I like to think of myself as an honest person, and as the person who has written all the text and taken all the photographs for our website, I would hate to think that we give the impression that the weather is always lovely here on Mull – because it isn’t! However the landscape looks different in every light and weather – and it can be very exhilarating!
This last while it has been pretty wild and I now feel quite blasé about wind speeds and routinely unplug everything – just in case – before going to bed. I was so blasé last night, with 70 – 80 mph forecast after midnight last night, I forgot to unplug the router and the satellite broadband hardware. The direction of the wind last night was south westerly which is more unusual for us, and meant it wasn’t blasting in our north facing seaward facing windows as we tried to sleep.
At about 4am a huge flash of lightening and simultaneous crack of thunder woke me. We still had electricity as I could see the glow from the landing light. I remembered about the internet, and went downstairs to unplug it all. There was no light or power in the kitchen!! In the dim torch light I couldn’t see any fuses that had tripped. I went back to bed trying to reassure myself that we could live without the internet, I was sure we could. Needless to say I didn’t sleep much after that. The wind kept up its pace and howled round the house.
The alarm went off as usual and we headed off to the school bus at Calgary Bay. It wasn’t there. For the second time this week. As we drove down to the beach along a very flooded road, we could see – even though it was still quite dark – the white of huge waves breaking in the bay, in the middle of the bay and the ring of white water along the shoreline on both sides. We turned and came home, and before coming back into the house, we went to check the other buildings for any damage. Thankfully there wasn’t any.
The bus service resumed at 10.55 so we set off again. I was secretly quite glad to have an excuse to go back as I could see the waves were even larger. As it was pouring with rain I didn’t linger as I didn’t want my camera to get wet. What a wild wild day. Farmer has been round doing his animals and is wearing Waterproof set No 3. The other 2 are dripping all over the drying room! The builders have gone home as it is too windy to knock a hole in Duill wall for the new window.
The good news was that the satellite was okay, we still had internet and the power was restored to the kitchen, one phone was not working so we think that probably got a direct hit and upset the circuits!
So here you are, it is not all blue skies on a stormy winter morning. It was exhilarating and exciting, and lovely to get back in doors to the warmth of the wood chip central heating.. Off back down to Calgary Bay in a minute to meet the afternoon school bus. It had been better be running this time.
PS The bus did run, and the swell coming in onto the beach, strewn with storm debris and seaweed, was much gentler.
