Weather

I'm sure this scene will be familiar to many. Lowering clouds, waterlogged ground and pouring rain. What it doesn't get across is the wind, which - while not as bad as yesterday in the North West has still brought trees down. The roads have also flooded in parts and there are horrendous streams of water pouring off the fields. There was one section of the lanes on the way back from shopping this morning which was like a huge plug hole, with the water swirling round it at the edge of the road. If you were standing in it, you would have been swept off your feet and sucked down into the drain.

Having said all this, I'd booked a table at a local restaurant for Mrs Mikey and myself to celebrate Valentine's Day. They could only fit us in at 6.30, but that wasn't a problem - although that was when the wind was supposed to be building up to its strongest.

On the way in, we saw a couple of alarming electrical flashes over the fields - not lightning, but we couldn't tell what they were. We had to drive through some standing water, but managed to get there and had a really nice meal. Unfortunately, a tree had fallen and fractured a gas pipe on the way out from Plymouth which had caused traffic chaos and a lot of people had phoned in to cancel their tables.

The food was excellent. And we had a very pleasant time, then drove back through the wind and rain. The wind is still blowing, but not as strongly as it was and hopefully things will start to improve tomorrow.