This was the sky last night - it went a most peculiar pink colour - I wondered what the heck was going to happen next! It just carried on blowing and raining and poor Builth was submerged - all the roads in and out were under water either in the town or either side of it. Cars which had been parked up as their owners were manning their shops, were sat in two feet of water by the time dusk arrived. The water continued to rise right across to the showground. I've only been here 3 years but this is the worst it's been in that time. Someone wrote on Facebook (where the photos were posted) that he could remember the toilet block in the Groe being totally submerged one year. It has dropped overnight and the roads in and out are I believe all passable now. I was intending to go to Aberystwyth tomorrow but Tam tells me they are still without power - it was meant to come back on at 6 p.m. tonight - now it's going to be 9 p.m. tomorrow (and possibly beyond that). Jon is working, and I have suggested she comes here. He can always stay at his mum's. I'll wait and see what she says.
As Tam has lost the entire contents of her fridge/freezer, I have been baking up a storm so she has some mum-made "ready meals" for when power is returned. The Homity Pie above will make several good sized portions. It also used up some of my fridge contents - I bought a (reduced) leek for the first time in ages on Friday, and had cream that needed using up too.
I had a tin of good stewing steak too, and grated a potato and grated an onion up and made 6 pasties, plus I had two scruffy rings of pastry left and used cheese, grated potato and grated onion in those. I intend to make chicken and chick pea curry too, and a couple of stew type meals which are easily defrosted. I've also told her not to worry about the cost of restocking the fridge and freezer as I will pay for that for her, as she's now in the last 3 months of maternity leave and this is the no-pay quarter, so money is tight.
The only sewing I have done today was first thing this morning when I worked on the embroidered tote bag when I was watching yesterday's news, and then carried on watching a tv adaptation of Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which I am also listening to on Audible. I watched one of the Wessex Tales last night too, and there are several of Hardy's films on iPlayer I can watch. A Hardy season.
Hoping everyone in the UK survived the storm - it was a nasty one, and Wales will have a lot of mopping up to do as West Wales (Carms, Pembs and Cardiganshire) were very badly hit and declared a disaster area. Poor souls.
