Most of you will have either heard about the storm which swept across much of Western Europe in the last few days – or have lived through it. We may have thought we were safe from the 150 km/hour winds all the way down here at the equator but that proved not to be the case. Fortunately the damage to our property back in Holland was fairly minimal compared to some, and especially compared to the 30 odd people who were killed in various countries.
A house in our neighbourhood had its whole roof blown off. We lost one roofing tile which landed in the gutter, and the three remaining Cyprus trees on our property took a real hammering. One blew completely over and had to be removed. The other two, which were pushed over. have been straightened up and should survive their ordeal.
Actually these trees have an interesting story behind them. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, almost everybody seems to know our house because of the Cyprus trees outside. The original owner, who built the house back in 1995 or so, had a very particular taste and because he just LOVES this type of tree, paid what seemed (to us anyway) an exorbitant sum to have six fully mature Cyprus trees shipped up from Italy and planted around the house. They were duly planted with a great deal of fuss and care, and then promptly proceeded to die. Unwilling (or unable) to take the hint, he then paid to have the same thing done all over again! This time, the transplants were successful, and operation Cyprus Relocation (a.k.a. putting the wrong trees in a stupid place) was complete.
When we (I’m using the royal ‘we’ here as actually Holger handled everything) were negotiating a price for the house he made several mentions of the trees and how much they were worth (to him anyway). We suggested he could take his tree with him if he dropped the price, but somehow that didn’t wash.
We duly bought the house and lived with the trees. Until I was pregnant with Carl, and we realised that the Cyprus which was planted in the driveway, preventing us from opening one of the rear doors of the car, was a royal pain in the arse and we chopped it down. In time, we got sick of the two huge trees in our fairly small garden, and wanting to put in a sandpit and playhouse for the kids, we contacted the former owner and told him we planned to get rid of the trees. Within a week heavy machinery (a huge flat bed truck, massive crane, plus small bobcat digger) turned up with a crew of 4 or 5 professionals including a tree doctor, and the two trees were removed, the garden fence carefully moved first out of the way then put back, the holes filled in with top soil, and we were all happy. We had to give the guy credit, when he does a job, he does it properly. Now alas alack, another Cyprus has fallen victim to nature’s whimsy. And then there were two….
A house in our neighbourhood had its whole roof blown off. We lost one roofing tile which landed in the gutter, and the three remaining Cyprus trees on our property took a real hammering. One blew completely over and had to be removed. The other two, which were pushed over. have been straightened up and should survive their ordeal.
Actually these trees have an interesting story behind them. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, almost everybody seems to know our house because of the Cyprus trees outside. The original owner, who built the house back in 1995 or so, had a very particular taste and because he just LOVES this type of tree, paid what seemed (to us anyway) an exorbitant sum to have six fully mature Cyprus trees shipped up from Italy and planted around the house. They were duly planted with a great deal of fuss and care, and then promptly proceeded to die. Unwilling (or unable) to take the hint, he then paid to have the same thing done all over again! This time, the transplants were successful, and operation Cyprus Relocation (a.k.a. putting the wrong trees in a stupid place) was complete.
When we (I’m using the royal ‘we’ here as actually Holger handled everything) were negotiating a price for the house he made several mentions of the trees and how much they were worth (to him anyway). We suggested he could take his tree with him if he dropped the price, but somehow that didn’t wash.
We duly bought the house and lived with the trees. Until I was pregnant with Carl, and we realised that the Cyprus which was planted in the driveway, preventing us from opening one of the rear doors of the car, was a royal pain in the arse and we chopped it down. In time, we got sick of the two huge trees in our fairly small garden, and wanting to put in a sandpit and playhouse for the kids, we contacted the former owner and told him we planned to get rid of the trees. Within a week heavy machinery (a huge flat bed truck, massive crane, plus small bobcat digger) turned up with a crew of 4 or 5 professionals including a tree doctor, and the two trees were removed, the garden fence carefully moved first out of the way then put back, the holes filled in with top soil, and we were all happy. We had to give the guy credit, when he does a job, he does it properly. Now alas alack, another Cyprus has fallen victim to nature’s whimsy. And then there were two….
1 comment:
Here half the roof of |Colditz was blown off, I just managed to hold it and screw it loose before the whole thing would have been gone.Rocco and Ashley did not blow away, maybe their weight playse a role in that?
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