The day after......

Storm Aurora! I think that's what they called it last night! But it hit Essex in a big way with torrential downpours that I thought were never going to stop! During the evening we kept checking the driveway as we live on a hill so the driveway is a slope, and we often get water pooling but it normally drains away quite well... not last night!! everywhere was just overwhelmed with the amount of rain falling in such a short space of time, so the levels started creeping up to near the front door! Cue action stations at 10.30 last night!! I was out in my Pyjamas and wellies while the rain kept on chucking it down armed with a bucket to try and get the levels down a bit, while mum and dad were doing what they could by the front door.  I was drenched!!  Carried on by myself for about 15 minutes not making much difference, but then a couple from over the road must have seen me outside so came over armed with buckets and a bin to help the efforts! They were in their PJ's too!!  So for the next half an hour it was all hands on deck but thankfully it seemed to help get the levels down - the rain carried on falling!!

Then checked the utility room at about 11.30 and that hadn't escaped the water so we mopped up that as much as we could, while soaked, and it's fair to say none of us got much sleep last night!  Lots of the local areas were flooded and other homes too.  So today has been spent clearing the utility room, mopping up, disinfecting and having a good clear out!  And then just as we finished up the clear up, the washing machine decided to leak..... just what we needed!!  So we're very good at mopping up now!  We're just leaving it now to dry out and hopefully there's only been superficial damage - it's made us clear out cardboard storage boxes and transfer things to plastic ones now! But we're knackered and very little else has got done!!  Is it Friday 13th?!

One bright spot, 4 lovely goldfinches in the garden this morning! Nature is a good healer lol!