Extremes

Boy! Does the world throw some extremes at us. 

Pop over to Chookyblue’s to see the gorgeous summer weather she has been experiencing.  I’m sure it will be the summer holiday destination of choice for next year.

On the other hand, our favourite island – the Isle of Man has really been copping it over the last few days with more to come today.  They missed the worst of the weather over Christmas but are making up for it now.  My friend Lou has posted about it here and here.

Here are a few comparisons – photos we took in August on the left and ones I have borrowed from Lou’s blog, taken on Friday and Saturday, on the right. Castletown, where we stay, and Ramsey, where Lou lives, were the worst affected.  Our cottage would have been OK, but the street behind us copped the worst of the flooding.

Castletown

Ramsey

Ramsey again.  The shop on the bottom left is the patchwork shop.  There was a radio interview with the owner to say that the community had pitched in to help move her stock out of harm’s way before the flooding.

Douglas and  Peel

Our mate has his boat moored in the Castletown harbour.  We hope it was OK.  The other thing I wonder about is “Peggy”  She is reputably the oldest yacht in the world and lives in a boat house under the Nautical Museum in Castletown.  When we visited they were trying to arrange to move her prior to predicted record high tides in the coming spring. I found an article dated Christmas Eve about her restoration, and at that stage she hadn’t been moved.  See a break in the wall on the right of the photo on the right, well she lives in behind there.  I hope she is OK.

The Isle of Man is expected to cop it again today.  I’ll be thinking of them.

We, on the other hand, are having rather pleasant weather at the moment, only in the high 20s, much better than the 40 we had on Friday.  Now we just want to be greedy and get some rain.