Weather winter 2011-12

[astragalus]

Winter appears to have arrived before Fall was over.  October 30th - 12" of heavy snow and all the power knocked out almost immediately which means no electric, no water, no phone, no heat.  Thank heavens for fireplaces.  This morning it was 44 degrees and that was inside the house.  Also, no computer etc and I'm using the computer in my husband's office.  I hadn't even finished planting the bulbs!  Took some great pictures but will have to wait until we get our power back to put them on my computer.  We have one burner on the outdoor grill so that means we can boil the water for tea in the morning.  This gets old pretty fast and reading by candlelight is not good.  I have more and more respect for the people who colonized this country.  They must have been pretty tough.

[Maggi Young]

Last October, we in the UK were moaning very loudly about the fast onset of winter weather, but I think we would have been a lot quieter if we'd been hit with the ferocity of winter wet snow and chaos that has hit North America in the last few days.

Hope you get heat and power restored soon, Anne.

[astragalus]

Power came back on 20 minutes ago.  Not too bad, it only took 4 days.  Heat, water, electricity, computer, cell phone.... life is good.  Pictures later.

[ArnoldT]

We lost power Saturday evening and finally came back this morning at 6 AM.

Lot of catching up to do.

[astragalus]

Pictures of the pretty part of unseasonable snow storm (12 wet, heavy inches).

[astragalus]

And the not so pretty aftermath - Ulmus parvifolia with many broken large branches and Magnolia soulangeana with several huge trunks now gone.  The magnolia doesn't bloom every year because we have a lot of late frosts that kill the buds, but when it does it's really beautiful

[ArnoldT]

Here's what a incorrectly placed Fagus sylvatica limb can do.

No one injured.

[David Nicholson]

No one injured.

Glad to hear that Arnold. It won't do the No Claims Bonus much good though if your vehicle insurance system is similar to ours.

[ArnoldT]

Dave:

It will cost us around $500.00 for the deductible to repair the car.

I wasn't sure it was fixable.

[angie]

Arnold glad to see that no one was hurt. Living next to a forrest I am used to seeing big limbs on our road, luckily enough the owners of the forrest decided to fell the trees at the back of our house after a major storm. I felt relieved after they were felled but also a bit sad to see them go.
I couldnt help notice what I lovely street you live in. I love seeing houses from another part of the world.

It's dull and damp here today. But no sign of snow yet.

Angie

[ArnoldT]

Angie:

Thanks, I love the 100 year old trees that surround the house.  I'm afraid they are reaching the end of life stage.

The last two years they have started dropping huge amounts of nuts.

I must have swept up 8 barrels full just off the hard surface.

[Anthony Darby]

Here's what a incorrectly placed Fagus sylvatica limb can do.

No one injured.

I know what I'd say if I woke up and saw that: "beech!".

[astragalus]

What a pity, Arnold.  The magnolia here is 45 years old and it's heartbreaking.  There's not much left of it.  I planted the Ulmus parvifolia as a 2' whip.  It was really to test the hardiness.  Because of its densely twiggy nature it has shown itself to be extremely susceptible to heavy snow and to ice storms.  It's too bad because it is such a lovely small tree.  Cars can be replaced or fixed but not older trees.  In the tornado of 2000 we lost a huge white oak that was over three hundred years old.  I have heard that a lot of trees were lost at New York Botanical Garden in this snow storm.

[Anthony Darby]

I once had a guided tour of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh given by the head of arboriculture. He pointed out the various trees that would be losing limbs in the next storms and indicated that it was wind coming from an unusual direction that was the greatest danger, as the trees' strength wasn't in that direction.

[angie]

Angie:

Thanks, I love the 100 year old trees that surround the house.  I'm afraid they are reaching the end of life stage.

The last two years they have started dropping huge amounts of nuts.

I must have swept up 8 barrels full just off the hard surface.

Arnold my friend that lived in Houston had a huge tree between the house and annexe that was very old . The first year I stayed there I was woken up early with all these pecan nuts falling on the roof, everyday she had to go and sweep them up. The year she left the tree came down but luckily enough it fell on the annexe which wasn't been used.  One thing i loved was all those pecan pies, cakes and pecan ice cream I got over there.
Hope the old trees stay for a while longer as I say your street looks so nice.

Angie