Eunice

Eunice whistled through on Friday morning and unfortunately took out a few of the elderly and structurally unsound big old fellas and was even quite artistic in cleverly rowing up a pile of sticks as can be seen in the photo below. In the other image a twisted half of a beech will be a bit more of a headache to sort out. The oak is doing a remarkable job in holding the top but the continual rocking of more gales today is slowly tearing the base off the trunk of the parent tree. Not a good place to be hanging around even for dogs.

The largest lying beech log was a 170-180 year old survivor from the corner of the West Drive that was abandoned as the main access to the house in 1850 due to the steep incline below. So this is quite a sad historical loss. These big monoliths will be left in situ till the ground dries out later on in the summer. Quite big chunks these as can be seen with the 120 year old Douglas Fir behind. There is no frenzy to tidy up and make a complete horlicks of the ground and soil structure, best leave well alone for the time being.

The main garden survived Eunice in reasonable shape, much less severe than the last major blow in 1990. The plant collection is unaffected apart from a few important rhododendrons that will hopefully survive with careful layering of their stems. A few skanky conifers snapped off when the tail end of the depression moved through but overall we have been lucky and the garden should be ready for opening in Mid March bar any more serious storms .