Storms destroyed our garden

[Emmawilly]

The storms we had on Friday took out 3 large trees (plus another 2 removed) in our garden and 6 fence panels. Tree surgeons have been working for the last 2 days to remove a huge eucalyptus. The garden isn't secure until the fencing contractors can come next Saturday to repair all the fencing. The garden therefore has huge gaps and I'll lose Rodney (Sulcata) if I let him out for his usual wander. He's therefore holed up in his small sleeping compartment (7ft x 6ft) with the hatch firmly closed until I can sort all this mess! The weather has been wet and windy so he's not complaining too much. But I expect him to get very stressed if he can't come out soon. Going to give him a supervised walk around the patio later and a soak. Wish me luck!!

 

[zolasmum]

The storms we had on Friday took out 3 large trees (plus another 2 removed) in our garden and 6 fence panels. Tree surgeons have been working for the last 2 days to remove a huge eucalyptus. The garden isn't secure until the fencing contractors can come next Saturday to repair all the fencing. The garden therefore has huge gaps and I'll lose Rodney (Sulcata) if I let him out for his usual wander. He's therefore holed up in his small sleeping compartment (7ft x 6ft) with the hatch firmly closed until I can sort all this mess! The weather has been wet and windy so he's not complaining too much. But I expect him to get very stressed if he can't come out soon. Going to give him a supervised walk around the patio later and a soak. Wish me luck!!

I am so sorry - poor Rodney and poor you ! We have a fairly large eucalyptus tree in our front garden, and a few weeks ago, a branch broke off and nearly damaged the electricity cable to our house , and brought some guttering down, so we decided to get the tree branches cut right back. I was rather reluctant, but thank goodness we did - I gather eucalyptus tree roots are very shallow and pull up relatively easily - it could have smashed into our living room and brought some roof down too. So I really feel for you all. I am impressed you have managed to get someone to fix things so quickly. Were you at home when it happened?
Zola is fine, apart from not being able to have proper drives out to the sea - he does tend to get in a strange mood when it's windy like this, though - restless and easily annoyed - is Rodney like that too? We try so hard to make things right for our tortoises, don't we, but we can't control the weather !!
Angie x

 

[Emmawilly]

Thanks Angie. You did the right thing by trimming yours in advance!
Bit of a palaver but no one hurt thankfully. We were at home when it happened, I was on a conference call and could see it unfolding every few minutes, Carnage!
Rodney not affected by the storms, he likes the rain although we monitor his time outside in cooler weather. Going to give him a soak now and let him wander round the patio. Hopefully that'll satisfy his wanderlust for today.

 

[Lyn W]

I'm so sorry you've had all that damage, I think you took the brunt of it down south; it must have been horrific to watch all that happening. The important thing is that you, your family and Rodney are all OK .
The wind are still strong with gusts of almost 60 mph here in South Wales and we have yet another storm coming into Wales tonight - Storm Franklyn - coming in from the west and North West. I hope they calm down soon.

 

[Maro2Bear]

The storms we had on Friday took out 3 large trees (plus another 2 removed) in our garden and 6 fence panels. Tree surgeons have been working for the last 2 days to remove a huge eucalyptus. The garden isn't secure until the fencing contractors can come next Saturday to repair all the fencing. The garden therefore has huge gaps and I'll lose Rodney (Sulcata) if I let him out for his usual wander. He's therefore holed up in his small sleeping compartment (7ft x 6ft) with the hatch firmly closed until I can sort all this mess! The weather has been wet and windy so he's not complaining too much. But I expect him to get very stressed if he can't come out soon. Going to give him a supervised walk around the patio later and a soak. Wish me luck!!

Yikes….glad you guys are alright. Thats some tree - THE WINDS, and there’s another big storm en route.

I hope your tree surgeon & fence repair arent tooo expensive.

 

[Gillian M]

I am terribly sorry to hear about all this. I sincerely hope that things are better now.

 

[Emmawilly]

Yikes….glad you guys are alright. Thats some tree - THE WINDS, and there’s another big storm en route.

I hope your tree surgeon & fence repair arent tooo

I am terribly sorry to hear about all this. I sincerely hope that things are better now.

