After the Deluge

I imagine there will be lots of Storm Ciara blips today from UK blippers.  We stayed put for much of the day as the high winds whistled around the house and the rain beat on the windows, actually forcing its way through the pointing above the living room window for the duration of the storm.  As the skies cleared mid afternoon, we decided to venture out and see how the village had fared.  Thankfully, because we are high up, we fared better than households and businesses in the Aire Valley.  It was clear from the size and power of our usually burbling little beck that an awful lot of water was heading down to the valley from all directions.  It had caused some issues on the new housing estate below us, but quick thinking by folks had averted the water from entering houses.  The Malt Pub was less lucky with the beck overspilling the bridge and in to their cellars and bar.  Again a team of volunteers was swabbing out as we passed by to Goit Stock.

The noise from the swollen beck was quite something and we had to paddle through a couple of inches of water at the cattle grid to continue on the flooded lane to the caravan park.  When we reached the fields just before the park, several streams had merged in to one coming down the hillside and flooded the lane, joining the beck.  This is where I took my blip of Tony, boots and socks in hand, paddling through the new ford!  The sunspots make it look as though he has a thought bubble out of the frame - wonder what he was thinking.  I didn't fancy taking off my boots so I just got wet feet wading through to him on the other side!

From there we walked up the valley to the waterfall, which was a crescendo of sound and a bit tricky to negotiate in places, but we didn't do anything silly that would have risked falling in the rushing waters.

Across the bridge and back through the sodden woodland and fields, Tony found a child's toy penguin lost in the mud.  He is now in the washing machine and will hopefully be reunited with his owner at some point.  As I write this I am back home, the blue sky has disappeared, it is raining again and the wind is still howling!