Whiteadder Bursts Its Banks

Paul left for the States on Friday morning. It started to rain on Saturday afternoon...

It was almost taking longer to get ready for the dog walks than the foreshortened walks themselves. Coats and muzzles for the dogs, coat and hat for me. By the evening their coats and my hat were pretty soggy...

It was still raining when I got up on Sunday morning, but not as heavily. I drew the curtains and looked out. The river had burst its banks and was halfway to the road. Anne had only been saying a couple of days earlier what a shame it was that we couldn't see the river from the garden during the summer. It could have been a lot worse having seen what is happening elsewhere...

I walked to the bridge with the dogs and leant over to count the number of bricks visible below the buttresses - there were none. The river was in spate, moving faster than I have ever seen it before.

The whole of the 'beach' on the other side of the bridge was under water, only the trees were still visible.

Luckily it stopped raining mid-morning, although it still looked somewhat grey.

My friend Allan was having a party in the afternoon/evening to celebrate his 50th birthday. By the time I set off for Coldingham it was actually brightening up. As I parked the car I could hear loud music coming from his garden - there was a band playing under a tent. There was also a marquee, but it looked as if the rain was going to hold off. Indeed, the sun even broke through in the early evening.

There were a couple of other scrabble players invited and I got to meet their other halves for the first time. Tentative arrangements are now being made for us all to go over to Darryl's for a weekend sometime to eat, drink and play scrabble. Jen and Poncho were also invited, but I am not sure whether that is a good idea :)

I also got to meet Marietta and her husband Mike for the first time - although messages have been passed via Paul/Bridge Base Online. I have also on occasion read her husband's blog, gangril days.

Allan could not resist the temptation to jam with the band. I don't know whether he was a permanent fixture there for the rest of the party because I had to get home to the dogs, having left them for about 3 hours.

Other than the stuffing from one of the cushions being spread all over the lounge floor yet again they appear to have behaved themselves...