Trees, chainsaws, and firemen....

Last night we looked out of the window to see a police car and a fire engine in the road right outside our house. The police and firemen are walking all over the place.

A policewoman starts walking up our drive, so we ask is everything ok?

Turns out a pretty big tree has fallen across the road (oh, did I mention that there are gale force winds racing around?).

My puppy and I sat for ages watching the activity through the window (disappointed to say that we couldn't see much!). She was so funny, woofing and 'talking' in protest of the firemen walking around, the fire engine, and the blue flashing lights.

Just before midnight, we lost power. Great.

Went to bed and woke up at 3am to the sound of the fire engine driving away.

Woke up again at 4am, and noticed that there were still flashing blue lights. The firemen were still outside trying to defeat the mighty tree! Went to bed to the sweet sound of chainsaws, and then woke again to hear the firemen driving off just after 4.

In the morning (still no power!), mom and I went and looked at the (remainder of) tree. It was BIG. And there were branches everywhere. And red and white Fire and Rescue tape fluttering from trees where it had been tied to section off the road. Then the 'wood people' came along and shredded all the unwanted branches.

I must say, the firemen stayed until after 4am to clear our road, but you don't see the electricity people around trying to get our power back (then found out later from the guys who came to fix our power at the end of the day, that they had been working since 5am because the winds had caused so much destruction!)

Very interesting night and day! Most excitement that we've seen around this village in a long time! I did enjoy it all though. It was very cool.

This whole thing has really made me appreciate firemen a whole lot more! Most of the time we associate firemen with putting out fires or cutting people out of cars, not jobs like this. Jobs that last until 4am in the morning, in blustery conditions, whilst trying to remove a fallen tree.

While we all slept, they worked to make our road safe. In the morning there were many people who didn't know what had gone on.

I really appreciate what they did while I was in my warm bed. So thank you!!