Friday, February 14, 2014

camping at home

The storms are still raging here. The winds have been incredibly strong and are really starting to cause damage. Luckily we have fared nothing worse than a few sheets of plastic missing from the green house, a couple of bits of guttering, a fence and some plant pots knocked over. But we have been loosing power and with that heating and means of communication.
 On Wednesday when this storm started I was happily drinking coffee with a friend in the kitchen when the power went off. Half an hour later I had a call from school asking me to come and get the kids as their power had also gone.
 I spent the rest of the afternoon very cautiously driving around picking up and dropping off the kids and Garry, in awe of the power of the weather: trees ripped up from the roots, huge ancient bows snapped off and dumped into drive ways and onto houses and caravans. Telephone lines lying snapped across the road.
 In the evening, when I got us home, we made a fire with the logs Garry had brought for us in the last storm and we lit lanterns and candles. Garry made a trip to our local town to shops that had generators and came back with a feast (how grateful I am to have him in our lives, to share some of the joy and the work in these things). The kids were so excited that they ran around in circles until we could persuade them to sit with us around the coffee table in the living room and have a candle lit picnic by the fire.
It was so lovely.
Joa, exhausted by the excitement, fell asleep on the sofa, huddled under a quilt before he could eat anything, but the rest of us feasted and chatted until Rebe and Benny were also were dropping and I carried them to bed. Garry and I shared a bottle of red wine in front of the fire, holding hands and revelling in the knowledge that we were in the middle of a special memory being made.
 
The next morning there was still no electricity and a text message from school saying it was remaining closed.
We snuggled up best we could,
in lots of layers
 and read and played.
Benny found a 'pinching bug' which Rebe captured. They then spent the next while looking up all the facts about it they could in their bug books and studying and observing the creatures habits.
 The postman arrived just after that with a parcel from my mum containing just what we needed: warm, hand knitted socks,

 new nighties and chocolate :-)
 
In the mid morning we made a trip to the shop where we had hot coffee and sausages and most importantly could buy coal. I was so happy to be able to warm our wee home again, and also rig up a cooking system.
 We fried more sausages and I warmed water for tea and left over chili.

Feeling warm again and much revived we could get on with the joys of life without electronic interference:
 knitting dolls clothes
 making paper mache
 play
 and games.

 The kids shared a lovely closeness, Benny and Joa were dog brothers and snuggled in their bed together.
Rebe read aloud interesting animal facts, and just as evening fell the power came back on, but before the luxury of a warm bath we had one more picnic dinner in the living room, in front of the fire...just because :-)

4 comments:

  1. You have a magical life, my friend. I am very glad to hear that you're all doing well despite the weather. (:

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    1. I do, I was thinking of you, see Joa playing with the wee gnomes you made for us :-) love and hugs x

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    2. I did notice those, yes. (:

      It's been so great reading about how happy you are. You deserve all of it and more!

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  2. Glad you stayed warm- it looks rather cozy! I always love it when the power goes out here and it is so wonderfully quiet. But then, we have a woodstove to heat the house! hugs, Taisa

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