It was barely seven this morning when my son and I sat drinking the first coffee of the day, neither of us having slept well as the wind had made so mush noise during the night. Both of our bedrooms have in them a n open fire and the wind had roared down the chimneys at times and even worse had from time to time blown across the chimney tops making a similar sound to the noise you get when someone blows across a bottle top....only much louder.
Feeling rusty I went downstairs to make the days bread and then breakfast, pancakes today with lemon and sugar, we drank lots of strong tea and soon felt better. I needed to do some shopping and my son decided that he would do the hoovering while I was out. Pa loaded up with food went out to fill the bird feeders, it had been far too rough for him yesterday and they had little left in them.
Trundling down the lane the first thing I noticed was a gap in the row of Copper Beeches at the end of the lane, they are such beautiful trees at any time of the year and fine old specimens too. The tree had been torn up be the roots and had fallen across the road demolishing part of an ancient wall and there were twigs and branches scattered by the wind and debris everywhere.
Still the sun was shining and the wind had dropped at last, glad to be out if only on a shopping trip I pressed on.
At the side of the road a car. Twisted and flattened by a fallen tree was being towed away and I hopped that the occupants of the vehicle were safe.
Everywhere I looked there were broken umbrellas stuffed in to hedges, bins or just lying at the road side and the hedgerows festooned with plastic carrier bags looked tattered and forlorn. By the time I arrived at the supermarket I was not at all surprised to find that a large sign advertising the superiority and economy of it's wares had been blow across the road and in to a car park and judging by the amount of broken glass I would hazard a guess that it did quite a lot of damage on its journey.
Every one I met had a tale to tell about last nights gale, a coop full of chickens on the allotments had ended up in the hospital car park! Fallen trees, near misses, ruined vines and climbing roses ripped from their moorings. My own story while not at all exciting was the disappearance of a large enviro mesh tunnel which had been covering my brassicas, its whereabouts are still unknown?
To cheer myself up I brought a box of lovely and normally very expensive chocolates for only three pounds and then feeling a little brighter I treated myself to some new undies also in the sale and some nice warm socks for the boys. The rest of the shopping was the usual nuts ,fruit
cheeses etc. and I was soon finished and on my way home.
Looking at the damage all around me I realised how fortunate we had been as several houses with very tall chimneys such as ours had lost them during the night. Some had fallen through roofs and one had completely demolished a greenhouse,by the time I reached home was very thankful for mercies received.
Our usual Friday meal of cooked meats cheeses and salad was enlivened with tales of the storm garnered from visitors and passers by and by myself during my travels. Although the conversation was full of drama and excitement I could not help shuddering when I remembered the crushed car in the lane.
Coming as I do from the North of England I have lived through many great gales and I have a sneaking fondness for extreem weather conditions, Once back in the seventies less than tree weeks after we had purchased and moved in to our first home a terrific storm blew up in the evening and we were marooned in a small village high up in the hills. My youngest brother then only eight or nine had been staying with us, he was terrified and we could not get him home as the wind was so strong that cars were being blown off the road. It was the era of the CB radio and people kept in touch with each other during the storm using this method as all the phone lines went down within half an hour followed soon after by the electricity . Around midnight I looked through the curtains just in time to see a shed roof flapping across the road and heading straight for my window, thankfully the wind dropped it in the lane and it jammed in to our hedge. In the lane power cables flashed blue sparks as the wind tossed them about.
That night we were the only people in the lane who did not lose their roof or chimney, all we lost was our garage which had blow down when our neighbour had open its doors to borrow a rope to tie down a caravan, We were lucky and in spite of the damage were in no mood to give the poor chap a hard time over it.
It was days before we could get out as all the roads were blocked by fallen trees. My oldest brother was a tree surgeon and he worked is way through the lanes until he reached our small village and during the next couple of weeks he worked for the Police, the Telephone Company and the Electricity Board round the clock and became quite famous for some of the work he did was extremity hazardous and the local newspaper called him a hero,and so he was.
Tonight things are much quieter and once again we survived without too much harm done, all the same I am glad that we were all indoors and safe while the storm was at its hight, I find as I get older that this type of weather troubles me far more that it did when I was young. Tonight we are all looking forward to a quiet, calm and peaceful night with no alarms and without the continuous sound of dustbins rolling up and down the lane.....we hope!
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