Storms!

This weekend we've had storm after storm, with some amazing lightning and incredible thunder. No pics unfortunately. I was about to head down to the plot this afternoon when I heard some thunder in the distance so decided against it and started shearing the garden grass instead. There was light rain for a while that I didn't mind working through, with a bit of lightning, it was quite fun actually being out and hearing and seeing it. But it wasn't long before the rain got heavier so I jumped into the lean- to.....what followed was the heaviest rain I've ever seen! Our street completely flooded (cars had water over the lower part of the hub cap) and our front yard flooded - it's paved but we have lots of pots ( they all are paved ....ex city council block), the yard slopes down slightly with a small drain at the base of the wall between the properties which was not big enough to cope with the volume of water. Luckily there wasn't any chance of it getting into the house as we have a doorstep about 2 inches high. The water was probably about an inch and a half at its deepest in the yard but that was at the lowest point of the yard so not near the door. I was getting ready with towels just in case though. 

And in the back garden the narrow tube from the lean-to gutter to the water butt was over flowing so I had a trug and bucket underneath and was popping in and out to empty them into the butt when they got full. When the rain was at its heaviest I spotted that the pipe in the ground meeting with the main drain pipe from the block roof wasn't coping with the flow either and water was starting to pool around the base of our lounge wall and creeping up towards where our cable tv comes in, yikes! I was getting ready to bail it out into the water butt next to it using old plastic milk bottles when the rain started to ease and the water level dropped.....phew.

So that was all rather exciting. The rain carried on for quite a while but the standing water in the road, yard and back garden soon drained away...we virtually had an extra pond int the back garden for a while there where there's a dip in the grass. It's easy to see how water can cause damage so quickly and take people by surprise.....our systems just aren't designed to cope with that level of water in one go. All the more reason to build my own place one day based on permaculture principles....yes....one day......

So anyway, I didn't go to the allotment today so instead here's some from yesterday's harvest of the first crop of dwarf French beans. It was only by accident I spotted they were ready as I was weeding next to them. They went into a mix of all home grown veg; onions, courgette, Nero kale and a few toms. Oh and the comedy carrot. The filo pie is most definitely not home made...they're from a lovely deli in Norwich called Clarke and Ravenscroft's :)