Power cut

Scrabble by candlelight

A late posting from me today after all the excitement of yesterday. We were dealing with the aftermath of the 'big storm'; I really don't think that we felt the full force of it here, I slept through it! Thankfully we're all okay, the tiles are still on the roof (thanks to J spending several hours up there on Saturday) and even our split oak managed to survive the winds (it will be coming down this winter but preferably after the leaves have fallen). There are numerous trees that have fallen locally and the council and fire brigade were dealing with these on the roads throughout the early hours.



The things he does for work...

We were affected by power cuts from 5am yesterday (my son woke me up to tell me, grrr) until 3am this morning when I was woken by the lights coming on in my room. Power cuts were widespread around here, driving around in the morning with all of the traffic lights out of action made things interesting. J stayed home from work, his car is out of action and he had arranged a lift that didn't pan out. Not one to give up easily he found a camper/caravan supply store and rigged things up to let him work from home off grid. It worked well until his car battery ran out of juice which gave him almost a full work day. What we have taken from this experience is that it is worth us having systems in place for the future as if there are widespread power cuts again we, thanks to living in a hamlet, are always going to be a lower priority than areas of more dense population.

...and still working by candlelight.

It is reassuring that we can manage quite well without power in a large part thanks to our wood burning stove and having a gas cooker. But it was very telling how dependant we have become on technology for our entertainment. That evening we enjoyed scrabble but most of the other games were not playable in low light. I can see why cards used to be a popular pastime! We could use more candles but I am reluctant as S is constantly on the move nowadays and there were several near misses (having lived through a house fire caused by myself I am VERY aware of candle safety). After the children were in bed I pulled out my guitar and ukulele and played a bit. It was all very relaxing but also frustrating as I'm so out of practise. I'm seriously thinking of having a 'no power Sunday evening' every week so that we can all rediscover the skills of entertaining ourselves and being sociable... and it gets us all into bed just that little bit sooner for Monday morning.