James Watt! The name slipped off my tongue as of it had been there forever waiting for its moment. I dont know how i remembered his first name, I guess I had learned it somewhere along my educational journey, but I knew he had something to do with electricity. Turning to google I find that he was more involved with the steam engine but made a big contribution to electrical efficiancy and power, and so the ‘watt’ was named after him.
Having spent four days in the snow covered, storm ‘Arwen’ blown Peaks with no electricity to boot, I soon became incredibly thankful for whoever it was who had invented electricity. Isn’t it strange how we never really apreciate what we have until its gone. If I could have hunted James and his fellow collegues down and hugged them all one by one for this great invention that I was now without, then I certainly would have. I think ill make a cup of tea…oops nope, no electricity! Ill have a shower….oops nope, no electricity! Minutes later… ill make some toast…oops nope NO ELECTRICITY!!
Help..I hadnt been shopping so had little food in and no logs for the wood burner. Hmmm I need to take advice from more experienced Peak District dwellers. STOCK UP they say! Ill make a note of that on my phone…oh no phone is dead! NO ELECTRICITY! A camping stove is definitely on the christmas list. I know ill google prices Ahhhhhh!! NO ELECTRICITY!
I always love waking up to snow and still at 58 I cant wait to wrap up and go outside for a while, but its not quite so much fun when there is no hot drink to welcome you back inside.
With an electrical wire hanging across the road, telephone wires down and snow still falling there was nothing to do but wait. After a couple of days we could get out to get logs and soon a kettle was whistling a tune on the stove, candles were found and lit and with no tv a new pastime of conversation was rediscovered.
At least now i could boil some water and fill a hot water bottle. Oh how I appreciated a little bit of warmth. Eventually after what seemed an age the engineers arrived and work began to bring us back from the world of ‘A little house on the prairie’ and back into this centuary.
Waking up the next morning to a funtioning electrical world was such a relief. My tea tasted wonderful, toast popped up from the toaster, the house was warm and I so appreciated my first hot shower for a few days. The snow was beginning to melt and life returned to normal but with a whole heap of gratitude for the people of past generations whose ideas and hard work gave us the comforts in life that we so often take for granted.
Love Alison x
Through rose tinted glasses. 
Wow that was quite a snow storm, being without electricity is a great reminder of how much it affects our everyday lives. I’ve been in your situation, the loss of power was caused by a hurricane, I had the same thoughts, only no air conditioning and in a humid southern state it was awful. I’m glad it wasn’t long before you had power again. I have to hand it to the pioneers that lived in the same the weather conditions before electricity. That was a tough way to live and they somehow managed to make it through.
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I dont know how they managed but i guess they didnt know any different
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And it was just the way life was. Ithink it did me good in some ways to be without for a bit but im glad it was only 4 days. I do love my tea in the morning😊
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When something like this randomly happens, it really shows us every little thing we take for granted. Even toast. 😂 Happy for you that it’s back on lovely. 🤩
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Thankyou. Yes the tea and toast was so aporeciated when everything came back on again.
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As Joni Mitchell sang, “you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.” One thing I do not want to live without is electricity… the ultimate in luxuries! Rural areas are prone to power outages and after many storms and doing without, I got to the age where after hauling water from the stream to flush toilets up snowy, icy paths, I said ‘enough!’ and we installed a propane generator. Now when the power goes out we old folks still have the furnace, hot water and lights.
Might look into getting one of those, Alison! 🙂
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I had a listen to her song Eliza and that is so true. Sounds like youve done your fair share of living without but yes electricity is definitely something to be thankful for.😊
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We went two weeks once without electricity, but had wood for the fireplace. Would often enjoy keeping two wood stoves burning during electrical outages in Paradise. Beans cooking on the stove. Out of water, now that is another thing. Always appreciated so-called city water because they had a huge generator and water kept flowing, it was bit cold for showers though! You didn’t miss anything while disconnected!
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Sounds like you are well prepared Gary. I did take some pleasure in having to come up with other non electrical passtimes. And it certainly does make you thankful for the comforts we have.
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What a tale to tell and with beautiful photos, Alison. I’m glad you got through it. I suppose we unintentionally take things for granted so that when we don’t have “them” we tend to panic. This past summer was unsettling living in a drought and rationing water, and we’re heading into another year of the same unless winter blesses us with more rain.
We’ve always been avid campers and backpackers, so during those times when the electricity is off, we turn the inside of our house into a temporary campsite with lanterns, etc. We’ve actually had some memorable evenings with the kids when they were younger, making it a fun experience. But, of course, there’s always that “yay” moment when the lights turn on again. Thanks for sharing! 💗
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Ah Lauren that sounds a fun thing to do with the children when they were younger. Yes camping equipment would definitely be useful. Its good to be back to normal again. I think the hardest thing was no contact with family for a few days. We ate so used to speaking almost on a day basis. I had to walk up a steep hill to eventually get a little bit of signal.
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Wow, Alison, that’s a lot of snow and a long time to be without power. I think the longest we’ve ever been out was 24hrs once in the summer and I thought that was a big inconvenience. We’ve only had a few days with a skiff of snow which quickly melted, as it’s still quite mild out, in the 49-50’s this week, but very windy. It does seem like the weather is wacky all over. Nice to see the sheep out in the snow!
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Yes Joni it did seem a long time although now of course its almost forgotten as everything is back to normal. Its amazing how quickly we slip back into normality again. Hopefully a few lessons were learned .
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What a storm – and so few comforts we take for granted. I love that you began by giving thanks to James Watt rather than moaning about the weather. You have a wonderfully positive attitude.
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Thankyou, it certainly was a big storm. A lot of chaos but now we are all peaceful again with plenty of tea and toast.
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Glad you were OK Alison! Our longest stretch without power was in December 2015 when Lancaster was badly flooded. The area substation is built on the riverbank….. We were without power (including the mobile mast) for 36 hours and it got old very quickly….
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Thanks Darren. Yes it was quite a challenge but we got through it and cam out the other side with more appreciation. Happy Christmas.
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Happy Christmas Alison! X
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