I'm sure you've all heard about our big windstorm, Eunice, which struck yesterday and generated the strongest wind gusts ever recorded in England (122 mph at The Needles, on the Isle of Wight). We were at school when Eunice swept through and although I watched from the library windows, I didn't go outside. At about 11 a.m. I saw a big piece of plywood or roofing go flying off a high-rise building near the school, and heard it crash to the ground. Pretty wild!
It was windy all afternoon but the damage at our flat was very limited -- pretty much just the pot to our banana tree (top), which got knocked over by the gusts. But I did see some other mild damage on my walk home:
One of the heavy outdoor ping-pong tables at a school adjoining ours got overturned.
There was a lot of rubbish on the streets and sidewalks, and along Finchley Road the street sweepers were trying to get it all under control.
One of our neighbors lost a fence.
When I got back to the flat, I saw that Dave had moved the tree fern into our bedroom:
When he got home from work he'd found it lying on its side on the patio, but it didn't seem harmed. By bedtime most of the wind had passed so we put it back outside again before we went to sleep.
Also, many of our daffodils were completely flattened, so I picked them and put them in the kitchen.
And that's about it for our personal storm damage. Obviously that's nothing compared to the toppled trees and shredded roofs elsewhere in the UK.
Adding to the day's excitement, we took Olga to the vet yesterday evening. Remember how we noticed swelling on her nose last December? The vet checked it out then and we agreed to keep an eye on it. It seemed to go down but the other day I noticed it's back and a bit larger, so the vet prescribed some antibiotics and we're going to send her for some imaging tests. Strangely I'm not too freaked out about it -- Olga is getting old and things are going to happen. She doesn't seem at all uncomfortable or even aware of it, and she's eating normally, so for now I don't think it's a crisis. We just need to know what we're dealing with.
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