Storm Doris hits...

We awoke to a blustery morning as Storm Doris was due to affect the UK today. Our area had even been given an Amber warning for high winds!

We took Sophie and Mike to college and uni first thing and then came home to write our shopping list. On the way to Tesco and Aldi we called to see Mum and Dad and gave them back the suitcase Sophie had borrowed from them.

Shopping was a bit wind-blown...we managed to lose one of our bags when it flew out of the boot of the car and and sped off across the car park where it became lodged under another vehicle! Everyone looked really frazzled by the gusts and it was a relief to get home and have some lunch!

Even though we were supposed to get 60-70 mph winds this afternoon, it didn't seem that bad. That is, until we went out at 3pm to get the kids from uni and college... We called into the doctor's first to pick up our routine prescriptions and branches from the tall fir trees kept hitting the car! We set off towards Northampton and a thick branch hit my wing mirror making me jump in alarm, and then we saw that the traffic ahead had slowed down and we could see a long queue of red brake lights.

It looked like the road was blocked so we turned around and went through the village of Pitsford. Unfortunately, all the school buses from Moulton were coming through so all we could do was sit and wait. From the traffic reports on the radio we learned that a tree had fallen quite a way ahead on the A508 so I was really glad I turned around when I did!

We made it to uni on time and then went to collect Mike from college. We headed home on the A43 but realised something was up on our small country road when there were long lines of cars coming the other way! Back home we had no electricity so we sat in the conservatory and played cards for a while but it was starting to get chilly so we all sat in the living room, lit some candles and Keith put the gas fire on to keep us warm. We had no idea when we were going to get the power back but our dinner of roast pork was looking dubious!

Thankfully, at just after 6pm everything came back on and we were able to cook dinner and put the heating back on. Storm Doris had certainly done a fair amount of damage with even, very sadly, one woman being killed in Wolverhampton after she was hit by flying debris. There were reports of trees down on major roads throughout our county and general havoc due to the winds. I have to say I think Doris is too mild a name for a storm - it should have been Storm Demon!