Grow Your Own Magazine

Well it definatley winter now Been force 10 gales and the boats n planes have been on and off. Massive waves, 15ft maybe even 20ft rollers coming into the bay. Begining to think I should have insisted on that goat/cow I was dreaming of this summer, milk can get pretty scarce up here during prolonged storms n everyone panic buys out the super markets. There is a small dairy on the island but nowhere near big enough to support the whole of Lewis and Harris.
Wind seems to be lessening a bit now, feew, but we all know its just starting, here we go

We had a TERRIBLE weekend of weather. Gale force winds, thunder, lightening and torrential rain on Friday and right through to lunch time Saturday. It brightened up a bit on Sunday, but Monday and Tuesday were horrendous too. Its nice and calm now, but wonder whether it is just bracing itself for the next onslaught. Shetland hasn't had its 5 November Firework Display yet! The weather has been so bad since then! They have rescheduled (again!) for Friday evening, but it doesn't look good. Apparently the fireworks are nearly out of the use by date!

Real classy weather you've had there Jennie. Hope it improves and you manage to have the fireworks display.

Hey Jennie atleast you have celebrations up in Shetland, new year, up-helly-ya,
simmer dim, halloween, bonfire night, when I used to live up there any excuse for a party! Here the only celebrations are chirstian and fairly somber, no halloween, no firstfooting at new year, don't know if they had fireworks in town but certainly no bonfires anywhere
To get back to the weather, beautiful still day today, managed to get out for essential jobs but the forcasts say we're in the eye of the storm and its gonna get really cold and windy again, brrr

Shetland still not had its Guy Fawkes Fireworks Display yet. Cancelled again on Saturday due to the bad weather (wind, rain, and just about every else). Quite a nice calm day yesterday and today and temperature is high at 11 degrees. But more winds forecast. We lost eight slates off the roof at the weekend, just been worked looses by the ferocious winds of this month.

Amazing lightening today, and very heavy rain and hail showers. The roads were flooded in places when I was coming home from work. Saw my first Lewis deer yesterday, beautiful stag standing at the side of the road. We're in for worse weather tomorrow with gale and flood warnings.

Decent frost,snow on the hills and the bloody grass is still growing,can you eat grass as I seem to be an expert at growing it?.

Lol Burnie! Must be good tough Scots grass!

Dont know if you can eat it, but I know you can juice some varieties of grass, it may be worth a look!

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Blessings
Suzanne (aka Mrs Dobby)

'Garden naked - get some colour in your cheeks'!

The Dobby's Pumpkin Patch - a blogspot work in progress!
Last updated 5th November2008 - new piccies!

Hey Burnie, I've still got roses in flower here on Lewis! Daffs are coming up too. We've had no proper frosts, just a little hail and loads n loads of rain (so much its bursting the water pipes n leaving us without mains drinking water for days at a time !?!). The average day time temp is about 10C which is far too warm for this time of year up here.

Still mild here too - have roses still blooming - though they need to be puttingup there umbrellas - it is absolutely p*ssing it down outside as I type and the wind is making the slates jump up and down. The wind got up this afternoon - a real cold westerly and is forecast to stay for the rest of the week.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

First frosts today n yesterday. Beautiful, bright and still, and very chilly. Maybe the daffs will go back to sleep

Several days continuous frost,finally stopped the grass in it's tracks,got up to a sweaty 1 degree today,not much gardening , though santa has treated me to some goodies so roll the thaw.

Thunder and lightning with a bit of hail for good? measure,talk about going out with a bang,we had crash and wallop as well,broke my wind break fence but I've managed to do a repair on it till the morning.

Thankfully the gales passed us by, but we had alot of rain last night. Reasonable day today. Still 6 degrees! and no frost yet.

Just back from seasonal travels - windy as hell today but apparently has been worse - very large climbing rose ripped from wall (along with vine eyes and supporting wires) iona's trampoline trying to escape over 7ft wall, fence panels (neighbours) lying in my garden, miscellaneous items strewn round the flower beds and holly leaves everywhere (these were prunings left in a neat pile by local GC who prune every second year for the holly to make wreaths) - better get the wellies on and attack it before I go back to work.

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Rat

British by birth
Scottish by the Grace of God

Blog updated Wednesday November 13th

Sounds as though its been rough SR - I think you caught the bad winds on Hogmanay, but that also passed us by, thankfully. It was windy yesterday and apparently we have a Severe Gale 9 on its way. Wind has also gone round to the North, so feeling quite wintry, although my little sensor in the greenhouse says its still 8 degrees (isn't technology good!).

We,ve not had it too bad wind wise, maybe up to force 8ish, on and off this last two weeks. Started raining heavily last night and hasn't stopped yet, the garden is flooded with puddles up to six inches deep in places. The flower beds in the front garden are submerged and look more like ponds. The drains I dug last autumn are working as I checked their outflows but there is just soooo much water falling it can't seep through the ground fast enough. Paddling chickens are funny thou

Its just been rain, rain, rain here for the last two weeks. Everywhere just running with water. I have a new water feature in the drive - wondering about getting some ducks!

How about Kio Carp Jennie?

Beautful day here, cold but sunny, actually managed to get washing out for the first time in months. Got big winds coming though and feeling really guilty for not taking full advantage of the day but was feeling really lazy.

Beautiful day here too - blue skies, sunshine, but freezing cold. Everywhere stayed frozen all day - even the new chips on the landscapaed area around the greenouse, funny trying to walk on them!

Extreme winds here today,with rain on and off blown in the back of my greenhouse and all the plants are now laying on the floor!!, next doors window broke too. Empty compost bins and lids flying around,not to mention the last of my brussel sprouts and leeks going everywhere. A total contrast to yesterday I was out digging over my beds and adding compost. The chickens enjoyed it as all the left over leaves went their way!!
Hope everyone in the North has beared up ok

Been very windy here today too. Up to stormforce 11! Scarey driving home from work tonight, felt like the van was going to lift up. Had to do some propping up of the chicken fence and weighting down of other bits. Lid blew off the compost bin despite having a brick on the top! Great thunder and lightening last night and powercuts this morning too. The locals tell me it was two years to the day since the terrible hurricains. Wind is due to drop a little over the next few days but pick up again on Monday (my day off, typical )

Chicken coop was blown about 2 1/2 feet across it's sleepers and only stopped because there's a fence in the way!

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Dwell simply ~ love richly

OMG BW! Are your chickens alright? If its any consolation the wind is supposed to be dropping a bit. Hope everything is ok.
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