Some Normality

A Sink full of hot soapy water...Luxury! How our priorities have changed in the last few days.This morning I was able to fill my sink with hot water from the taps, we have water to wash and for domestic use only, it will be another few days before it is cleared for drinking.Water was returned to the north side of the city on a phased basis over the last couple of days, ours returned at 9.00pm last night.The weather is dry and very cold and a lot of the roads were still wet when we had a hard frost last night so there is a lot of black ice about,the radio has been giving reports of car pile ups all morning.
Some of our country towns like Bandon,Skibereen and Clonakilty are still mopping up the water damage to their homes and businesses.The west of Ireland still has thousands of acres under water and winter crops have been destroyed with another flood warning as high tides throughout the Shannon region are imminent today.
Water tankers were placed around the north side and smaller tanks of water in housing estates for domestic use. These were manned from early morning until late evening by members of the defence forces who are the unsung heroes for standing out in cold wet windy conditions to keep us supplied. People came home from work in the late evening in the dark and then had to head out to queue for water.
I invested in a water butt about two years ago to have water to hand for watering the back garden, since I put it up we have had two of the wettest summers in history so it was never used for its intended purpose. I was able to use water from this for the toilet all week which was great.
We don't pay for water in this country and I suppose we do (or have) taken it for granted up to now.I now know it takes 2 litres of water to fill 1 kettle and 15 litres to fill the cistern for 1 flush!Thats not even counting showers and washing machines etc.
Something that may interest any American readers,click on photo to enlarge to read print.This house is on the outskirts of the city and every Christmas it is decorated with flowers and traditional Christmas decorations, it is then opened for Charity for a few days.Singers and mulled wine and mince pies add to the atmosphere. It is the birth place of a Major Clebourne who was in the Confederate Army in the US. My sister has some beautiful photos of the interior of the house over on her blog, tales from a garden.
Now that I am back to normal and water collection is not my priority I can get back to catching up on everyones blogs to see what you have been up this last week.