Chain reaction

Thursday had been a simply splendid winter’s day, but the forecast was not good.

We were to expect dramatically rising temperatures and rain…

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By dawn on Friday, much of the snow had receded and clouds were rolling in. Before long the rain arrived, driven by powerful wind that rattled the house and howled in the woods.

It was the sort of day for staying home with a good book but no such luck, I had an appointment with the eye doctor in Greenwich. As always I took the camera along because you just never know, but photography was out!

Although we fully expected to lose power, we had nothing more than a flicker of the lights and while we did lose the Internet, it was back up not more than an hour later.

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We were home by early afternoon and by the time I went out to check the feeders, the wind and rain had ceased. Around 4pm I was suddenly surprised to see the hill across the valley catching the rays of the sinking Sun. It is always an impressive sight, but particularly so at the end of a very dark day.

For the duration of the storm, birds and wildlife appeared to have hunkered down and the feeders had not needed topping up.

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Just before dark a lone squirrel ventured out, one I don’t recall noticing before.

It snacked on soggy nuts, then went round to the patio to see what was on offer there.

Slightly less soggy nuts.

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Only a few lumps of snow remain.

Eventually, I was rucked up in bed with my book, vaguely aware that the wind had picked up again, but paying no attention, until…

BANG!!! CRASH! Thumpety, thumpety…

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Eyes like saucers, Blackie shot off the bed.

It was pitch dark and I was disinclined to investigate as there were no further sound effects.

It was probably the patio chair blowing over which really didn’t matter. I expected to find it up by the garage in the morning, since that was the direction the sound took.

This morning I looked out to see said chair sitting on the patio. Hmm.

As we ate breakfast I mentioned the noise to Grant and as it was now getting light, he got up to stick his head outside.

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Oh.

I’ve heard trees come down before and that is not the sound this made.

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But this was more of a chain reaction, the tree on the right snapping and causing the tree in the foreground to shatter.

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There was no resounding thud of the tree trunk hitting the ground because it didn’t. Instead it crashed into our apple tree.

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Almost destroying it.

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Losing a tree is always sad and this one has poignant memories.

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This year the tree bore almost no fruit, but in the past we had a lot of apples. They were not good by our standards, but visiting deer were very keen.

The tree could probably live on, but it has been unhealthy for some time and Grant is thinking of taking it down. We have another apple tree which is not in much better shape.

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The world is ever-changing. Even in Winter these woods were fairly thick when we came here in 2018. I don’t remember being able to see the top of the ridge before.

Maybe we’ll be able to view a sunset.

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