When we drove back from shopping in Chatellerault this morning it was hard to think that the storm last night had actually happened..
Yet these had been the scenes from the window during the early hours of Saturday morning as we experienced our second night of storms...
The whole garden was illuminated by the flashes of lightning in one of the worst storms I've ever known. It began around 3am and lasted well over an hour and a half, with constant flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder. The wind picked up force as it came roaring across the fields, bending all the plants it touched in its wake...
A closer look along the roadside en route to Chatellerault and the debris was evidence enough for all to see.. A row of newly planted trees outside Lidl in Chatellerault had been snapped like matchsticks, despite substantial stakes supporting them.
And not only trees; these phone lines were down by the road on the outskirts of Chatellerault.
Back at home we had to begin the clear up operation. We had been very lucky and had no structural damage. What damage there was was limited to plants and trees.
Branches were ripped out our favourite Catalpa and strewn across the lawn..
The peppers Colin had tended from seed were flattened,as were a couple of tomato plants.
The poplars had lost many smaller branches and when Colin looked over into the field, there were several larger branches up to 6 metres out into the fiels and we needed to go and retrieve them before they did some serious damage to the farmer's machinery.
The whole of the lawn was strewn with whatever the wind could find to displace
I think I woke with the very first rumble of thunder and I didn't go back to sleep until the storm had well and truly passed, some two hours later at least.
And Colin?? Well - he slept through the lot; thunder bolts and all!
