Power

Something thousands of people in northern England are without this evening. I hope blippers and their families in affected areas are safe and haven't suffered too much damage. Having experienced flooding like this here in 1999 I know what the clearing up is like -- it will take literally years to repair the infrastructure damage, including bridges that have stood for centuries.

I hadn't taken any photos today, busy indoors baking bread and making ragu bolognese. But then I saw a nice cloud out of the window, so I hurried outside with the camera. Blip alternatives here and here (my one tree, blipped too often).

Regional election day today -- we are not looking forward to seeing the national results. We are just back from the count in our village (quickly done with 160 votes to count). When we moved here, it had been firmly communist for such a long time that it was known locally as "Little Moscow". This evening, the Front National candidate came second, 14 votes behind the left/green list, with the Socialist Party candidate a distant third. I don't like to think that in my village there are 47 people who voted for the extreme right. Worse, we suspect that many of these voters are young people.