Wet and bother

What a frustrating week!  There has been so much rain and the ground is so saturated, we have spent too much time watching forecasts, traffic alerts, flood warnings, scary videos of how the rivers are rising, and amusing videos as people try to make the best of things.  It is worth seeking out the video of someone canoeing through the underground car park of the E LeClerc superstore in Saumur, and of the prize (edible) chip makers of Angers dealing with a flood closure.  We have stayed away as best we can, as we remember flood tourism in Worcester, and it is a challenge for the locals.  We did go up to la Fleche on Wednesday for the market and saw floods, an ambulance and the emergency services.  Since then, as I wouldn't use the photos of that, I have stolen this image from Facebook to give an idea.

Locally, we don't have issues with big rivers, or even small rivers, but just down from The Shack, the side of the hill, with tree attached, gave way due to all the rain.  While there is a row of trees along the bottom edge of the farmer's field to hold the bank in, that only works if you don't relentlessly plough through the roots uphill four times a year, and if you don't cut off all the uphill branches, so the tree is weighted to the downhill or road side.  Anyway, another tree and chunk of hillside lost the battle with gravity - it has been tidied up a bit, but I'm not convinced.

The weather drives you to comfort food (not so good for the waistline) and after years of avoiding it, I finally made John a steak and kidney pie like wot my Mum used to make for him.  I had to make a very large batch of filling as the butcher would only sell me a whole kidney, so we have filling for a smaller pie in the future.  I was quite pleased with it anyway, and it did taste good.

The bother comes from the hassle of trying to get a photo accepted by the Passport Office.  I feel like I am on my 20th attempt, though it may not be that bad.  I even resorted to one of those awful booths, as I was assured that a photo from that with a code would work.  Sadly it wouldn't - the code was no good for the UK, so that was 7 Euros down the drain and a set of really nasty ID photos that won't be useful for anything.  While the latest photo was accepted as good, I don't believe them.  I had a good one rejected during the week for not having enough contrast.  As the booth clearly doesn't work, there could be more annoying photo sessions, leaning against John's van as the only untextured, white surface we have available to us!

However, on the upside, there are signs of spring!  My adorable mini narcissus are flowering away.

The hyacinths that I used to buy for my Mum when she was in the nursing home, then planted out in the garden, are doing their thing.

There are also orchid rosettes turning up everywhere - this image includes both lizard and bee orchid rosettes and the rather posh lady orchid is also visible elsewhere.  It will be a while before they flower, but good to know that they are still there.

For the moment, we just have to live with the wet and the positives that come with that.  Our two ephemeral ponds in the One Acre Wood have water in, and watching the pool surface, we can see that newts or salamanders have been getting it on, so it's not all bad!

The weather promises a bit better this coming week, so I might find some seed compost and be positive about the growing season to come, while waiting for the waters to recede.  I hope you are staying dry wherever you are, and have a good week!