October projects

I’m in for tea. And quite a few biscuits. So much for nipping up for groceries.

Here is the result of last night’s storm.

Two trees down on the road heading to the house. Or in my case, not letting me out.

Our lovely neighbour had already rolled some boulders that came down the day before in the storm.

And cut one tree that had covered the road yesterday. So the two of us shared this one.

But we have done a pretty rough, rudimentary job.

Just enough to get a clear drive through. Jean Daniel needs to sharpen his chainsaw and I need to summon the troops to help me.

David won’t be back until Tuesday and everything is bound to fall on the wires (holding up the branches on the opposite side of the road) in the next day or so.

That’s the fun of biblical autumn storms when you live in a forest. Jean Daniel’s brother Claude had just done three chain saw jobs for neighbours so they could get out; and his blade was too blunt to help us attack our challenge.

And there was an issue of who had the monster chain saw last. Was it lent out to yet another neighbour? Don’t you remember we had it when we did that big job up at the forest behind my place. And I distinctly remember you taking it back to yours to sharpen for next time. Nope, I think you took it back.

And things went round in circles a bit among the very elderly siblings who probably should not be wielding monster chain saws at their age. Until Claude had to head off to help someone else.

I just got on with shoving branches off the road and looking up carefully to check I wasn’t about to be impaled by a tree trunk.

We will be taking this particular stretch of the road at speed until the trees are sorted.

I only arrived late last night (shan’t bore you with the travel disruption and dramas trying to get from Lyon down to Valence via a missed connection, a local TER commuter train standing room in the corridor only, another broken down train and finally a taxi to the carpark..)

But with the shutters bashing, furniture being flung about, roaring rain and wind I knew we were in for a good amount of rain. If not much sleep.

60cm in two days! Heaps.

So I’ll be on flood damage work for the next day or so.

Hoping that all the fallen dahlias can either be plonked into vases and distributed.

Or hung up to dry.

Everything is very, very squelchy.