Goodbye 2007

Well looking back it's been an eventful year for us: We sold our old house and moved. Had leaks through the kitchen ceiling, coped with a broken foot & flooding. I had to abandon our car due to the depth of the water & the roads were impassable near my office but fortunately
our new house is on a hill so we were ok at home unlike my poor SIL.

Knitting has also been evident this year but not as much as I would have liked due to all the events above. My favourite FO of the year has to be the Walking Socks that I designed & made for DH.

Petwise we said Goodbye to Vince & Monet & hello to Ginny & Lyra.


Ginny

Photo courtesy of Puplet who visited yesterday with Susoolu much to the delight of all the animals as these guests played with them! Ginny in particular loved posing for a new camera man & enjoyed the flash bouncing off her whiskers Thanks Pup

Back on track

I'd like to thank you all for all the lovely comments over the past few weeks. The Flooding has left us luckily untouched (apart from when I had to abandon the car) & our home is safe & dry. However many thousands of people weren't so lucky and everywhere you go piles of ruined carpets & laminate flooring are evident piled up on driveways or the grass outside homes. My SIL & her family were flooded out as were LOADS of friends & every day we hear of someone else we know who is now living in a hotel, caravan or with staying with family indefinitely. It's been estimated that it'll take up to two years for the area to recover which is a really frightening thought.

A bit closer to home my tooth ache is finally subsiding as I'm responding to the medication but I've still got a bit of a niggle. So am going back to the Dentist tomorrow & am hoping that I'll be given a repeat prescription. For those that don't know I had a bad experience years ago whilst at the Dentist so am a total wimp when it comes to anything involving my teeth.

But this is meant to be a KNITTING blog I hear you moan. Fair enough, personal stuff over, this is what I've been working on recently:


My So Called Scarf

My So Called Scarf in a brown chunky yarn that I bought at Coldspring Mill earlier in the year. I still love the yarn but I'm limited where I can work on this as the friend that I'm now giving it to is often at the pool as our DD's train together. I've decided to make my Manchester friend a pair of Fuzzy Feet as I love mine so much in the same brown yarn.

So my poolside knitting (yes DD is training again after the pot was removed last week) & general anywhere KIP project is still that same pair of socks for my big footed DH:


Small Tiles from More Sensational Knitted Socks

They seem to be taking forever but I blame that on the 2mm needles & knitting two at the same time so any progress is slow. I wasn't sure about the pattern at first but it's growing on me; you can see it better here. He loves the colours & they're helping to keep my interest but are a bit orangey for me.

I've decided to have a real push to finish or frog existing WIP's as I have too many things on the go and I'm hoping to show some FO's here in the not too distant future.

Ok so far

The predicted bad weather hasn't arrived yet + the severity has been scaled down. Every day we hear of more friends that have been flooded + there isn't a single hotel room to be found anywhere (or doubles either). Knitting content to resume soon + something else as I have a new toy!

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The aftermath

After all the rain yesterday the effects have been horrendous. Parts of the city including where my MIL & SIL & her family live are still under water & cut off. MIL lives on the same street that we left in March & although her house wasn't flooded she can't leave the area as all the roads are totally blocked


SIL's house

SIL tried to drive to us this morning so we could have the kids whilst her & her husband tried to clear up but she couldn't get out of the area. An area about two square miles where they live is totally cut off by road & some people have been evacuated by boats.


SIL's street

Some friends of ours were moving house yesterday. Half of their stuff is in the old house which is within this area & half of it to the new house. His mother picked their 3 year old son up from nursery as they couldn't get to him but then she was flooded as well. So they had to borrow a big van today & drive through the roads that are closed against all advice to reach their son as Grandma has no power & it wasn't safe for him to be there. They took it very slowly & managed to get to him without stalling the engine.

Other areas nearby are also badly affected & I spoke a friend earlier who was evacuated by boat with her husband & two children by boat. The water in her house is now 4ft high

In this area probably hundreds if not thousands of people have been flooded & many evacuated from their homes

Update on flooding

DD is on cloud nine as her school is closed tomorrow but we couldn't have got there even if it were open as the car is still where I left it on a hill near my office. The whole area has been really bad affected & a man died this afternoon after being trapped in a manhole not far from us

DH's work mate who help us get DD from school & brought us all home has unfortunately been unable to get home himself. His wife is also stuck so their 14 year old daughter is at home alone with a dog & five cats

MIL has water coming through her kitchen ceiling & no electricity in the kitchen & DH feel powerless as he can't go & help her.

The rain is predicted to ease off over night but I can imagine there will still be lots of problems here tomorrow.

I'm just so glad we bought a house on a hill. Do you remember me mentioning a house that we viewed last year flooding recently? It's bad again & DH captured it on a video:



The dogs are not impressed as they hate getting wet but at least the cats can use the cat tray in the conservatory.

ETA: DH has just spoken to his sister & they're just about to be flooded. They're trying to get things upstairs & have 3 young children. Poor DH he feels so helpless that he can't help his Mother & Sister.

We're home safely

Thanks to the kindness of one of DH's work colleagues we all home safely. He & DH managed to get near my office but I was cut off by waist deep water. One of my colleagues has a much higher car than ours so managed to get through it, just & I then transferred to the other car. Then we had to negotiate the closed roads & those that were just passable to collect DD from school. The school had just announced that it was closed but children couldn't be released until a parent got there for them.

She was very giddy & enjoyed a piggy back through the rain to the car as we tried to keep her cast dry.

The ride home was scary to put it mildly & we headed up hill as best we could & then back to our house. We're ok here as luckily we're on a hill but I know that lower down in the village it's awful.

DH's work colleague has now headed home as his 14 year old daughter is home alone. I hope he makes it home safely.

ETA: DH recorded this near my office & this near to the junction that I crossed with my work colleague in his car before joining DH on our journey to get DD from school.

Heading home

I,ve abandoned our car + one of DH,s workmates managed to get near my office + we,ve managed to pick DD up.

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I,m trapped

I parked the car on high ground but the roads are closed. DH is heading home on the bus + DD is at school safe for now but with a cast on her foot can,t walk in the flood water.

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View from office window

Most of the cars have been moved. The toilets are backing up...<

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Car park

I,ve got wet feet.

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Flooded road

Taken from the office carpark. I parked on higher ground a few streets away.

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Severe weather warning

This is the road outside my office + to get here I had to go past a piece of road that had collapsed + was sticking up out of the water.

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Flooding!

Today has been a total wash out in the true sense of the word. We've had heavy rain all week & it led to flooding.

DD & I left the house a few minutes earlier than normal but 15 minutes later were sat in traffic 2 minutes from home. The roads were totally submerged in places even going across the pavements. DD was very excited & wanted to go out in it but I vetoed that idea; Can you imagine her on her crutches in a foot of water?

We were stuck in traffic & I kept trying for half an hour to call my office whilst I couldn't drive. Eventually I got through only to be told not to come in as the toilets were backing up so we got off the main road & made to come home. So neither DD nor I got to school or work this morning & in all it took us over an hour to do a 5 mile round trip.

DH had left home earlier than us as he works in the city & goes in by bus. He took a video of the road conditions on his phone:


(Fast forward for 45 seconds to get to the flooding)

In the end he gave up as well & came home 3 hours after setting off totally soaked.

I've just taken the dogs into the village for a walk & the streets are drying out now. We're luckily on a hill so our house didn't flood but quite a few houses lower down in the village had to be pumped out. The bbc news has just reported that our village was the worst affected in the region