I'm so sorry you've had all that damage, I think you took the brunt of it down south; it must have been horrific to watch all that happening. The important thing is that you, your family and Rodney are all OK .
The wind are still strong with gusts of almost 60 mph here in South Wales and we have yet another storm coming into Wales tonight - Storm Franklyn - coming in from the west and North West. I hope they calm down soon.

Thank you all for the kind comments. Hubby's been out in the wet weather today clearing the debris. If the tree had fallen in a different direction, it could have taken out the rabbit house or the tortoise house, so actually we think we were really lucky with the outcome. The winds were over 100mph. This is a picture of the biggest tree before it came down

 

[zolasmum]

It is such a shame your lovey garden is all messed up - once you have got the actual major damaged fixed, it's amazing how minor garden damage soon sorts itself out. I love your pond - do you have fish in it? I also love the way Rodney's colouring goes so well with your woodwork !
Angie

 

[Sarah2020]

The storms we had on Friday took out 3 large trees (plus another 2 removed) in our garden and 6 fence panels. Tree surgeons have been working for the last 2 days to remove a huge eucalyptus. The garden isn't secure until the fencing contractors can come next Saturday to repair all the fencing. The garden therefore has huge gaps and I'll lose Rodney (Sulcata) if I let him out for his usual wander. He's therefore holed up in his small sleeping compartment (7ft x 6ft) with the hatch firmly closed until I can sort all this mess! The weather has been wet and windy so he's not complaining too much. But I expect him to get very stressed if he can't come out soon. Going to give him a supervised walk around the patio later and a soak. Wish me luck!!

Really sorry to read this. 3 concurrent storms and all very scary. Trees down everywhere and I lost tiles. Glad Rodney enclosure not affected but as you say very cold so he is in best place however an escorted walk and soak will be appreciated. Hope you get it all sorted. Take care.

 

[Jacqui]

That sucks, but atleast nothing really serious (life threatening) happened. Hope the fence is back quickly and you can remake your yard back into a wonderful place quickly.

 

[Big Ron]

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I'm so sorry to hear of the damage to what appears to be a incredible looking piece of hard work but also very beautiful place,i can only imagine your feeling of seeing it damaged

 

[Emmawilly]

It is such a shame your lovey garden is all messed up - once you have got the actual major damaged fixed, it's amazing how minor garden damage soon sorts itself out. I love your pond - do you have fish in it? I also love the way Rodney's colouring goes so well with your woodwork !
Angie

I hope so! The fencing guys are coming this Saturday which will make the garden secure.
The pond is a nightmare. Nothing but trouble. We have a 'grill' which lies beneath the surface of the water to save kids, dogs and tortoises from falling in! No fish. We had koi but had to remove when the pond got its third leak...
We are however keeping tadpoles (frogspawn from the moors) to put half in the pond and some back on Dartmoor. Watching them grow has been so fascinating!

 

[Emmawilly]

Really sorry to read this. 3 concurrent storms and all very scary. Trees down everywhere and I lost tiles. Glad Rodney enclosure not affected but as you say very cold so he is in best place however an escorted walk and soak will be appreciated. Hope you get it all sorted. Take care.

Thank you Sarah. Sorry to hear about your tiles. Hope it's fixed for you soon

 

[Emmawilly]

That sucks, but atleast nothing really serious (life threatening) happened. Hope the fence is back quickly and you can remake your yard back into a wonderful place quickly.

You're right, nothing bad to deal with. No one hurt. I think of the storms, fires, floods, etc that some of the members deal with and we're very lucky in comparison. I will need to sort back up power though. We didn't lose any this time but if we did, I don't know how we'd heat the tortoise house.

 

[Emmawilly]

I'm so sorry to hear of the damage to what appears to be a incredible looking piece of hard work but also very beautiful place,i can only imagine your feeling of seeing it damaged

Thank you Big Ron. It looked like Bastoyne in 1944 on Friday! All fixable though. I like gardening when the weather improves. Roll on Spring, I've had enough of winter!

 

[zolasmum]

Thank you Big Ron. It looked like Bastoyne in 1944 on Friday! All fixable though. I like gardening when the weather improves. Roll on Spring, I've had enough of winter!

Have you managed to get your fence fixed yet? It has been very windy here still, so I wondered if you have the same, and have to wait for the fence. I hope Rodney is ok.
Angie