Thanks for all the commiserations guys. Fishing and golf sound like good options, Steve (unless you're the fish!), and would provide much of the pleasure I get from the vegetable patch, being outdoors, getting a little exercise and engaging in what is almost a meditative activity, as I'm totally distracted from work or household issues.
Yesterday one of the locals came round to view the damage to my plot. In a village near us, they're declaring a disaster zone, the storm was so bad. His vines have been shredded (grapes not quite ready for picking), all the almonds are on the ground (just about ready, so could be gathered off the ground, but it's harder work than gathering off the trees), as are the few olives that the trees produced this year. Puts my caulis and cabbages into perspective. He's a lovely man and we talked about plans for the future.
Mr Snoop's view is that six years out of seven, everything will be fine. I just have to accept that every now and then it won't. He thinks I should carry on, and he's the one who does nearly all the donkey work but doesn't get the same pleasure out of it that I do. So I'm rethinking my rethinking. Goats figure prominently after Tosca's recent posts on the new members of her family. Not immediately, but definitely in the next couple of years or so.
The cat hasn't been back. So he's our worst loss.