Phew… luckily for the flowers of the hellebores in the photos below they don’t usually. They’d be a tad scared if they did though as above them there are some perilously perched roof tiles! Perhaps they will sense this and stay in bud for a little longer. It’s cold, wet and still windy out there today anyway.
Yes, our house is in the stats of those in Scotland/UK with roof damage after yesterday’s winds. However, our roof isn’t as bad as our neighbour further down the street so for that we are quite thankful. Although, we also have damage at a corner and if it doesn’t get repaired before more winds pick up we could be looking at some similar damage. As you might expect our local roof repairers are busy and looking at the worst cases first.
Many trees and fences have had and caused damage too. In last week’s wild winds, our fairly sheltered boundary fence got damaged with two posts breaking at ground level. We quickly got new posts, got the panels down and the old posts finally prized from the panels only to find massive concrete blocks below ground.
Hard as we tried we couldn’t break up the concrete blocks. As our neighbour has dogs we had to return the fence panels (post-less) with emergency fixings to our shed and a wall trellis. Thankfully it survived the winds of yesterday.
Plan B is to add more new concrete to bring the concrete level up. We will work with what we have and drill down through it to secure metal braces for our posts. The new cement will need time to harden first so our emergency fixing will be there a bit longer.
Yesterday, we had a bit of an early wakening with the wind as its force through our letterbox managed to open our internal door setting off our burglar alarm just before 6:30am. The weather forecasts hadn’t given any indication that we were about to get such speeds and force of wind. We are all wondering why.
Anyway, it could have been so much worse so I’m not really complaining. Here in my garden I’ve an Arch leaning over but it wasn’t strong before and we were planning to replace it. I have had an imaginative idea for this so perhaps it’s time to give this a try 🙂
Apart from leaves and rubbish in my little pond my recently moved pine tree is leaning again. The ground is pretty wet so I’ll need to find an imaginative way to support it. Actually, I could maybe risk some twine across to the tree beside it which has been there longer. That might work. Brr… but it’s cold out there… its getting windy again too 🙁
Sending my thoughts and best wishes to everyone with damage to their properties and gardens just now. However, my thoughts also go to the men (possibly women too) that will be climbing ladders and working on our roofs just now. Stay safe everyone 🙂
This post was written by Shirley for shirls gardenwatch in January 2012.
Oh dear, that doesn't sound very good. All that damage, and all the work you put into replacing the fence to find the cement blocks below ground. Wonder if the posts removed might help with that pine for support through the winter?
Just a titch jealous to see your Hellebores up so high but surely, ours will grow in a month or more. They never seem to be Christmas roses here, but come along in February.
Happy New Growing year…mind the wind.
Hi there Brenda and a very Happy New Growing Year to you too 🙂
That's an idea on a support for my pine but the ground is so wet and lose for putting the post in just now. Not expecting to get such winds, I moved the pine a little late in the season. A big mistake that seems now.
Oh… sorry I may make you more jealous on the hellebores. These aren't the Christmas ones. They are the Oriental ones that usually flower in Feb/Mar/Apr.
I'm sorry you've sustained wind damage on your roof!! Your sincere concern about the roofers' work are appreciated, as the weather (esp. this time of year) is not consistent!
Happy 2012 Shirl. I'll be back to see how things are going!
My hellebores are just as green as ever right now. We're experiencing cold temps but have not really had winter precip (snow) yet!!
Hope all works out ok with your roof and it is repaired quickly. It is wet and windy here in Ireland too.
Hi Shirley,
Sorry to hear you've got some damage and I hope it's fixed soon!
No damage here thankfully although I believe the speeds were much less than you experienced – it was still scary! I was upstairs and it felt much worse than being downstairs… I hid downstairs most of the day because it was blowing so much and from a strange direction; the rain rarely ever hits our landing windows, yet yesterday it was. I'm so glad our fence remained intact as I've had enough of having to fix it over the past few years!! lol
We had forceful winds here too. Thank goodness we didn't have any damage. I think we have had so much wind that it would be unlikely anything else is loose. ha. I do hope you get your damage fixed up soon. Just think of your arbor damage as a sign that you should do the project you have been thinking about. Take care.
Sorry to hear about all that damage. We had a big windstorm here on Christmas day that wasn't forecasted either and I wonder how they can't see that type of thing either. Hope your roof is repaired soon and the wind settles down.
Your Hellebores are further ahead than mine!
Sorry about your damage, hope you get it sorted soon. Hope the Hellebores survive and the wind calms down very soon.
Oh what a memorable and expensive start to the New Year Shirl. You have my sympathies as do the hellebores. We had a second bout last night – it was not until this afternoon that himself could get up a ladder to take the outside festive lights down. Hope that we get some calmer settled weather soon – maybe the last two winters had some good points 🙂
Sorry to hear about the wind damage. We've come away unscathed, although a neighbour's monkey puzzle tree was completely uprooted. It has certainly been a different winter to last, with all the wind and rain rather than snow. I'm not sure which I prefer but at least we're heading towards Spring now. The birds certainly think so. They're all singing away. Happy New Year.
I love your blog; I have been following it for a year or so. Having just started to blog a bit myself, I realise how much it helps to have comments, so that's one of this year's resolutions.
I love your hellebores. I only discovered them a year or so ago and have one purple and two white- not yet in bloom here in Aberdeenshire. I don't suppose you know what species that one is?
Sorry to hear about the damage to your roof and fence, Shirl – I hope you're able to get them fixed quickly and not too expensively, and that the new year improves for you!
The wind seems to have bypassed us this time. Is it just me or is it getting windier more often? The hellebores are certainly earlier….
Hi Shirl, I'm very sorry to hear about your roof and damage to your garden, I hope that soon you'll be on top of things!
We've had a lot of wind trouble here in Lincolnshire. I live on a farm, and it's pulled down a couple of our trees and sent tin roofing everywhere!
My bestest wishes.
I do hope this is the only negative thing to happen in 2012!
Hello everyone, gosh are we really almost at the midpoint of January already?
Thanks for all your comments. I’m going to head over to your blogs now to see what you’ve been up too 😀