It's 12:45 a.m.
Sirens are blaring all around, sometimes it sounds like the 4th of July because of the explosions of transformers around town. We have no electricity - I'm typing on the laptop.
I can't sleep for a number of reasons.
I went to bed at 9:30 because we were going to get up early for a hike on Green Mountain.
At 10:30, I awoke to winds that sounded like a hurricane. They were quickly followed by hail and lightening. Hail that didn't fall from the sky, but instead was slung with a tremendous force.
We have no basement and I was afraid that we were either in a tornado or at the very least, the hail could break the windows. So I took my pillow and stood in our walk-in closet. It might not be any safer there, but it was all I could do.
After it all passed, we went outside to survey the damage. It was (and still is) eerie out there. No lights are working and there is a foggy, misty aura in the air.
My neighbor's HUGE maple is broken to pieces - some of it lying on their car and some clear into our yard. This is the house where our neighbor, J, lived. J died suddenly in a biking accident a week and a half ago. It is his car that is now covered by a huge branch of the tree. In the dark, we couldn't yet tell how much damage it has sustained.
We went in the backyard to see our garden. What garden? Amazing. I will take photos when it's light out.
After our hailstorm earlier this year, the broccoli had come back; most of the beans and part of the peas had recovered; and the kale and swiss chard were doing well. The zucchini plants and the tomatoes had survived the first hailstorm because we had covered them with sheets. I had just realized that we would have enough garden vegetables that we wouldn't have to buy any from the store this summer.
Now there is nothing. It only took about 10 minutes to flatten what has taken months to grow.
Just like that.
Sorry to hear about your garden but relieved to hear that you and Mr Peace Carol are safe.
ReplyDeleteI guess that, as I write this, it will now be light and you will have assessed the damage.
Was the maple the HUGE tree over your garden or is that a cottonwood?
xxx
Thank you, Dancing.
ReplyDeleteNope. The huge trees we have are cottonwoods and we, very fortunately, only lost a few branches off of them. We are so lucky! I just watched a news story about a house that was pretty demolished by a cottonwood tree that fell in this storm. Mr. Carol for Peace and I have some talking to do about these cottonwoods here...
As you can see in my post above, the tree that broke was my neighbor's maple. We have two maples. One came out fairly well - just stripped of leaves. The other is stripped and broken, but it was a skinny tree so it couldn't do much damage.
How did I miss these last two posts!
ReplyDelete