The rain starting coming down heavily by nightfall, and after we said goodbye to our guests, we readied ourselves by putting away all the oudoor furniture and getting the candles out....just in case!
We awoke at around 5:00 to hear the wind howling and rattling the windows. The power cut out a few minutes later. And then at around 5:30, we heard a huge WOOOOSH, only to discover that our beloved dogwood tree in the front had been uprooted. Big Boy looked out the window in shock, as he loved climbing this tree, and couldn't figure out what had happened to it.
By Sunday afternoon, the wind and rain had left, and the neighbors came out in full force to examine the damage. Eli, Judith, and Dave were convinced that there were enough intact roots on our beautiful tree to try to save it. So for the next couple hours, with the neighborhood's help, and a big truck, we developed an extensive pully system to try to upright the tree! The pully sytem worked, and the tree fell right into place....
but before we could secure it, it toppled down in the other direction, snapping the roots! So even though we couldn't save our beautiful dogwood, it was a touching neighborly effort, and we were so thankful for everyone's thoughfulness. Fortunately, this was the only big damage done on the block by Irene, where other neighborhoods had extensive destruction. We were without power, however, longer than most neighborhoods, and didn't get it back until Thursday. (But I didn't mind, it was a great chance to unplug and have some great conversations with Ro and mom and my childhood friend Jason who was staying with us from NY, all over a few bottles of wine!).
We will replant another dogwood just like it (but smaller) in the coming spring. But we will always remember the beauty of this tree, as photographed this May.
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