General Chat

I hope you are all safe and so far unaffected by the gales. Here it is windy, although not as bad as predicted with sunny intervals. The leaves are coming off the trees in vast quantities and then blowing all over the place - lots of them into next door or the road.

Most of the local CalMac ferries have been cancelled but I can see Western Ferries crossing the Clyde as usual. They are the only other ferry company in the west of Scotland and are much more reliable than CalMac. They would like to extend their operations to other routes, but Cal Mac have a monopoly.

The other surprise this morning was when I saw Waverley sailing past. This is her last weekend before stopping for the winter, but I wouldn't think there were many passengers on board. OH says she is probably pretty stable but his idea of stable isn't everyone's. :-)

It was supposed to be a nice day here today, but the overnight rain was slow to clear, so it was drizzly this morning. That was a nuisance as I was taking Esme to Lightwater Valley. Luckily it cleared up after lunch and by mid afternoon, it was really warm and sunny.
Tomorrow is gusty winds and rain showers, but nowhere near as bad as it was supposed to be. I hope everyone keeps safe in the areas where it is going to be bad.

Hello all
yes all prepared here with all rechargeable batteries fully charged and I also have about 100 candles, several torches and 5 LED candles too.

Plenty of cold foods like bread, cheese , salad and tinned salmon, fruit etc so we wont go hungry if we lose power.

I experienced one storm at new year once and it reached 104mph but our stone walled house that i was living in then never lost a slate or anything, it was built solid.

The gale yesterday was pretty bad but only about 50-60 mph and tom forecast says 80!!

Anyway hope all in its path are kept safe and if we lose power we shall be back on here asap.

If you look at this web site, you can see who's power is off and how long for etc, very useful and less hassle than ringing them up.'

sse.powertrack map

Florence in the hebrides

Keep safe everyone, wherever you are. <3

I see they have cancelled the Great South Run in Portsmouth due to the approaching Storm Ashley causing safety concerns. :-0

We've a milder, calmer day than I was expecting, but what will tonight bring?

That was lucky. Nothing worse than a surprise power cut.

In our old house, which was prone to multiple local power cuts,we always kept candles on our mantle piece. So then it was only the matches we had to stumble around for.

Even now we keep some candles in holders at the top of our living room unit and at least now we can use the gas ring to light them

Yes - in fact I got them out yesterday, just in case, because the wind was so strong.

And as it turned out, they were needed. We had a power cut for two hours yesterday evening!

Hope you Scots will be ok tomorrow (Sunday) and that you are well stocked with candles and batteries and that you have already got them out ready.

Hello all,
sorry to hear that the weather is bad again for some of you. Not to bad here atm raining yet again but not windy thankfully.

Been pottering about doing housework and trying to sort cupboards out in the kitchen. Have to keep stopping as my back is painful today but I need to keep moving or I will stiffen up completely.

Have started getting a few Christmas presents and the usual small treats for when the family are here. Still need to get some cards but don't send many now by post as sadly many of our friends and family that lived away have died in the last few years. :-( .

Hoping that you are all ok health wise and those not posting are ok,

Wet and very windy here too , though not as bad as with you, Florence.
There won't be many leaves left on the trees after this - clouds of them are whirling across the garden.

I'm sitting here in the warm, watching excellent Gaelic choirs competing on BBC Alba.

Morning all.
Crikey its blowing a right old hooley here!! Im def not opening the front door lest I fly off somewhere lol. So this gale is a taster for the windier one we are expecting on Sunday.

Gently pottering about after all the work I did yesterday. A bit of dusting in my bedroom as its always dusty :-S I have no idea why? But the room its self is quite small and I have a lot of furniture so maybe that's why. Anyway that will keep me out of mischief until lunch.

I ordered myself a 1000 piece jigsaw. Its of a Whimsical village all in very bright colours so may start that this afternoon.

Hope everyone else is staying safe. I think there is quite a bit of flooding too around Kirby was hearing that on the radio news.

Florence in the hebrides

We saw it down here, very bright.

We missed our chance to see the comet last week as it was cloudy all week, maybe next time ;-) ;-)

It wasn’t cloudy here, so we saw it as well

I'm glad you mentioned that, Florence - I hadn't known about it.
I've just been out to have a look.
It's raining here, so there's cloud crossing in front of the moon, but even so, it's bright.
And big!

I have just been outside to see the supermoon and it was amazing. Clear skies here tonight so a fab view and I looked through the binoculars.

Just so bright.

I have used the same hairdresser for 45 years AG, so it was daunting changing. It looks OK, I will reserve judgement until after I have washed it myself.
I collected my new glasses yesterday and I am pleased with them. The lenses are nice and thin and I can read small print much better . I hope you manage to find a new optician to suit you as well

Like Andysmum, we're supposed to be getting wind during Sunday night - but apparently only about 30-40 mph, which isn't too bad, although strong.

That's according to Accuweather, and BBC Weather online.

I hope your polytunnel stands up to it, Florence.

Are you happy with the way your new hairdresser has done your hair, Linda?
It's a daunting thought to change hairdressers, especially once you find one who does it the way you like.

The same goes for changing doctors, dentists, etc!

I have an optometrist's appointment on Monday, and feel some trepidation. My usual optometrist, who knew my complicated eye history over many years, has retired, and I'll have to trust that a new person will take it all properly into account.

I am glad that your daughter is better Florence.
I hope that the storm isn’t too bad for you
I have had a busy day, it was Slimming Workd this morning, then I went to get my hair cut this afternoon. I decided that I needed to change to a hairdresser down here as it was an hours drive to where I used to go and with the winter coming up, I didn’t want to do the drive in winter.

Aw well I believe that keeping myself busy whilst im stuck indoors makes the day pass more quickly. and makes me feel better when I have done lots.

I really dont understand those who have the tv on all day!! I just have the radio on for background noise and the news and that means, i can carryon working. If the tv was on, you would keep stopping to watch it lol. Its better for my legs too as kicks the circulation which helps to keep the fluid down.

Stay safe. You say Sunday but we are getting it tomorrow and looking ahead all of next week as well so dont think there will be any ferries for several days! Im well stocked up anyway and could do to empty the freezer a bit.

Thank you, Florence. We are scheduled to get it (70 - 80mph) on Sunday, so we shall see.

The amount of work you get through makes me tired just reading about it!! :-)

Afternoon everyone looking in.
I have been a very busy bee today as tomorrow we are expecting a storm with winds of to 80mph!! so i emptied all the bins in the house and took them outside to the dustbins and then shifted all my little pots which are still in bloom such as the Dahlias and moved them to shelter.

There isn't anything now that will get blown away hopefully. It will be a good test for the Polytunnel to see how it fares.

I also did 2 loads of washing & dried it all off in the tumble so laundry all up straight.

Next I wrapped several gifts and that was another job off my list.

Swept the kitchen & bathroom and tidied up in general before remembering that some of the batteries haven't been charged since 2022. So they are now recharging just in case power goes but i do have about 50 batteries of varying sizes so all sorted there..

Phew i'm quite exhausted so now sitting with a coffee and having a look at the news etc and see what's happening in the world.

Daughter is so much better today and has gone off to visit family etc until Saturday so all quiet here and now very tidy lol.

Hope everyone else is doing ok and keeping well.

ArgyllGran and Andy's mum, I'm sure you will cop the gale too so stay safe.

Florence in the hebrides