after the storm

[biff]

things have settled down and thankfully there are no reports of serious damage to buildings despite the ferocious force 11 gusts we were having,
     however ,our fruit trees have been savaged,there is no other word for it, they look bedraggled and limp the salt from the atlantic has burned the leaves brown.,all the different species suffered the same punishment, the pear trees look burned and the brambly looks like someone poured weedkiller on them.farther down the garden in the shelter the plum and cherry seem to be recovering.
      even the wild alder did not escape,they actually look dead, they bore the brunt of the storm and at times were leaning right over almost being ripped out by the root,so the garden look quite sad and in bad need of some sunny weather to pick things up,,roll on the summer,!!
                                                                                     biff

[billi]

true  i expect lots of burnt leaves for all the bare-rooted plants i planted in Gardens in March .... first they got a warm/and too dry April   and now end of may a wintery salty gale  on their fresh leaves 

Still blowing down here , but with sunny spells  ,  so plenty of power even without the turbine ,  but i am temted to release her into the wind to get some extra dump heating on in the house 

[biff]

let her fly billi,
          she is probley chomping on the bit and raring to go,
                                                                            biff

[biff]

and still the wind blows,
             the poor fruit trees have been properly done in,had there been some let up there might have been hope for some recovery but today i notices the brown turning to black and the tender bark is stripped in places. the long range forcast for june and july is hot with heat waves.it is a bit too late for my lot.
  there has also been a surprising amount of damage among the wind turbine fraternity, blades and hubs going missing, a bank of eight deep cycle batteries all burst in exactly same place.. did it ever occur to them to lower the babies and give them a chance of survival in a force 11. a blade with part of a cast iron hub travelled nearly a quarter of a mile to a neighbours farm. the said neighbour was not impressed.
 roll on the summer, we have had enough of these salty high winds,,balmy breezes plezzes force 4 thank you,
                                                                                                                       biff

[billi]

Despite my girlfriend is googeling for hot climate summer holidays places , i personally  ( MR Billi the Battery ) enjoyed  the last weeks  Battery never went below 10 % discharge  and the dump heater came on during the day when PV woke up even on overcast days

Another month with too much electricity 

Billi

[biff]

same here billi,
            our forklift battery bank is in fine fettle, the constant high voltage is really topping it up even with all the lights on and lecky fires going it is staying up in the high figures.however our symmetra has blown the main intelligence module and is running on the redundant one. not nice but a replacment is winging it way to us as i type,145 euros worth  .. you would think i should be happy that this genius machine can tell me exactly what is wrong with it but as i stooped to read the message i gave it a good old baxxocking for costing me money,then i was half expecting a little metalic voice to say" i say old chap,!! do steady on,,steadddy onnnnn!!!"
  i have no idea why it blew the module, it was drawing a steady 3kw all during the storm on the 3 power modules,4.2 kw maybe it got a flick of lightening, the only difference now is that it will not cold start and has to be primed with the 2kw chinese inverter,then it up and away as normal except that after 5 minutes the information department goes blank but it still powers the house fine.i have to say it is a brilliant piece of gear,ideal for me," (large inverters for dummies) our garden is a disaster area, a lot of the wild trees look to be dying or are turning black, my neighbour came to visit and told me there must be some kind of polution in the air,even some of our holly trees are turning brown.,i though it was the salt from the atlantic.i am not so sure now.
        biff
   

[billi]

it was the salt in my opinion and a storm without rainwater to wash the salt of the leaves 

[biff]

we got a visit from a gardener yesterday,
                                          he was here on other business but happened to see the state of our fruit trees. immediatly he was over to the first apple tree(a bramley) and began stripping off the dead leaves. it looked quite rough treatment to me and when i asked him what he was doing he showed me how to strip off the dead leaves(there is a knack) and explained that the tree uses valuable resources trying to feed the dead leaves.last night we had a steady drizzle,same this morning and i can see new green on the fruit trees already.our visiting gardner also says that the fruit will crop as normal.(good to hear)
 elsewhere the ash and its mountain cousin who shed all their leaves on friday are now growing new leaves.the effect is quite startling, green shoots are slowly pushing the bracken colour to one side. the ash seems to be populated by little shoots 3" long growing sideways when possible.it would seem that things are happening in reverse order somehow.
 our gangs of magpies will shortly be getting the lead.a cull had been orders by the wildlife trust people. it would seem that the magpies have become nasty predators,killing off the small birds and raiding nests.our resident feral cats made their life miserable,especially when their young were learning to fly,so a balance had been achieved here somehow but still our small birds are missing,which is a pity.we would normally have 6 territorial robins,each with her own "patch" but sadly the robin is the first to get nailed by the cats. we have four or more cats now and i am beginning to regret feeding them during the big freeze.we dont have mice or rats though and the mink have their hands full staying out of their way.we should have hundreds of small birds including thrush,blackbird and crake, the corncrake is quite daft and would hop onto the cats dinnerplate refusing to take evasive action. two years ago we had a few summer months without feral cats,something killed them off and the surviving mrs hubs left town for approx 3 months. our only crake used the same path everytime,returning to its nest,it would cross the lawn and through the strawberry beds,then cross the path to its nest in the long grass in the ditch. the moment the first cat set eyes on it,it was doomed.next winter i will not be so generous with the grub.
                                                                                                             biff

[biff]

as pointed out before,our fruit trees have taken a hammering but they are already showing signs of recovery, however our blackcurrent bushes are falling over with the weight of the unripe fruit.this is quite unusual,i dont think i have ever seen them crop so heavy.
             we woke this morning to the sound of angry magpies, one was strutting about on the flat store roof,just feet from our feral moggie and moggie just sat there waiting for a mistake,she is also waiting for little learner flyers to leave the nest hence the risky lifestyle of mamma magpie.
  the magpies have also invaded my half built dream shed and shat all over my nice floor. these magguys do live dangerous.
                                                                   biff

[biff]

i woke this morning to glorious sunshine,it was off down the garden with the dogs while the tea brewed,the garden is strangely silent,there are no small bird and the few blackbirds we had have somehow disappeared,in truth,the place has become a deathtrap for smallbirds.for some time now,i blamed our feral moggies but now i am not so sure.i had begun feeding them a few weeks ago to encourage them to be lazy and not hunt.i have not found any feathers or remains,so it is strange.
 the trees have suffered badly since the last storm,the ash in particular is badly affected,this morning the street outside is littered with 4 inch green twigs,or should i say shoots which have fallen of the ash overnight,since the storm the ash have been displaying these strange shaped or deformed shoots which somehow remind me of the huneysuckle at a certain stage.i will try and get herself to take a pic.
  the sycamore has held onto its leaves in the shelter but they are black. the willow or sally is stripped bare but showing signs of recovery.visitors remark on the poor state of our mountain ash,we planted our front lawn with a row of them,
 could the salt really do this damage,?
                                           biff

[biff]

a month later and the ash has regrown new shoots and is already covered in lush new leaves,they are a watery pale green colour and obviously rushed to catch up and will take time to darken, only one apple tree managed to hold onto its fruit,the strawberries never recovered but the blackcurrents,redberries and rasbers excelled.giving fine crops.
   the trees seem to have recovered,even the sally,or willow,the alder slowest of all.i dont thinki have ever known a year when we had to sweep up two lots of  leaves.,,strange
                              biff