce; with which Jackie drank Hoegaarden and I finished the Saint-Chinian.

82 comments

  1. Poor old Nugget, so many human vagaries to understand…….. He might like to be put into the glass house too. Is it with you now I wonder – the sea foretells a good storm is on it’s way! We are lurking impatiently inside, waiting for the rain to cease so we can venture out on our first decent walk for a week. I don’t know why I’m reluctant to get wet – there are plenty of towels in the cupboard!

    1. Perhaps it is still cold and wet down there. At least our winds are warm – will continue to rage until midnight tonight, we are told. Thanks very much, Pauline

          1. Oh, that is the worst thing around here–the dust storms (wind storms but we have dust haha) with or without rain.

  2. My word — that’s necessary preparation, but a chore nonetheless. I hope no damage was done, and that there weren’t too many sore muscles after all that lifting and moving.

  3. Oh gosh, I’m sorry the storm caused so much damage. No doubt, Jackie will be working some overtime in the garden. I’m happy Nugget weathered the winds. I can’t imagine going out to sailboard with those winds.

  4. The sea does look like it’s ready to do battle. Your pictures remind me of my sailing days and especially when we had to prepare for hurricanes. Hope your weather is improving.

  5. You have such a beautiful garden. I really hope storm didn’t cause much harm. So much hard work to save your precious things. I really wish weather has calmed down.

  6. Nothing to report in the Midlands either, except some electrical interference with the satellite TV. Today, Saturday, is a little gusty but nothing special.

  7. Praying little Nugget has found a safe haven to ‘weather the storm’ ?

    Hoping for minimal damage to your garden and things soon return to their normally wonderful condition.

    Was that a teapot shaped like a watering can in the first photo?? 🙂

  8. I forgot to mention before… your long distance shots of Nugget made me think you might start a regular “Where’s Nugget?” section in your posts. A single wide shot of the garden and we have to see if we can find him!

    Any good?? 🙂

  9. I love dramatic weather. We have had some huge thunderstorms of late. I saw a bolt strike the Freedom Tower in Manhattan. The rain was unbelievable. Flash flood levels. I hope the garden survived intact.

  10. That is war of the elements against the elements. Jackie seems to have readied her ship from the keel to sail. That is a sea awaiting to go wild. Please take care of the Nugget.

  11. I get to see the beauty of your garden through your wonderful photos. It is easy for me to forget how much work is put into bringing us such delights. Keep safe my friend.

  12. Like others, I wondered about the storms, but I see from comments above that they did come and may still be going on. I hope there’s not much damage to your garden, and I hope even more that Nugget is OK.

  13. Hope the garden survived the storms. We continue to have heavy rain and have had thunder storms for a couple of days. The Friday night storm brought down my broadband. BT are sending an engineer, and in the meantime, I’ve connected to the daughter’s broadband next door.

      1. BT sending an emergency hub but the engineer unavailable until Thursday. The CCTV and the video doorbell are wired to my broadband so not working either, but I’m lucky, I can connect my computer and phone etc via Victoria’s broadband. Thank you Derrick.

  14. Will you take the lid off the teapots after awhile so Nugget can look at all sides?

    Even though I was a weather forecaster a long time ago, my career was 15 years long and I still feel loyal to weather forecasters. I was tickled to hear that you two had faith in the prediction, even when the day dawned lovely. It’s a tough job and all the people I worked with tried really hard to get it right.

    1. It is now remarkably accurate her, Crystal. The teapots will be hung, sans lids, from trees so he gets a few months to get used to them before next spring

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