Storm Damage Aftershock

As a city-bred person, storm damage and the forces of nature in the country are always astonishing.

The heavy February snows that created a shocking amount of storm damage began on Wednesday and didn’t end until Saturday at our house in the woods. I knew a tree had fallen across the driveway and that Russell, who plows for us, had moved it out of the way. What rattled me when we arrived at the house was the state of our flowering plum tree in front. It always has been such a thriving, sturdy tree. How shocking to see it squashed – as if a giant had mistaken it for an ottoman. Every major limb was, tragically, broken. Happily, we have ample home insurance though it wasn’t necessary to call on it.

Here’s the plum in the Spring, with delicate pink flowers that precede the leaves.

It may even be prettier with its glossy foliage in the in late summer.

Our dogwood, near the garage, didn’t suffer as much but it, too, had broken limbs.

The dogwood is one of the trees I wait to see bloom every spring because the pink flowers are truly gorgeous.

Then in the back, our burning bush — a stocky, hardy tree – had nearly disappeared. The snow weighed it down so much it looked like a shrub.

I know this is such a common tree but when it turns red in the Fall we know the wild turkeys will soon appear and the that holidays are near.

Mr. AM went out and freed it with a broom.

We’ll prune the damaged trees and hope to save them. The flowering plum will be really ugly for a while but it will grow back – perhaps even more beautifully than before.

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