Wind in the Willows (pines)

Returning from a windy trip at the seaside, I found the car trying move on the road, as it was soooo windy. Each time we passed a gully or ravine, the wind tore through. I was glad we hadn’t gone out on the bikes. I was also glad, not to be driving a lorry, there must have been many blown over. As we not nearer home, there were small branches down on the roads, and debris all over the streets. Some of the branches were quite big and I was grateful that there were already down, and didn’t fall on us. As we reached our gates, we were greeted by 2 scared dogs. The whole drive was covered in small sticks and fallen pine cones. The dog bed (a single duvet) had managed to get blown from the back terrace, and was now wrapped around a palm tree on the front. A patio chair from the front terrace was now on the middle section of the garden, but round the back. Even our large barbeque had been blown over on to its side. There must have been a small whirlwind.

We got the dogs in, and there were obviously grateful, and promptly curled up inside the quiet house! We walked around, and picked up what we could rescue. My lovely lemon shaped coasters were in the garden, but the matching placemats are no-where to be seen. Sorry mum, I think they have landed in Morocco. I raced about shutting all of the windows, but something kept banging. Eventually, we realised that it was the door to the attic. Ed had to climb up in the wind, and fit a new lock, before it got damaged. The wind had even blown the lens cap off Ed’s telescope, which he found 2 days later, in the pool!

Watching the Spanish news that night, we discovered that actually nearly all of Spain was on an either yellow or red weather warning, and in fact, the snow in the north caused some terrible problems. There was even snow south of us (Alcoi), but we didn’t see any.

Thank goodness we had taken down the pine tree that overhung the house. One thing is for certain – that’s the end of the pine pollen!