Storm on the Island

We are prepared: we build our houses squat,
Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.
This wizened earth has never troubled us
With hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks
Or stooks that can be lost. Nor are there trees
Which might prove company when it blows full
Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branches
Can raise a tragic chorus in a gale
So that you listen to the thing you fear
Forgetting that it pummels your house too.
But there are no trees, no natural shelter.
You might think that the sea is company,
Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs
But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits
The very windows, spits like a tame cat
Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives
And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo,
We are bombarded with the empty air.
Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.
Seamus Heaney


Well, I hope we are  prepared for it looks like Storm Barra is heading our way and feeling ferocious. Arwen was mercifully kind but it looks like it might all kick off at around 7.30am tomorrow just in time for a very high tide. The wind is already getting up and the rushes were nearly horizontal when I went out briefly this morning. 

In other news,  quantities of  building blocks and large bags of sand and cementy stuff were delivered this morning in preparation for our new well house! Like everyone round here we have our own well and although we do have a wellhouse it's got pretty grotty, inside and out, so a new one is to be built. Hmm, I wondered - will it be beehive shaped with a nice niche for a BVM? Apparently it won't!!

Eye of the storm (almost) the best I could do to rhyme with pie!