January 6, 2012
This is the scene where a tree almost fell on me! Well, almost in that I had no intention of walking over there, and I wasn't quite in the danger zone. But still…
Tree Fall
Switzerland (2012)
I had been facing the other way, taking this picture,
Stormy Skies over CERN
Switzerland (2012)
when I felt a long strong gust of wind at my back and small bits of tree started to bump into my backside. Then I heard a medium loud crack, and I scooted over to the other side of my car (where Ali was sheltering inside) before taking a look, and snapping a pic. Pretty happy with it. :) Ali's fine, the car's fine, and the car that the tree almost landed on has been parked there for months.
It continued to be windy, even after I was strongly encouraged to get in the damn car and be careful. As we were driving home, the wind was pretty strong, not enough to blow the car around really, but it had blown down several other trees on our route home (no pictures of those though, I was driving). Surprisingly, they had all been cleared off the road already. But Ali did get a picture of my face while I was listening to the wind howl in the nooks and crannies of our car.
Inclement Weather Face
France (2012)
That's the face I usually make when there is inclement weather about. I'm a big bad weather fan.
When we got home, there were some tell-tale signs that the power was going to be out: the street lights across from our chateau were not on, the front porch motion light didn't come on, the neighbor had his tractor pointed at the front windows of his house with more tractor lights turned on than I knew that his tractor had. And then, when we went inside, yup, the power was out. We found our candles and headlamps, and got cozy. Then we had a cold dinner of left over lasagna from the (now powered down) fridge. It was still pretty cold. Cold enough that we decided it was time to finally give into all of our Tampopo inspired noodle desires and share a bowl of ramen. Even though you aren't supposed to, we used our jet boil (inside!) to heat some water for our noddles (hat tip to Jeff). You know what, they were really good! But, I think I'll keep with my recently formed habit of only having ramen once every several months (that's a story for another day).
Anyway, after dinner, I was inspired to try and capture some of the ambiance, the storm, the candles, the french chateau, you know, atmosphere. Here's a 30s exposure:
30 seconds with the power out
France (2012)
Imagine also hearing occasionally a strong gust of wind, someone's big plastic garbage can banging around, and the occasional car passing by. The wind is ripping in the trees pretty often, but not continuously like it would in the plains somewhere up far north, but pretty strong. All the usual house noises are off, there is no exhaust fan that's always on, no furnace thumping on in some far away part of the house. It's nice and quiet, wonderful quiet. Mostly just the natural sounds of a wind storm on a dark an stormy night. Maybe we should do this more often....
Morning Follow Up
It turns out that only our chateau is without power, our house, and the historically associated buildings (they're owned by separate families now), and the street lights. Also, the rest of the trees around that car blew down! And it's still parked in the middle of them!
Tree Fall (the next morning)
Switzerland (2012)