My turn now...
Having managed to pick myself up after flooding in the spring and starting again, I'm back to less than square one. I've just been down to have a look at my veg patch. It's totally and utterly shredded. All I'll be able to salvage is maybe a few cabbages, if that.
But I wasn't surprised at what I saw. We've just had an almighty hailstorm with hailstones getting on for the size of golf balls followed by pounding rain. It went on for ages. We were expecting a storm from the state of the clouds, but not as bad as this. In preparation we had both car windscreens covered up with two layers of carpet and blanket. Both bust. You can imagine what the bonnets look like. Our skylights in the bathroom and kitchen have gone the same way.
The dogs were indoors but terrified. The cats were all out. One has just turned up and I hope the other two managed to find somewhere to take shelter. Under a tree wouldn't have done as they've suffered a lot of damage too, and the ground is littered with leaf matter, twigs and small branches. The chickens are all traumatised but glad of some of the damaged tomatoes to cheer them up. I think there are about three tomatoes left for us. No peppers, no aubergines, no sweetcorn, no courgettes, no green beans, no broccoli, no caulis, no carrots, no melons, no squash. Pretty well no nothing apart from the potatoes underground. The haulms are totally ruined.
Very sad about the veg patch as it gave me a lot of pleasure and it's what keeps us fed during the winter when we get cut off by rain and snow. Not this year, evidently. Better get lots of tinned peas and green beans in!
Unbelievably, the solar panels look to be still intact. We'll find out for sure if they're working tomorrow when the sun comes up.
