Well, it was a bad one, as promised. We lost power sometime in the early hours of Friday morning and got it back around 16:00hrs on the Saturday. Fair play to those out in what was still terrible conditions fixing everything.

The internet was out of service until Monday evening, and while it was lovely being nice and warm with light, power, and everything else, you don’t half realise how much time you spend idly scrolling through that glowing rectangular box.

We lost our fence at the most exposed side of the house, totally flattened, and a few roof tiles and adjoining bits have been wrenched free and scattered over the garden — but we came out of it relatively unscathed otherwise.

With no TV, no streaming services in particular, it’s been a great opportunity to power through some reading, and I’ve done just that. Read The Hobbit under a blanket and via the assistance of a head torch, which was quite magical as it happens. Visited Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Empire for the first time and marvelled at just how much influence it had on my favourite book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which made me feel so much better at my attempts to write and the influence Adams has on me.

I also devoured Stephen King’s The Gunslinger and once again felt like gnawing my leg off with envy at just how good a writer he is.

Last, but not least, I read the excellent Jennifer Killick’s Deadly Deep, the fourth in her wonderfully exciting Dread Wood children’s horror series. She’s the best at what she does, a truly brilliant writer.

After the Storm.

The trees are down, again, up my local walking trail, so my mindless walk along the same paths every day has to be changed up a bit. The dogs didn’t seem to mind, and neither did I.

I’ll get back to writing this evening, too.