hnpcc | trees, rain and gales

Monday night Dean answered the door to find our neighbour there.

"Did you realise one of your trees is now leaning on our garage?"

He went to have a look. Some time during either Sunday night or Monday day the large tree outside the back bedroom window had been blown enough that it had finally toppled gently and was now happily leaning on to the neighbour's garage and the fence. This had probably been helped by the torrential rain we had over the weekend and the gale force winds from Friday night through to Monday. Fortunately there doesn't appear to be any damage to either the garage, the fence or the side of the house (although we won't know that for certain until it's gone and we can see under it properly).

So today Dean's waiting for the tree-removal guy, who we were fortunate enough to be able to get hold of. Apparently he's had a busy weekend.

It's a bit of a bugger though - firstly it was a mature tree which provided shade from the western sun to that corner of the house, and secondly we've no idea how much getting it removed is going to cost. And thirdly we'll have to replace it, which will involve us doing some actual tree research and then getting a sapling (which we then have to keep alive long enough to stop the geraniums and the bushy plant whose name I don't know from killing it and taking over the territory.) On the positive side, we should be able to get some other gardening cutting back done in that area while we're getting the replacement happening.

The other effect the rain had on our garden was to turn what was slightly long grass into African savannah. Seriously we could scythe this stuff and sell it as hay (well, after we'd dried it of course). And it all happened overnight, I swear. Oh and my capsicum plant got very enthusiastic with the rain and doubled the size of its lone fruit (I think it's a fruit) overnight. So now I'm protecting the peaches and the capsicum from magpie predators in the hope of actually getting a harvest going this year. My tomatoes remain flowering and shooting up rapidly. And my parsley has gone to seed (again). I'm going to have to make tabouli before it gets too enthusiastic I think.