Storm Gareth moves in!

You know there is a big storm going on when your part Maine coon cat growls at anything that moves in the house. 

Dogs growl, and I mean the slow rumble that sends the hairs on the back of your neck tingling upright. But cats? Well Mr Murphy definitely does. He growls long and low, and it's quite freaky to hear. He also growls at the postman, the doorbell ringing, and random leaves flying up in the air by our sitting room window in windy weather. In fact he is so clever he can growl and run away at the same time, crouched close to the ground. It's quite peculiar to hear as when he runs, the growls vibrate, and he sounds like one of those huge drills the workmen use to dig up the roads. Right now he is sat on a windowsill twitching and snapping at anything that wizzes around in the air close to the house, even though he can't reach any of it. I do wince frequently, as the net curtains are seriously in danger of being grabbed in the acrobatics. 

So, storm Gareth is on it's way? Weathermen never used to name UK storms. It was only Tropical Storms and Hurricanes that had names like Dave and Sonia and Wendy! Weird huh? Why do they name storms? Well apparently, historically, it's always happened. If you click on one of my links below you will see how they came up with the names. It all sounds a bit of a faff to me, but lots of things go on in weather-land I'm sure, and apparently it does seem to be a bit controversial for Winter Storms to be named.

Still, if the weather last night was anything to go by this storm, due to hit later today, is going to be pretty wild. Now I've only seen Hurricanes and Tornados on television, and I cannot imagine what it must be like to be in one because I wouldn't have wanted to be outside here during last night. The wind and the gusts battered the bedroom window like it wanted to race through the house. It kept me awake for many hours, and I feel pretty close to zombie mode right now. There's that vague headache hovering around the top of my head, and my eyes are half open as I squint to read the words I am typing. Yuk. Thank goodness it's my day off as I may need to catch 40 winks this afternoon. 

The trouble is that cats seem to like windy weather. If you have ever watched a cat when the air is blowing around you will see that a lot of them rather enjoy the thrill of it all. They scoot and run around like it's chasing after them, and leap and twirl with sheer balletic motion. They also thunder through the house chasing each other, and the noise is like an express train roaring through a tunnel. Four cats racing up the stairs and in to the bedroom after each other, past, and indeed over, the bed when you are in it, is a sight to behold. That is of course if you could see it, because when my lot did it the time was somewhere around 2.30am. I could certainly feel which ever cat chose to take the shortcut using my stomach as a bouncing board, and beat the other cats to the window. Fortunately I wasn't asleep as the sound of  the weather had kept me awake. I did splutter a 'hey' as they circled round, did a lap of the bed, including over the headboard, and whizzed out of the bedroom again. It was over in a couple of seconds, leaving me wandering what had happened as the sound faded down the stairs. Well I know what happened. Our indoor cats were celebrating 'the joy of wind', as I like to call it, although maybe those words shouldn't be attributed to us humans or people will get the wrong end of the stick!! Oh to be a cat. 

So, I am just pondering the coming storm. We already have two fences down, and The BBC News does suggest that various problems are on the roads this morning as the weather last night has left a trail of debris in some places. So it may be 'batten down the hatches' later on? My lovely app on my mobile has put out a 'weather warning' for our area today. So keep safe everyone and have a duvet day if you can. Storm Gareth is on it's way...…….

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/tropical-storm-hurricane-names-20130626

http://mentalfloss.com/article/74744/why-it-controversial-name-winter-storms