Hello and welcome to The Compost Bin. I'm Compostwoman and I live with my family in rural Herefordshire. We have nearly four acres of garden and woodland, all managed organically and to Permaculture principles, which we share with Chickens, Cats and assorted wildlife. We also grow a lot of our own food, run courses in all sorts of things and make a lot of compost!

I am a Master Composter and have spent more than a decade as a volunteer Community Compost adviser with Garden Organic and my local Council.
I'm a self employed Environmental Educator so I run workshops and events where I talk about compost, veg growing, chicken keeping, cooking, preserving and sustainable living. I also run crafts workshops and Forest School/outdoor play sessions in our wood.

We try to live a more self sufficient lifestyle here, as best we can, while still having a comfortable life and lots of fun.


To learn more about us click on the About Compostwoman tab and remember to click on the photos to make them full size!


Wednesday 12 February 2014

Wild weather


We had thunder, gales, rain and hail here this morning and the  fields on the other side of the lane and either side of our property are flooded. Fortunately we are on a small mound well above any risk of flooding and we are lucky enough not to have rivers close by.



But the sheer volume of surface water and the saturated ground means no water is draining away. More water falling from the sky makes the situation worse.

At the moment ( late afternoon ) we just have gales and heavy rain to cope with here but the ground is awash. I just
went out to shut the chickens away and even the raised veg beds are full of water!

I also just
had to duck to avoid a (head height!) flying cold frame lid.

Compostgirl has made it home on the school bus, although it had to divert from the usual route due to flooding - I wonder if she will make it to school tomorrow? 

The weather forecast for here is really dreadful and I suspect tomorrow will bring more flooding and damage to our area as well as further problems for the Somerset Levels and the Thames valley 

- how any one can still doubt that we have affected the climate with our profligate, wasteful, polluting use of fossil fuels is beyond me...

Anyway, with all the animals fed and bedded down for the night and as much stuff tied down or put away as we could manage, we have retreated to eat food, watch TV and stay warm by the woodburner.

We also have candles, torches and the generator prepared, in case the power goes off...

 
Stay safe everyone. xxx

7 comments:

  1. That's the best thing to do when there's nothing we can do to control what's happening. Thankfully we're not likely to ever flood but the wind is atrocious here. Thankfully again we are used to damaging winds and as such the energy companys are on the ball very quickly should we get a power cut.
    Stay indoors, stay warm and wait it out is all we can do.

    Stay safe :)

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  2. The weather is just horrid, I'm thankful that I'm not under water but the gales we are experiencing are just awful. Stay safe.

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  3. It's absolutely wild here too and apparently isn't going to peak for another couple of hours. Just seen on the local news that a tree has come down on a car at the other side of town :(

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  4. Howling winds here too, my poor greenhouse is taking a battering. Two panes been blown out completely and smashed so far.
    Might as well just hunker down and stay warm.

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  5. I am really hoping the polytunnel stands up to the gales - it was flapping alarmingly, earlier on. But there is nothing I can do about it, if the worst happens and the way the wind it I am not going outside!

    Hope you all stay safe and have minimal damage xxx

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  6. I've been thinking about you and hoping you are keeping well.

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  7. Well the weathe seems to have improves and we have had the odd day with SUN! And no rain!

    Still very soggy underfoot though and the ground is saturated so any rain just sits on the surface.

    Thank you all so much for the kind thoughts, we really did appreciate them :)

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Hello! Thank you for reading my blog and for commenting. I try to reply as quickly as I can and I really appreciate your interest in my life and doings here in The Compost Bin.

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