I had to run an errand at the corner store, so I bundled against the rain and went out. Heading back, I discovered that our camellia bush was felled by the wind in the middle of the night! How sad!
Both Marilyn 
mistressmarilyn and I did hear a horrible, loud sound in the middle of the night (well, around 4:00 a.m., as I recall), but neither of us got up to see what it was. I remember thinking it sounded like something had banged against the side of the house!
The winds yesterday were terrible. It's bad enough that the whole area is dealing with terrible flooding everywhere, but when you add these winds, it just does us in. (sigh)
The problem is that the ground gets so wet it can't drain off the rain anymore, so we end up with standing water and very soft ground.
I phoned Hector (our yard guy) and asked him if it can be saved or not. He's going to come out either today or tomorrow and check it out. I figured we'd have expense either way -- whether we try to save it, or have to get it hauled off. So what the hell. Let's hope it's not too expensive!
On to the photos!
The corner of the house on the side where the bush
fell down. You can see how the rain (and the snow
and ice) have torn up the ground. You can also see
the signs of standing water!
The base of the tulip tree, near to the camellia
bush -- with more damage visible. You should
be seeing lots of green grass there!
The felled camellia!
A close up of the camellia roots.
The view from the sidewalk in front of the house.
From the side yard looking toward the front street.
From the side yard.
What you're seeing here is the tree on the same side
of the house as the camellia bush. There used to be
another tree next to it, but it fell due to rain-soaked
ground and high winds!
We've been worried about the tree out back, in all honesty. It never occurred to me that the bush might come down!
Rain, rain, go away...
Same to you, high winds!
