It has been horrifically windy here. Usually I like wind being a kite flier and all, but this is the kind of wind that tears trees from the ground. I had a long and restless night last night. In the narrow little valley I live in the Southwest wind can only reach us in great swirling gusts. It can be almost completely windless one minute, then like a wave approaching you can hear it charging through the tree tops down the valley. For 20 or 30 seconds it gets louder and louder until it hits, then it somehow seems to blow in every direction at once swirling and rolling, throwing things up in the air then flinging them down again with equal force. I would wake up for each one of these waves, and with one eye open watch the huge poplar trees behind my house, silhouetted against the dim grey sky being flung about like long grass in a sea breeze. Every few minutes one of their smaller branches they shed so easily, would hit the side of the house, or the tin roof. I was waiting for one to hit a window. A least twice I was woken by the crack of brittle wood loud enough to know that it was no mere limb, and I just lie there hoping nothing was about to fall on the house. This morning confirmed the carnage. The yard was covered in branches, the river clogged with them. I have found seven trees down so far, three of them within 50 meters of the house. The largest was a Macrocarpa tree up upwind of the house that has laid down. Its trunk larger than I could stretch my arms around split vertically as it has been bent over like a sapling underfoot. I remember this. It was the loudest 'crack' that got me out of bed this morning at first light. I had been awake for hours anyway. Kaycee, however seemed to sleep very well.
7:58:27 PM 
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