The weather broke, and we were very glad. We ate dinner with the window open and the rain brought the coolness of the breeze through to the table. The thunderstorm and the quesadillas reminded me of happy childhood days eating toasted cheese in an English pub.
A little while after dinner there was a sudden blast of white light, followed not by thunder but by a slow and repeated cracking noise. “What was that?” and we ran out into the storm. None of the trees were broken as we looked around until I saw the lawn beside the house full of branches and pointed…
One of the pin oaks had been struck and fallen, hundredweights of tree lying feebly there fluttering its leaves in defeat. I ran up to Rio’s room and asked to look out of her window to get a better look. On its way down the oak had hit the maple which sheltered the house and broken its branches away, bouncing off it to land on the lawn. Had it not, it would have carved a hole in the roof with part of its trunk, and written off Alex’s car with the rest.
This makes me sad, and grateful to the maple for its self-sacrifice, and particularly sorry for my friends the squirrels who have lost their drey.
Later: I swear it was a complete coincidence that tonight’s story in sequential order from The House at Pooh Corner was the one where Pooh and Piglet are with Owl in his house when the tree gets blown over in a storm and they have to escape.
