Grow Your Own Magazine

Spottedb this in the 'Events' bit of the forum just now... I remember watching the tree outside our house wobble dangerously all night, aged eight.. My Dad I seem to remember slept through the whole thing

What do you remember about it?

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Shortie

"There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children; one of these is roots, the other wings" - Hodding Carter

Mentioned it last night but will do so again! We didn't really get much around our way, more of a down south thing however my eldest niece was born that night so can always quote the date if I were to get asked it in a pub quiz.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I was living in Scotland at the time, so wasn't really directly affected.

I was interested to read this morning that the 'Michael Fish debacle' is actually a media myth!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7042220.stm

Claire

i was 16 at the time and had just started working. we were working in a 5 star hotel and building a house in the grounds for the md. it was build in the woods. 300 year old trees were going over all day. it was an amazing site to see scary too. we had to go home via fields.

Dare I say it .......... we get winds of those strengths every winter, so I know how scary it can be. But at least we don't have any big trees to go down - but loose slates from the roof are always a worry.

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Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.
~ Mary Kay Ash

Don't remember it except for subsequent newspaper reports. Must have been fairly quiet up here.

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Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

www.vegheaven.blogspot.com

Updated November 17th - The Big Dig

I remember travelling to work on my moped, weaving in and out of fallen branches, trees and other debris in the road. Very hard staying on because of the gusts. Was one of the few who made it into work cos of all the stuff in the roads.

I was 16.

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I wish i could make a yo-yo work.
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

I remember waking up to the howling of the wind hitting my double sash living room window, scared to death it was going to cave in. Saw a big flash in the distance and then no electricity at around 2am. Luckily I've got gas and had candles so was not in the dark and without coffee. Didn't have any batteries though, so couldn't switch on to find out what the hell was happening (missed the forecasts)
Next morning went to work and gradually saw devastation everywhere, when I got to the main street it was very bizarre, no traffic and shop dummies in the road, plate glass windows caved in, roof tiles everywhere and all the other stuff that had blown around like dustbin lids.
We couldn't work as no electricity and spent the rest of the morning trying to get someone to tarpauline the roof. Most of my staff couldn't get in anyway as they lived out of town and the roads were blocked.
Glad I didn't have an allotment then, my next door allotment neighbour said during the worst of the wind she heard a terrible crashing and her 8 x 6' aluminium greenhouse disappeared and was never seen again!
Sue

I can't believe it was twenty years ago. The scariest night of my life so far. Woke up around 3 am, not sure what woke me - may be the sound of the wind. Looked out the back window and the trees in the next road were still rooted but being blown to the horizontal. Next thing was the sound of roof slates coming off (next door's new roof - 2 days old) but being blown and sliding down our side onto the flat roof extension. Got the kids up and we sat in the living room till daylight. Didn't dare go outside to see what was happening as slates still coming off. Loads of damage here in East Anglia, but fortunately me and family were OK. Damage to flat roof caused by aforesaid tiles, but fixed by neighbour.

20 years ago????
I presume this is the one Michael Fish is famous for????

Not much went on in Cheshire I recall...although I remember feeling the loss of some of the Seven Oaks trees- hate to see the death of an old tree.
( were they replaced???)

had my one and only car accident that morning, driver on other side of road swerved to avoid a branch and hit me head on, was driving a transit at the time so no real damage to me, just a bit shaken, nothing a packet of ciggies and a few cups of coffee couldn't fix. made it to work on a building site, (was a ceiling fixer/dry liner at the time) we got sent home though when a 40 ft high plasterboard partition wall in the warehouse blew over!! bang was so loud I thought it was a bomb. luckily no-one injured.

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Kernow rag nevra http://www.cornishnotenglish.com/

The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits
Albert Einstein

Just be ordinary and nothing special. Eat your food, move your bowels, pass water and when your'e tired go and lie down. The ignorant will laugh at me, but the wise will understand
Bruce Lee

We were on holiday on Jersey at the time, I was 15. It was really frightening - we watched the roof coming off the hotel opposite us and blowing away. Some friends who had been on holiday with us had left on the ferry before the winds struck, and we couldn't find out if they'd got back safely. The dad of said family was a ship-builder, and told us afterwards that the ferry was actually listing about 10 - 15 degrees further than it should have been to stay upright - he was petrified, but they made it ok. As did we! Our hire car had a tree stuck in the middle of it next day though...!

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Sarah

“Tell me one last thing,” said Harry. “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?”
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

I was in the Royal Engineers based at Dover, during the storm two of my fellow sappers and I were stuck on a ferry outside of Dover harbour because of the wind. 18 hours later we got off.

I have never been the same on a boat since.

