HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

Thank you Barbara, and I hope you have a lovely time too :o)

Thank you Barbara ... Merry Christmas :o)

merry christmas and a happy new year love mark ,julie,jordan and a big woof woof from bonnie xxx

Merry Christmas to you, thinking of you as the wind and rain sweeps in, have a couple of quite large branches down in the last hour

yes, I thought of you this morning when I heard the weather forecast. I hope all of our friends in the south west will be ok today. happy Christmas Barbara, and I love your baubles! :)

Wishing you and yours a very happy Christmas ... That's a very pretty wreath Barbara ... mine is being blown from side to side by the gale force wind ... may just have to bring it indoors ... :o(

My very Best Wishes for a Happy Christmas Spritz.

Merry Christmas Barbara..a pretty wreath indeed..my favourite colours :o)

Thanks, everyone. Glad you like it!

We had a very scary day yesterday and even thought we might have a repeat of last year's dreadful events - but our flood defences are in position and the stream didn't quite reach the top of its culvert. :-)

However, we're trapped in our corner of Somerset, as all the lanes are under water. I suspect we'll be spending Christmas at home this year. Festive beans on toast, anyone? lol.

Oh No.not again,Barbara..but so pleased the defences are in place for you..I quite like beans on toast..served on a Festive plate though? Presentation makes all the difference:o) Joking apart,so sorry to hear you are confined at home again..as long as you are safe,that is the main thing..xxx

Happy Christmas Spritz. Beans on toast beats retreat upstairs every time. I'm so glad to hear your defences are holding. I too was thinking of you these last few days. My daughters family are supposed to travel down to near Lands End for Christmas. I do hope there is a let up in this stormy weather soon. We don't bother with a wreath any more as it would land up in either the North Sea or the Atlantic Ocean with the high winds we are having at the moment. I like yours it looks very warm and welcoming.

Happy Christmas - I've heard that grated cheese on top is very tasty ;)
I do hope you get a let up in the weather - it's on it's way up here! Stay safe.

Happy Christmas Barbara was wondering how you were coping with the storms, it has been dreadful here....

Hope you managed to have a happy Christmas Barbara, did you stick a sprig of holly on your toast? It's good to keep the traditions alive:-)

Hooray, hooray - the water went down miraculously - enough for us to eat turkey with our family!!! We travelled through various floods, but safely, and here I am back home. :-D)

That's great Barbara..I have been wondering how things were with you,after seeing all the devastation on the news..just so terrible for all those poor people caught up in it..so glad you got to spend Christmas with your family this year..hope all is ok with your home and garden..

So pleased to read the above, all the best for the new year Barbara..⛄???:-) ;-) O:-) :-D ?⛄⛄

Thank, Dd. Same to you! :-)))

Yes, Bloomer, the stream has gone down a lot, and the only minor damage from the gales is a few small branches off the ash trees...could have been a LOT worse! I see the TV pictures and could weep for the poor flooded folk, knowing what lies ahead for them. :-((

Pleased you and your home came through unscathed Barbara, the weather is so weird these last few years. Did you hear the PM promise to do more? I wonder if it will happen:-)

i'm pleased to hear you had a lovely Christmas with your family Spritz. There must be a lot of unhappy folk out there today but you coped last year and if they can show the same spirit they too will survive.
Bornagain the Prime Minister did say they would do more but he also said the insurance companies needed to get the assessors out more quickly and the local councils should provide skips so that people could put their ruined possessions in to them. I feel we are so far from being community minded nowadays that it is a case of those who provide cover for themselves against crisis like this will probably be okay but for families without that support it will be very hard.

That's not particularly helpful - they need to dredge the rivers and unblock ditches, not just provide skips for after the event!!!!!!!! Grrrrr.......

I fully agree with you there,Barbara..even though we aren't in a risk area,we hardly ever see a drain cleaning machine these days,and they are mostly all blocked up..
One came round a few weeks ago,but didn't seem to deem it necessary to come into our cul de sac,and turned around at the bottom..all the leaves and detritus fall into one of them,so I emailed the council complaints dept..still no reply..it seems pointless them even having one! grrr.

Forbidding building on flood plains would have alleviated a lot of the problems being experienced by many. It is heart breaking to see the awful mess it leaves in its wake. I think the message I was trying to get across is that politicians seem to think it is their job to shift the blame and do as little as possible.

So sorry to read of all the flooding in the UK. Out East, in Canada, there were many problems with ice storms, thousands without power for six days, up to yesterday, probably still out. This was Toronto, Ontario. Other provinces there in trouble. This is the Atlantic side of Canada. I am on the Pacific side and we don't get that dreadful weather.
However, we are prone to forest fires. After the big ones in British Columbia in 2003 the home insurance went up so high that many people from then on, could not afford it. The insurance company sent people to our area who roamed through our properties looking for 'fuel', trees near house, shrubbery etc., age of people, susceptibility of house to flying debris. Some homes they would not insure at all anymore.
I imagine the flood areas in the UK might end up the same way. I can remember from when I lived at home, in the UK, that the rivers came almost to the top of the banks. My dream was to own a house close to one. So many people's dreams now flooded away.
Clementine

Hello Barbara! Joy of the Season to you both. hugs to Henry. As Clementine said, we've had interesting weather here in the Eastern part of Canada. Ice storms over Christmas and some of the relatives in Toronto still without power. We are northerly enough that we suffered very little freezing rain, but we've been socked in with snow! Experiencing a short thaw at present as tonight our temps are supposed to drop to the terrible minuses again for weeks, probably. Saw your blog about the wall. Hope your council gets onto the drainage situation. It seems there is a shortage of common sense these days, especially in government. All the best in the new year.

Thanks - but we're so rural here that nobody's interested in doing anything about the flooding problem. They concentrate their limited resources on towns. Even the Somerset Levels (which flood every year!!) haven't had any help.

Happy New Year, everyone!