Thursday 5 October 2006

Mini Tempete Hits Ferme de Chabrol Head On!

Tuesday morning was fine - spoke to Megs, caught up on the mails, started reading through my Bloglines and reading and responding to various Q's4L mails. The computer went ping! Rebooted, it went ping again, and again and then no electricity.

Noticed it was getting a bit windy outside, but didn't pay much attention.

Then Rex came upstairs and said would I give him a hand - the Olive tree had fallen over and there was a bit of a gale outside.

Gale wasn't the word! We got the Olive tree inside and waited for the wind to drop. Walnuts flying in all directions, various trees bent double and all a bit scary.

When the wind finally dropped we went out to inspect the damage.

Big green table is no more - it took off, went slap into the fig tree and the normally very solid legs splayed outwards. One sun bed decided it was going to go for a swim and is, thankfully, undamaged. The table took one big terracotta pot and oleander with it. Olive tree has lost its one olive, but thankfully pot is undamaged. One tile fell off the north side of the roof and there are bits of black bache from goodness only knows where. The pool was full to the brim with leaves of various descriptions, most notably walnut and buddelia.

The whole area was without power for Tuesday afternoon/evening and all day yesterday and the phone was off all day yesterday. 7.00 p.mish last night power and the phone were restored, this morning no phone. Phone came back on at lunchtime today.

At least this time we had running water (unlike 1999/2000 when we were without water for a week!), but unlike 1999/2000 we had a nearly full chest freezer to worry about. Thankfully the power was restored within 48 hours and the contents of both freezers are ok.

But guess who forgot to take any pictures! What is the point of having a digital camera if you keep on forgetting you've got it!

Once again, I am catching up on mails, blogs and stuff so please excuse me if you are waiting for an answer re the quilts, or whatever.

Oh and if you are reading this on my blog(s), blocks have now been received from Serena, Juliann, Veronica, Mel, Fiona and Marcie.

Clare xx

4 comments:

Dianne said...

My goodness, Clare! What an exciting phenomenon! It's odd, too, because we had the same experience in Australia last week. Huge winds, trees down onto power lines all over our shire, and no power for nearly 48 hours. Of course, we were just moving in, so had nothing in the fridge/freezer yet. More evidence of global warming? Anyway, glad you're back to "normal" now...

Melzie said...

How scary I am glad you are ok :) xoxo melzie

Angie said...

Sounds like you had quite the blow there, Clare! Glad everyone is safe and the power and phone are back on. I love a good storm...but always want to sew when the power is off and the sewing machine won't run and I can't see!!! LOL

Jenni said...

What a shame about your 1 olive! Sounds like quite a gale.