The weather has been pretty rotten the past week. We had a couple of days of heavy rain, so much so when I went out to feed the birds on Thursday night, the ground was like mud.

Then Friday the winds started. We regularly get high winds this time of year, but they were particularly strong the past few days, up to 73 miles an hour during the night. That coupled with the very soft ground from all the rain has not done the trees any good.

I think we’ve lost one tree in the neighbours garden. That in itself wouldn’t be such a problem except that it’s the old apple tree coated in wild ivy, and home to at least a couple of dozen birds, none of whom are overly thrilled at the strange angle the tree is now listing.

This was the tree back in June, along with one of it’s residents. You can’t quite see how close it is to the fence, the one below taken in July is a slightly better angle, and showing even more of the local inhabitants.

You can see how close it is to the fence.

These next two were taken right in the corner of the fence, and you can see how much the whole tree has moved. The first was taken back in September (and that’s not a resident sat there, although I think it’s a resident being eaten ) and the second photo is the tree as is now, taken on Friday afternoon.

This one is another photo taken on Friday, but showing the same angle (pretty much) as the second photo, along with a compilation of the original and this last photo to show the difference between then and now. Not the best merging of photos, but the best I can manage on short notice, still having computer difficulties

There is one thing in their favour, the apple tree hasn’t been seen for about 5 years, with all the ivy, so I’m just hoping come the summer the ivy will re-root and tie the whole thing back down so it’ll not move again in any future strong winds.   Only time will tell.