Thunder storm building over the Estuary
Great excitement here at Campfield. My Birthday present arrived - a lovely pop-up gazebo. It had been well reviewed and was said to have stood up to some pretty drastic weather by the reviewers. The purchase of this had been a gesture of great optimism on our part because the past five gazebos we had purchased had all finished up, totally destroyed, ripped to shreds, twisted and broken, in the hawthorn hedge. But the weather had been very promising this Spring: warm; very dry; loads of sunshine; birds were already well into the nesting process despite a definate lack of foliage. The countryside up here seemed to be waiting for a drop of rain but many things seemed to be three weeks ahead of normal.
So, as I said, optimistically we started to erect this wonderful structure, "Bad plan!" As we opened the large cardboard box, roughly the size of a coffin, very large drops of rain started to fall. The wind veered from east to west and the sky darkened over the estuary. "In for a penny, in for a pound," we thought, struggling with the instructions, the various strutts, canopies and corners - Oh Yes! and walls and windows. This wasn't just any old gazebo! We had seen one being erected on a Time Team archeological dig, of the same make ...we should have known, Tony Robinson and his faithful gang finished up knee deep in archeological mud from the storm that hit them - though their gazebo did appear to stand up to the tempest well!
By the time we had finished erecting ours, we were thoroughly soaked, the instructions were reduced to blotting paper and Judith was hanging onto the guy ropes in a force 7 gale while I bellowed instructions from the 'quarterdeck': "Haul down the mainsail", "Hang onto the mizen." We were running on short sail by now and running well before the wind, praying that we weren't going to lose the 'ship'. But the reviewers were right: the frame stood up well - as we gazed in wonder from the shelter of the house. We had become 'storm callers'- an ancient skill now lost! We have some reputation in the area as such, as it is well known that when we erect our annual gazebo, rain will descend on the Cardurnock Peninsula. Local farmers set their calendars by us, dates for cutting silage are adjusted, people delay their holidays accordingly!
Anyway, the year has changed completely: buckets of rain and hail; lashing gales from the west; white horses on the estuary day after day. The local birders, namely a dedicated group of watchers who observe the phenomena of the annual Skua Passage here on the Solway from appropriate promontories in all weathers, reported this year as being the finest one ever. The deeper the Low, the more severe the gale - the more birds came through. They were delighted! - 'Tis an ill wind that bloweth nobody any good!
As reported in a previous blog, on one night of tempest, our local power lines blew down. The cables apparently arced and set the Moss alight from end to end, causing mayhem on that part of the Campfield Marsh Reserve. The countyside benefitting from this sudden deluge, exploded almost overnight into leaf - gardens overflowed with foliage and flowers, trees overburdened with luxuriant leafage have been bent double infront of the tempest, with great branches torn away. We feel this will have resulted in high bird casualties, with nests dashed to the ground and young birds made homeless and dying of exposure ... maybe for smaller birds, they will have time to recoup and go for second broods - but we fear that this will not be the case for the larger species.
Needless to say, the Gazebo has been taken down and packed away in its holdall - as we are not yet ready for another Ice Age! Although we do understand that you good people in the south of the Kingdom, have not yet received your deluge ... perhaps you would be interested in the name of our gazebo supplier?
A previous gazebo disaster
The path of the storm devasted large trees
Shattered willow
Results of flash fire across the Moss. Four fire appliances attended.
Fire damage in birch woodland driven by high wind
Storms strike the Estuary