Friday and the forecast is all doom and gloom about an incoming storm along the east coast and into the borders of Scotland. I spent the day deep cleaning the kitchen, with the wood burner on and some podcasts to listen too. Mid afternoon David and I took ourselves out for a quick walk up at Traquair as the skies became darker and the wind picked up.
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| The track up to Camp Shiel |
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| Heading out with the wind at our back |
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| Damhead Shiel |
Back home into the warm and I finished off the kitchen, looks so much better! While I was cooking dinner the power went off, back on, off, back on, off and didn't come back on for 5 days and nights! Storm Arwen had struck and it wasn't even properly windy yet. It was a candle lit dinner, so romantic, time to get the fires on. Oh and it snowed as well.
What a night! We've had no power since 6pm on Friday night and the wind over night was been brutal. We went up to the nursery on Saturday to check it's all OK and to charge phones and laptops. It's baltic tho. Power now estimated to be restored by 8pm tonight, little did we know ....... The roads round about the house are a mess with tree debris and the back road from Traquair to Cardrona was completely blocked with numerous trees down so we had to turn around and go by Innerleithen. Still we got lots of tasks done in the nursery and phones charged. David put wood chippings into ton bags and I potted some bulbs, took plants to the farm tunnel and started one of the drainage ditches.
Colin was in yesterday and took the rest of the fallen tree down which is a big relief. All the branches and trunks have been taken away and we some piles of chippings to use. It is so good to remove that worry and risk from the nursery. Nice sunset too.
We've moved the sofa in front of the coal fire and and are wrapped up as the weather, typically, has turned much colder. Every day we are promised the power will be back on by late evening and every deadline passes with no power. Thankful we have the coal fire and woodburner through in the kitchen and some form of heat.
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| evenings spent huddled infront of the fire with a good book and the cat |
On Sunday we woke up to snow! Time to hibernate I think. We went for a walk along part of the Southern Upland way along the side of St Marys Loch. Last time we did this walk was last winter with a small fuzzy dog 😢 I miss him so much and can't believe he's been gone 7 weeks now.
On Monday we went into the nursery to charge phones and laptops. We got a loan of a generator from colin, the tree surgeon which although very loud has meant we could charge phones and heat the fish tank back up as they were on the point of dying from the cold. I so want a shower! In the evening we went into Edinbugh to have dinner with David's son Adam. It was great to catch up with him and enjoy some mexican food at Topolabamba. Food and service was great and we had a lovely evening. It was also warm in the car, in the restaurant and better than being at home.
Any excuse to get out the house and go somewhere with light and with heat. Where better than one of our favourite places Mainstreet Trading in St Boswells. This place is an excellent bookshop, cafe, deli and homeware shop - what more could you ask for? We spent a while browsing the book shop and then had a lovely coffee and cake. Back to the car via the deli and homeware shop where I purchased a few things for christmas presents and for me lol.
David was away on Wednesday and I headed into the nursery to finishing the drain. It was good to actually do something useful, charge my phone, laptop and be in the light rather than a dark gloomy house! Got lots done which made me feel a bit better. Despite being promised either the power back on or a generator hooked up to the mains today, unsurprisingly neither has made an appearance!
And then miracles do happen, about 11pm there was a flicker and we had power! 5 days and nights of no power has been challenging, especially when we had no water or gas at some points too, but we have been alot luckier than some people.
Winter jobs in the garden - making the most of a dry day, I got the new drain finished through the top terrace flower bed. This is the first of many and the smallest so I thought I'd start with that one for practice.
1. Dig a trench deep enough and wide enough to take a layer of gravel, your pipe and another layer of gravel around the sides and on top. It should also have a gradient of around 1% to help the water flow.
2. Line the trench with landscape fabric, wide enough to line the trench and enough to wrap over the top.
3 Put in your gravel, I used pea gravel (barrowing it up the hill and to the furthest point of the nursery was good exercise, who needs a gym membership when you are a gardener :D )
4. Put in your pipe, this should be perforated drainage pipe, make sure it is lying snuggly in the bottom of the trench and runs down hill.
5. Fil in around and on top of the pipe with your gravel to almost the top of the trench.
6. Fold the sides of the landscape fabric over the top of the gravel.
7. Cover with soil, gravel or in my case bark which I have used to mulch this border.
This drain runs out into the wildflower bank where the water will dissipate into the surrounding soil.
Had the best nights sleep and slept until mid morning which is not like me at all. I don't want to make any presumptions but David was away early to go gliding...................... Took myself off for a walk along the Tweed and old railway line path in Innerleithen, some erands to run in the town and then the christmas cake baked. Worked through all the boxes of nursery wee shop stuff, taking photos and listing it to go on the website. Lots of lovely new things which I will try not to buy myself :D a Couple of hours of admin infront of the fire with Poppy cat for company. Still can't believe we are in December already! I did manage to burn the advent candle down to the 7th however, so not only is time speeding by its burning away as well through my lack of attention! Poppy at is also in the huff as we moved the sofa back where it usually is and not infront of the coal fire as it was during the power cut. She believes this is unacceptable cat care and would like to complain to management.
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| Hawthorn berries along the Tweed |
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| Alder |
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