26.05
8.05am FBG 5.4
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Sunday After the picnic:
Arrived home. No rain just the occaisional rumble of thunder in the distance. Am always amazed how variable weather can be within a short distance. Fed Kiki, made tea and sat outside enjoying the evening sunshine. Kiki sat with us on the warm concrete steps in front of the house, tea drunk we both wandered off while Kiki stayed on the steps.
Suddenly there was an enormous, really loud clap of thunder. BANG! sounded as if it was overhead and within seconds large hailstones were falling. Kiki was nowhere to be seen, I guessed she was hiding in the hedge, three metres deep at the base, where she would be safe and dry enough, even if terrified by the storm. She didn't come even though we were both calling and whistling. She may not have been able to hear us over the furious pounding of the hail and the repeated crashing of thunder.
MrSlim had purchased a Hosta at the nursery and I was able to reach that and bring it under cover with only minor wounds to it's leaves. I wasn't brave enough to attempt rescue of my tomatoes. Outside at the back of the house for the second day, accompanied by my aubergine plant with two flowers, they should have been sheltered from the storm. The hail, and thunder, persisted for some time. Crazy weather, then turned to absolutely torrential rain.
I saw the first wave of muddy brown water roll onto our driveway exactly like last time.
MrSlim declared i was panicking but went out and shut the gates. Playing Canute.
View attachment 67852That may have helped. Shortly after this the floodwater broke through the hedge washing a wet and muddy Kiki out of her hiding place. She was still too terrified to respond to calling and raced around the end of the house, disappearing for several hours, while MrSlim got a pickaxe and dug a new channel to direct the water into the ditch. While at the other end of the house both barn and stable got flooded.
As before the water flowed both through and around the stable and barn.
Storm over we assessed the damage. Not as bad as last time in 2019. My vegetable gardens were not washed out, but the battering from the hailstones had done significant damage to many plants, including my aubergine.
View attachment 67855My fench friends reaction was to say that the hail had minced the leaves.
Only about a couple of inches water in the stable this time and we have a lot more shelving now, so far fewer items got wet.
View attachment 67856Even so we swept water out of the stable for what seemed like hours.
Next day ( monday) a friend came to assist with the clear up. Helping MrSlim to ferry all the stuff out of the stable and stack it under cover. Amazingly only one of our friends had similar problems. She
lives only 4km away was flooded but had no hail only rain. Her driveway floods frequently so not unexpected.
It's taken all week for everything to dry and most to be returned to it's proper place. The garden through - so many badly damaged plants. Between the slugs and the hail some plantings are almost entirely wiped out.
Courgette. Luckily all the other courgettes were under netting so less badly damaged by the hail.
View attachment 67858these were white radish.
View attachment 67857
