Eifgental der Ahnungslosen

[oloriel]

We had a thunderstorm on Monday.

That is, down where I live, it was a thunderstorm. Your usual heat thunderstorm, unsurprising after three days of hot and humid weather, if perhaps a bit on the heavy side. Knocked down a lot of unripe walnuts from our trees, so I had a perfect excuse to start making black walnuts the next day.

Also the next day, I read in the paper that it was actually a hurricane that uprooted thousands of trees, paralysed the railway network and part of the road network, uncovered roofs, smashed windows and killed six people. In many places, they're still trying to get the roads free again. In Düsseldorf, they actually had to call upon the army in order to get the place cleaned up. (Not because of riots or anything, but because they need tanks in order to get through all the fallen trees. Also because the volunteer helpers are probably getting a bit tired after three days of more or less incessant work.) O.ó

Not complaining that we don't have that kind of damage around here. Even the trees we've been eyeing with a lot of distrust (back in the 1930s, some people thought that planting some singular spruces here was a good idea; now we have gigantic spruces with flat roots in the rocky soil, so every larger storm has us worried that some of the spruces are going to a) splinter or b) fall over entirely. But because this is now a nature reserve, we can't take them down preemptively. Our neighbours could - they're just outside the reserve - and I really don't know why they don't, because some their trees actually have lost their tops in past winters. How many warnings do you need? But I digress.) remained standing. So, yay.

But it's sort of scary that I completely misjudged that storm. I mean, if someone had asked about the weather, I'd just said "Duh, normal heat storm, no problem."

- - -

We may not have many (ripe) walnuts this year, but maybe we'll get luckier with some other fruit. It seems to have been a good year for fruit so far - even the pear tree, which has never as yet born fruit in the seven years that we've been living here, is currently hanging full of tiny hard pears. And the wild plum trees that only give us plums if we're especially lucky (happened once, so far) also have plums in them at the moment. Well, we'll see if any of them ripen! But at least the potential's there...

Comments

[ellynn-ithilwen.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've heard about the troubles in Germany - so sorry to hear sad news. :(

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's quite shocking. Some of the victims were apparently having a garden party, and when the storm started, went into a garden pavillion to wait it out. Then, a tree crashed into the pavillion. :(