A Cold, Wild , Wind From The West

It was hot here yesterday, temperature in the eighties, so it was no surprise when thunder storms were predicted. The gusts of wind that blew in from the west were extreme. There was a lot of noise out there in the dark, and this house is fairly quiet during a storm. In the morning light, the first thing I noticed was that one of the garden benches had been blown over, and landed several feet from where it had been sitting. This bench has cast iron ends and is extremely heavy. The tray of plants that Ed had put under the bench for shade, sat exactly where he had placed them. The lantern porch lights on the house were blown askew giving the place a slightly tipsy appearance. A few cages were out of place, but most of the garden plants looked just fine. This big spruce tree was not so fortunate.



This tall spruce snapped in the wind. I would estimate the break to be about 12 feet from the ground.



Inspection revealed that this spruce had a split trunk. At first I thought we had lost two trees. It is interesting that the tree snapped just below the split in the trunk. Looking at the blackened inside of the tree, I immediately thought of lightening, but Ed feels that acid rain is responsible for the decay where the two trunks came together. It is unlikely that we will do anything to change where this tree fell unless it blocks the exit of the trail through the pines. There are small trees in the foreground to take it's place given time.

We took the truck and drove the perimeter to check for more storm damage. Apart from a lot of small branches scattered here and there things were as they should be. We were even lucky enough to see a blue bird while we were out.

Today the temperatures are in the forties. Since the predicted low temperature for tonight is 31, freeze warnings are out. I don't mind going back to normal April temperatures so much, it will give the spring plants time to do their thing. The wild winds caused by the precipitous temperature drop I could do without. It gave me the bends! I need time to decompress.