It’s less than a week after my last ‘OK this should have been posted a few days ago’ post on Sunday and here I am again.

This is going to be a mixed bag, so hence the title.

On Wednesday evening, Jo and I went to the school for the end of year staff and governors’ BBQ. After the weather that we had been having for the previous days, I had visions of everyone eating in the hall and running out to the BBQ under umberellas for the food. Sitting in the canteen at work at lunchtime watching the rain, I was sure that this was going to come true. However, when I drove home it was bright sunshine and we had clear skies all evening. The food was excellent, provided and cooked by T.Harper and Son, from Bell Farm Studham. We all sat out under the large ash tree in the school grounds eating and chating until dark.

Last night I didn’t get a lot of blogging done as we had a power cut. It seemed strange sitting in a silent house by candle light. The power was only out for an hour, but when it came back I didn’t get round to posting anything, just a bit of blog reading.

The weather forecast for today was heavy rain and boy were they right. I could hear it hammering on the roof at work all day and when I left at 1pm to drive home, it was the worst rain that I have ever driven in. It was coming down so hard that even with the wipers on full it was difficult to see the road. Maybe that should have been difficult to see the river, as there was so much water pouring onto the roads from the banks and footpaths that the drains weren’t coping and as a result it was just flowing in rivers along the roads. At the top of the hill going into Hockliffe, you could see where a large branch had fallen off the overhanging oak tree and landed in the road; I’m not sure exactly what had happened, but the branch was about 50 yards further down the road with a police car partially across the road blocking it. The policewoman directing traffic looked absolutely soaked. A bit further, on the other side of Hockliffe, there was a large removals lorry changing a flat tyre. I know there isn’t ever a good time for a flat tyre, but that had to be one of the worst.

By about 3pm, the weather had completely changed and it was bright and sunny. Hopefully the weather tomorrow will be good. We are planning to go to the Joust at Berkeley Castle tomorrow. The BBC weather forecast is still telling us tomorrow will be sunny intervals, so we are hopeful. We will however be taking our wellies, I think we will need them!

[Update] Due to the amount of rain across the country, there is major flooding across England and Wales. This includes flooding across the motorways in the area of Berkeley. Checking the Joust website this evening, the first weekend of the Joust has been cancelled, so lets hope the weather stays dry for the next week so that the second weekend can go ahead as planned.