After a break of four months the cottage was looking a little neglected and in need of some tlc. With bedrooms on the ground floor facing onto the road, blinds are particularly important. Unfortunately, the blind in our bedroom had pulled its fixings from the plasterboard and a repair was needed before we could use the room. We keep a good supply of tools in the cottage and normally bring a battery powered drill with us when d.i.y. jobs are planned. On this occasion we had decided that we would use the visit to assess what we need to do in future months and leave the drill in Cheshire. Luckily neighbours came to the rescue (again) and the load of a drill meant that after one night in the guest bedroom, our bedroom was serviceable once more.
With a severe, red warning that the second storm, Eunice, would be arriving soon, we checked the garden properly to prevent, as far as possible, damage from the very strong winds that were forecast. The storm duly arrived as we awoke in the morning and continued beyond lunchtime. I had to rescue the barbecue on two occasions despite having wedged it in a ‘safe’ place.
We and the rest of the village lost power at 11:30 and the Western Power website suggested that it would not be restored until 6:00. This was understandable as pictures of a damaged pole in the village appeared on Facebook. Luckily we had, as an emergency backup, a small hot plate, powered by a gas canister so we were able to warm some soup and make a cup of tea. In fact, like much of the village we had no power until 6.00 pm the following day and by that point the cottage was feeling decidedly cold.
As regular visitors to Parkhan we have experienced power cuts before in the village but normally, they have been short-lived. This longer power cut made us realise how much we are dependent on electricity. With the warnings of potential loss of power we had charged up our mobile phones and Kindles in advance as well as a notebook computer. However, whilst we tend to think of phones, Kindles etc as important, they are not the things that really matter. We were so grateful for the small gas hot plate to provide hot food and to boil water for a cup of tea, particularly as the cottage got colder and colder. Maybe we need to consider some form of emergency gas heater, it seems ridiculous having full gas cylinders sitting next to the front door and no means of utilising the gas to keep us warm.
Lighting is something that you cannot do much about but the sun continued to shine as the storm subsided so we were also grateful for the light until late into the afternoon. Candles then came out and for the first time we played Scrabble by candlelight, before retiring to bed under 2 duvets!
The next morning a drive in the car allowed us to charge phones and to get warm with a visit to friends who had not lost power. We went for a walk in the afternoon hoping that the power might come on but the latest update was that it could be a day or more! We were delighted when everything burst into action at 6:00pm just as we were trying to prepare another meal on the gas hot plate. Never had we appreciated so much the comfort of a warm lounge and bedroom.
With power restored we were able to visit The Bell to catch up with some of our village friends and we also were able to visit and host other friends for coffee.
The storms were followed by some very gusty and wet weather with winter clearly still here but, as we drove around the lanes it was good to see banks of snowdrops, celandines and the occasional early daffodil in flower. We had some bracing walks at Northam Burrows and it was good to see and hear skylarks singing as they soared upwards into the sky, the sheep also looked close to delivering their spring lambs.
We are now preparing for our next visit in March when hopefully, there will be no further power cuts and we should be able to see more signs of spring with more daffodils and the primroses in flower in the Devon banks.