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Kindest regards, David.

http://pigletsplots.blogspot.com/
updated - Sunday 19th at 2100hrs

I was 19 at the time and fishing on a trawler in the english channel that week the forcast was SW 10 -11 pos 12, and as jennie say's that's only another day in scotland

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---) CARL (----
ILFRACOMBE
NORTH DEVON

a seed planted today makes a meal tomorrow!

www.freewebs.com/carlseawolf

now in blog form ! UPDATED 01 / 04 / 08

I had given birth to my daughter the day before and we had come home that day from the hospital. I was awoken around 1.30 am by the neighbours banging the door asking if i needed to warm a bottle as the power was out but the little angel slept right through, I would have done too if it hadn't been for the caring bl**dy neighbours bless their heartsRtrieved my moped from the hedge at the bottom of the garden next morning

I don't seem to remember much about it at all. Either down to the fact that we were hardly affected (possibility), or that I was an ignorant 12 year old at the time (probability).

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Minor update - 10th November

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/p/dev036pr___.png

Goodness, 20 years ago.... well I lived in Essex then, my home was a little thatched cottage only a bungalow, but non the less it was made of sticks and straw(I know what the 3 little piggies went through!)
I had been off sick with a really nasty flu, the kind that keeps you in bed. Ran out of coal so pulled jumper over pj's and set of in the landrover to next village, upon my return I noticed that a lake was forming at the back (weather boarded!!!) of the cottage! Rang o/h he said to monitor it.Panic!! It got worse, and worse...he came home about 6pm and with the engineering works next door sorted out a pump which we had to run all night. At 1am 'ish my friend form next door said "you had better pick those apples, the wind is getting up and will damage the young trees" we sat in the garden at eating apples, it was a very warm, very strange feeling that night, the air felt kinda odd, even the driving rain was warm-then about 3am it started....
We lashed the garden hammock the the huge willow, went in doors and waited for the next refill time to come around (for the pump)
Never ever have I felt or heard wind like it.It hit the cottage like hard waves. The noise was more of a roar,wail or something. The power went out, but we were geared up for power cuts, (lasted about 5-6 days) we have a generator, and the cottage ran only on solid fuel for heating and I was happy cooking on the lovely old range.
Our cottage was left very ruffled, the willow fell on the hammock, branches trashed the greenhouse.We were lucky as a row of 5 new houses had their roof lifted and walls damaged. I was very sad at all the black leaves on the facing side of the hedgerows. I worked for BT in the drawing office at the time but was drafted in as part of the 'storm team' we ran for weeks after the storm, and took thousands of calls.
I feels like it was only last week, goodness, 20 years ago.....

I was going to pretend that I was also too young to remember anything but then; you all know how old I am so that won't work

I was working in Newcastle that week and I remember waking up in my hotel room during the night and thinking it was a bit windy .

I got up in the morning and turned the TV on as usual to watch the breakfast news and I couldn't find anything on. Eventually, someone came on broadcasting from a cupboard somewhere (or that's what it seemed like) Anyway, I went to work as normal but couldn't fly home because all the airports were either shut or running a reduced service so I had to drive back down to the south (Andover)

Everything started off well but as we got closer to the south of England we encountered all sorts of carnage, trees and powerlines down, "dead" cars at the side of the road etc... It looked like a scene from a disaster movie. I don't think we had any electricity for at least a week but, as I remember it was a beautiful sunny day on the Saturday.

Ah... yes, I remember it well (wasn't that a song?)

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

Isn't that the place they call One Oak these days? Sorry, but someone was bound to say it

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A garden is a lovesome thing, God wot! (Thomas Edward Brown)

I was in Holland on business when the storm was at it's worst. It was also very windy in Amsterdam.

I flew back to Heathrow at the tailend of the storm and could see trees blown over and many were quite some way away from the hole they'd come out of. There were acres of flattened greenhouses glittering in the sunlight.

The worst of it was that they wanted to take me G&T away . Business Class it was in a glass not a plastic tumbler. The plane was being chucked around a bit , and it was a safety thing. I hid it under my tray. I NEEDED that drink .

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"I prefer rogues to imbeciles as they sometimes take a rest" (Alexander Dumas)

Hmmm, I was living in Cheshire at the time and so wasn't really affected. I do remember being worried at the way the living room patio window was bowing but was sooo lucky and suffered no real damage. I felt for those who did suffer, and for the trees and wildlife too. Hey, now I feel old thinking about it being 20 yrs ago!!

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

I remember sitting in our lounge, wiv no power, listening to the crashing and banging outside. In the morning I went out to check things over. To my surprise, (pleased I have to say) the neighbours both sides had serious damage, and we hadn't even lost a roof tile! The whole area looked like a bomb site.

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Zebedee
"Raised to a state of heavenly lunacy where I just can't be touched!"