On Friday evening I set off from home to drive to Lyme Regis in Dorset, a drive which ordinarily would take 4 hours.  This time it took considerably longer, thanks to the prolonged storm the UK is enduring at the moment.  Eventually we were close.  The Sat’ Nav’ said we were 13 minutes away. Hurrah!  I was tired as it had been a long day; I was working by 7am to make sure I could leave by 4pm.  Unfortunately there was a very large tree across the lane so I turned round and tried a different route.  This time I got to 16 minutes away and another tree was blocking the Lane.  Grrrr.  The wind was ferocious by now – apparently 80 mph and I was driving around narrow country lanes with no map, no idea which direction I was heading or even which way to go.  Sat Navs are great but you can go round and round in circles on the country lanes in Dorset as the Sat’ Nav’ does not know which roads are blocked due to fallen trees.

Just me and the little fella, a gale blowing and it was about 9pm.  I was remaining positive and we were 10 minutes away.  At 9 minutes away, in the midst of a lot of huge trees, there was another tree across the lane.  This was a narrow lane and I struggled to contain a major panic attack as I really slowly inched my way backwards and forwards, trying to turn my long car round in a narrow lane.  I succeeded but I had no idea which way to go and was thinking we may have to spend the night in the car.  I was doing my best to remain optimistic about getting there for Harvey but not convincing myself,  when we saw some lights in the distance.  Hurrah!  We spotted our escape route and took it.  5 and a half hours after leaving home I made it to my sister’s.  To say I was relieved was an understatement.  It obviously took vast amounts of wine for me to calm my nerves.  Apologies to Lucy and Trevor for all the anxiety I caused but we got there in the end.

Today we had a lovely walk along the beach in sunshine but I unfortunately deleted my photos before they loaded so I will have to hope tomorrow is sunny again so I can return to the beach and take some more.  Luckily Lucy took a couple.  The sights were extraordinary.  Huge amounts of pebbles from Monmouth Beach (as in the foreground of this photo in the paper) were washed over the Cobb wall and dumped in to the harbour.  Along with huge trees and even posts sunk in to concrete.  Hard to believe our eyes really.

It is incredible to think waves could carry so much weight.

I have a few of my own photos from today.  My lovely B-I-L, Trevor with a muddy Sunshine. We were going out for a pizza for lunch so I just had a boiled egg for breakfast.

After our lovely walk along Lyme Regis beach we went to Bridport and enjoyed a fantastic pizza and salad for lunch at The Stable.  Leaving Trevor and the children to enjoy a pudding, Lucy and I went shopping.  I took some charming photos in this wonderful wool shop but only this one survived. Caroline – are these yours?  We left them there in case you want to pop by and pick them up 🙂 These charming industrial buildings beside the river are currently being used to house vintage, antique and bric a brac shops.  Perfect for pottering about in.We stopped at a wonderful farm shop on the way back to Lyme from Bridport called;

Next time you pass, stop the car in the huge car park and go inside. They sell a huge variety of local and fresh produce including very, very free range eggs.    Definitely worth a visit.

I have no photos of my pizza so it obviously had no calories which means I had plenty left over for a chocolate dipped flapjack with a cup of tea back at Lucy’s.

Dinner was a real treat; one of Trevor’s Shepherd’s Pies with a stack of veggies and a glass of bubbly.  What a treat 🙂

The winds are calmer and all seems quiet outside but we are not going out tonight.  We will be in watching one of my sister’s huge range of latest films.  Maybe another glass of fizz would go down well.