Wild weather

I’m tucked up in bed in Ullapool listening to the rain and wind buffeting the cottage. It’s rather cosy, especially with Flora snuggling in at my side (on top of the duvet, she refuses to go under it) and Tom curled up at my ankles. However the reason that the wild weather is noteworthy is that James and I spent the whole afternoon outdoors in the garden, accompanied by our feline chums. The sun was shining and although there were clouds it was quite warm; certainly warm enough for me to sit on the bench with Flora and do some admin and emails. James was working hard in the garden, assisted by Tom keeping an eye on him, preparing the ground for the next batch of heathers that he will be planting soon. We went indoors at about 5 p.m. and I was about to start making tea while James had a shower, when I noticed that I couldn’t see across the loch because of the sheets of rain and that the wind was whipping the branches of the trees so hard that twigs and leaves were breaking off them. And thus it has continued all evening. In fact when we were watching yet another episode of Black Mirror we had to turn up the sound on the television because the wind was howling down the chimney so loudly!

Update just before midnight: I saw on Facebook that one of the lampposts just up the lane from us blew right down into a neighbour’s garden this evening due to the high winds!