Cardinals and other neighbours, after a summer storm

cleaning up in the aftermath

The background sounds to life in our lakeside community in rural Essex County now include the rumbles of heavy equipment, the gnawing of tree grinders, chain saws whining, and frequent strident sirens.

It’s not official but a tornado, or something very near to one, touched down in our neighbourhood yesterday afternoon. On our morning walk to find hot tea and coffee (the power is off) we saw many trees broken off, halfway up, and a few flipped out of the ground, roots now exposed. (There’s something sad and rude about that, like seeing grandpa in his underwear.)

Neighbours have suffered significant damage. Big trees came down, and have punctured the roof of a house, garage and a vehicle on a property over our back fence.

A backyard trampoline was flipped, two houses down, and a square of metal tubing from the support frame ended its flight in our rhubarb patch.

Over the fence beyond our rock garden, the neighbours now have a yard full of the sheared off tops of some beautiful old trees.

We were in the basement when they came down. We heard an explosive thunk, and wondered if we still had a roof. (We do.)

The mated pair of cardinals who’d nested in those trees have been flitting around our backyard, as if doing their own assessment of the damage to the area. So have Mr. and Mrs. Mourning Dove. The bird families and some of our human neighbours are much worse off than us.

We had a steamy night without power (or AC) and will likely have a larger load for garbage pickup this week, after we deal with what’s mouldering in the fridge. But our nest is secure.

I’m writing this from a deliciously air conditioned coffee shop in the next town over, while my partner gets her hair cut. Did I mention that with the humidex, it’s about 36 degrees Celsius? In Fahrenheit that’s a sticky 95 degrees.

But I have an iced coffee and my power-bar is plugged in, to feed all my devices.