Sunshine and Whimsy

Yesterday, my family and I went to see the new movie "Inception". I have to say, it was an amazing movie! It was 148 minutes long and I was hooked from the opening scene. Not once did I become bored or fidgety, I was glued to my seat the entire time. If you have the chance and you love intricate plotlines, be sure to get out and see this one. I promise, you won't be disappointed.

When we left the theatre, it was raining quite hard, which really surprised me, because the sun was shining so brightly when we left. But, that's Canadian weather for you right?

As we drove up the road, I noticed that the lounge chairs that sit out front of a local hotel's rooms were scattered all over the parking lot and down into a ditch. I pointed it out to hubby and we both wondered if a storm had moved through while we were in watching the movie. "That would have to have been one heck of a wind to blow those chairs around." I suggested, but he just grunted his usual grunt. :)

As we travelled home, I was noticing branches down along the side of the road, small trees knocked over in some yards and I knew we had missed something whilst engrossed in our movie.

We turned our corner and my heart just sank. There, laying across the road, blocking traffic was more than half of the tree that sits at the bottom of our driveway.



I almost cried.

This tree is at least 100 years old. It has shaded our yard, created a canopy over our driveway, provided homes to innumerous wildlife throughout it's many years. To know what this tree would know, to have seen what it has seen, is mind numbing. It has stood sentry over this house, this part of our road for a century.

The fellows came to after a while to clean up the road. My husband heard them mention that they would have the inspector come out and take a look at the rest of the tree. It seems they may have to take the whole thing down.

I don't understand why I'm so upset about this, but I am. My heart is broken. We've only been here two years, but that tree has come to mean so much to me.

If they take the tree, we will be planting a sapling in the spring in the same spot. Of course, we'll never see the new tree grow to the same splendour this one achieved, but our kids and grandkids will.

The storm moved through not long before we got home, apparently. It blew through our little town that no one has ever heard of, taking shingles off houses, branches off trees, blowing around lawn furniture. The mess was very large, although the damage was kept to a minimum, thankfully. At the time I called the roads department to report our tree down, there were five other trees blocking roads that they needed to clean up.

Nature can be such a force to be reckoned with. We live in a very "safe" part of the world. We rarely have dangerous weather. This sunner, however, we've had earthquakes and tornado's all in one day (my hubby's 40th birthday, actually. LOL!) and some very intense thunderstorms. It's been a bit odd for us here.

I'm hopeful this will be the end of our intense weather. But, who knows what tomorrow will bring, right? :)