What a blow!

I thought it was wild on Wednesday, but Thursday was not much of an improvement. 


I was surprised when the phone went early in the morning. It was from the man who runs the salt marsh lamb stall at the Farmers' Market. We had ordered some meat from him last time & he was ringing to let me know he'd got the meat. He also added he would appreciate it if we could get there a bit earlier than usual - he knows from experience we don't usually arrive before noon - as he may need to leave earlier than usual himself if the wind got any worse.


We duly arrive nearer 11 o'clock. Stuart, this farmer, is one of the only two have stalls outside. The rest of the stalls are in the church hall. Stuart sells his meat from a trailer. As the wind blew the trailer rocked violently. At times he had to brace himself & hold onto the canvas roof. He was finding the more he sold, the lighter the trailer became, the more the trailer endeavoured to take flight. He was relieved to see us. We collected our lamb as well as buying a bit extra. Now when the balance between the value of sales & the instability of the trailer tilted in favour of the latter,  he felt he could pack up & head home.


After the Farmers' market we went on to the fish shop. There we learnt the ferries to the Isle of Man had all been stopped . We weren't surprised. We had got to the shop by going along the prom & had seen just how rough the sea looked. Great breakers were rolling in. The sea looked like a mass of white-topped greyness tossing in every which direction.


It was a relief to get in away from the storm. It is equally a relief to find the wind seems to have abated a bit this morning. It is still blowing. Certainly, normally I would have said it was a very windy day today, but after the last couple of days it seems quite peaceful. Immediately I can't see any damage but certainly there is plenty of mess to tidy up. Still there's no point in doing anything about that until things fully settle down.