EVEN SOME BAMBOO ...

Sunday, October 24th had one of those weather forecasts which came with a bit of foreboding. Along with the (much needed) rain to come, were the words ... "damaging wind & thunderstorms".

With the dry summer we have had, the same conditions moving into the Fall season made the forecast "catch-twenty-two" -- the rain was needed/wanted ... the "damaging", NOT.

A clear, partly cloudy afternoon did not give any indication of the forecast coming true. Watching a football game on TV around 5 P.M., I was suddenly aware it was becoming rapidly dark outside, along with hearing the sound of sirens off in the distance ... the signal of a "warning" for bad weather.

Changing to a local TV station, the forecast had been, shall we say "upgraded", to Tornado Warnings. Sure enough, as the sky got even darker outside my house, the TV radar began tracking a potential tornado heading my way from the Southwest.

Amazingly, as I went on the porch, figuring to run out the door to find the two cats still outside, both -- Nibblets & Wobs -- were waiting at the door & zoomed right past me & inside. I guess it was an example of "animal intuition" in regards to bad weather coming.

Shortly there after, the storm arrived, with a black sky & winds bending the trees. The rain -- in driving, gray sheets -- soon followed as well.

As all four of us took shelter in the house -- me with the big flashlight in hand & my cell phone in my pocket ... just in case -- there was a loud "thud" from outside. A large tree had split & fallen into the yard.

Luckily, the tornado never arrived & the storm conditions quickly moved off. Shortly thereafter, the Girls even wanted to go outside, no doubt to "investigate" the tree limbs, sticks & blown down leaves littering the yard. Clean-up time for me. Delights for them.

These three photos were taken on Monday the 25th.

Along with the downed tree, two other points need to be made about the contents of the above photo: (1) The still dry, empty conditions of the creek bed. Not only did a tornado not come this way -- there was one further South of here -- the amount of rain received was limited & certainly not enough to remove the "Burn Ban" currently in effect in this part of the state of Arkansas. (2) For all the people who visit my blog after Googling the word "bamboo", note the fine stand of "Gray Henon" bamboo in the upper right corner.

Very hard to see, even in larger copies of these three photos, is a small Dogwood Tree which survived the falling tree which surrounds it on the ground. The upper canopy of the tree encompasses the Dogwood, but as I have found, did no damage to the Dogwood when the tree hit the ground. Small miracles.

Most of the tree remains on the ground still. I spent quite a bit of time last week cleaning storm damage -- tree limbs, sticks, broken branches -- from other parts of my property. This tree will require me to use my trusty chain saw to cut it up ... a duty I never look forward to, if only because of my sincere distrust of chain saws & my desire to keep all my digits.

And "yes", even more of the stand of bamboo in this final photo.