Storm Darragh

How do you photograph wind? Well, actually you can tell that it's windy in this photo because the wind has blown my ears into proper Collie position. My ears hardly ever stick up. I have nice floppy ears, which is part of my cuteness, but today it was so windy that they got blown up and stayed up for the duration of my walk.

I went out this morning at about 7.45am (after lying awake all night listening to the wind). There was nobody else about. I think St Ives was on 'amber alert' and messages on social media were telling us not to go out unless it was absolutely necessary. ….........It was absolutely necessary! I'm an active little Collie dog, I needed to go to the toilet and as Ann was working today, I needed a decent walk to tire me out so that I wouldn't be bored when I stayed home alone.

We went down to 'Porthmeor Beach'. Big mistake?! OMG! It was sooooo windy. Ann could hardly stand up. It was about an hour off high tide but at times the waves were already crashing into the flats that are right on the beach.

Anyway, long story short. About half way along the beach I decided to have a poo. Ann, being a very responsible dog owner took off her gloves to make it easier to pick it up. The poo bag was blowing about in the wind, Ann was struggling to stand up, let alone pick up my poo but she knew if she didn't, someone would photograph her and before she knew it she would be on the 'I love St Ives FB page' as an irresponsible dog owner. Poo picked up, and she went to put her gloves back on. One of them was missing. Grrr............ We retraced our steps but Ann's purple glove was well & truly lost. It's a glove?! It wasn't even particularly cold, just windy. Continued on our walk with the intention of walking round the 'Island' (the hill in this Blip) but it was so windy that it would have been madness to even attempt to do that, so Ann said, 'Trixie, I'll just pop you back on your lead and we'll go and see what is happening around town.' Guess what? Ann didn't have my lead. She has absolutely no idea where my lead went, when she lost it, where it is. I had to do the rest of my walk without my lead. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic about but she was determined that I was going to have a decent walk so I trekked around town for about another half an hour, with Ann shouting at me every two secs to walk to heel.

Moving swiftly on................... Ann went to work and the walk home took her almost half an hour (instead of 10 mins). It was so windy that she had to keep stopping to hold onto the wall. And then an old lady, who was walking home behind her, was struggling even more, so Ann obviously had to help her. Honestly, my human has never known weather like it.

….........The plan was to take me back down to the beach this afternoon to see if we could find Ann's purple glove and my green lead. For H&S reasons we've had to abandon that plan. I got taken into the field for toileting purposes and did a lot of rolling around on my back. 'Storm Darragh' is brutal. Ann got blown over twice in the field cos she had nothing to hold onto.

….............And then she noticed that her neighbour's bedroom window (who doesn't live here) had blown open, so she did her 'neighbourly' bit and went in to close it. You wouldn't believe the amount of strength it took to close a window when 70-80mph winds are blowing directly into the house.

Ann says that she's used muscles today that she didn't even know that she had, just to stay upright. She knows that she's going to really ache tomorrow.

…...............As for me...................... I've only had one proper walk today, but apparently I'm not going out again until it's time for my bedtime wee.

….......Here's hoping we can say goodbye to 'Storm Darragh' soon. xx