Wild and windy

The weather here this morning is rather wild; the wind is blowing hard and I am a little concerned about the chook shed - once I open the door to let them out, the wind will be blowing directly into it, as it is coming from the west-ish, and might take the roof off....but I can't let them out and then shut the door as they will want to be in and out to get some shelter, lay their eggs, and get out of the rain, if it rains........what a pain this weather has become.

But I should be counting my blessings here, instead of moaning!  We live in one of the most well-drained areas of the country, where flooding is rare to any great extent, and contained where it does usually happen.  We do expect certain places to flood each winter in this area, but they are "washes" which are areas of land where the floodwater is allowed to go, and it is contained within the washes by banks.  A few roads are affected, but the diversion signs go up very quickly and locals know whether the route is likely to be flooded based on the recent rainfall

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(photo from en.wikipedia.org)

There are areas of land where the Fen skaters used to practice each winter - the land would flood and then freeze solid in the winter, and people would go out and skate - some of the greatest Fenland speed skaters came from areas I know.  The FH went with an old friend to a cemetery on the Cambs/Norfolk border only last month, and there was a grave there of a speed skater called "Turkey" Smart, and he had skates on his grave!  The friend had a family connection to the area and wanted to revisit old haunts, so they went on a day out and spent some time in the area.