Monday, 1 March 2010

What a wind that was... Xynthia 27-02-2010

She arrived with a lot of speed, noise and strength.

At 4 am Sunday morning, I decided that as sleep was not an option I would venture to the verandah to look at the worrying wind. The woodburner needed fuel so I nipped just outside the door for some logs only to be almost blown away with the roaring, rage of moving air.
A plastic chair had been dislodged on the porch, then when I looked again it had been pulled from the porch and blown down the drive and only stopped in it's tracks by the garden gates! Two sheets of corrugated iron which cover logs were blown a long way into the next field. A plum tree, with unbelievably insufficient roots to have stood in the ground any length of time was completely uprooted and now lies straddled across the garden. The Washing Line was attached to this the largest of the plum trees and so a new place to hang the linen will have to be found. The garden won't feel the same and although there is a very large space before us which makes for a better view of the sheep in the field, it also means that the future prevailing winds will blow even harder towards us! However, we have to count our chickens as well as our blessings. We are lucky that the house is intact. We have read that at least 50 people have lost their lives as a result of this storm on the coast of France, let alone other chaos and disaster in Portugal and Spain as well as other parts of France. Terrible.

When the wind died down we went to the ball (folk dancing) the next day!

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