[mumofstig]

That's really hard to bear Snoop 

Hope the cats turn up unharmed and fingers crossed for the panels.

[New shoot]

Oh Snoop, what an awful thing to happen   

Like MoS, I hope your cats come home soon and your solar panels are OK. 

[snowdrops]

Oh dear Snoop, that's really dreadful. Hope the cats are ok. My car got written off a couple of years ago when we had a hailstorm of those proportions, all the greenhouses & poly tunnels on the allotments were ruined. I don't remember the plants being that badly damaged though. Commiserations.

[Goosegirl]

Flipping 'eck to you too Snoop! 

[Snoop]

Thunderstorms due every day for the next ten days. The weather this year is unbelievable.

The veg patch is a write-off. I was thinking of having a greenhouse but not after this. The brambles where our sparrow population was living have been shredded. There is absolutely no birdsong about the place and I haven't seen a single bird of any kind so far today. It's quite shocking and disturbingly quiet. The ground is littered with debris smashed down off the trees.

The solar panels look to be OK, the car insurance is paying for the windscreens and Mr Snoop is making inroads into clearing up the damage while I carry on working. One of the cats took a terrible hit to the head by the size of the lump and the wound he had when I spotted him very early this morning. But he'd gone when I went back and is now nowhere to be seen, so I think he might have taken himself off somewhere quiet.

Sorry for whinging. Thanks for all your kind remarks.

[jambop]

Wow that is bad Snoop very sorry to hear that. We had a storm yesterday and the meteo did say there might be hail so I put the wife's new car in the garage just in case but the hail never came although it did rain heavily and the trees took a pounding. We live close the the Pyrenees and storms come about frequently in a warm spell and it has been very warm for nearly the whole summer. Hope you manage to get everything sorted out and the cat returns with nothing more than a head ache.

[Steveharford]

You have my sympathies Snoop. I hope you don't get too downhearted but I have to say I have completely lost interest in the patch at the moment. I've got a few tomato plants against the wall but I've not picked any for over a week let alone fed them. I will probably grow a few next time but I've still not cleared away the flattened beans or anything. I will get around to it but I will probably then cover the whole lot with black polythene until I summon up enthusiasm again. As to top it all half my onions have already rotted in storage ( white rot I think),  and the courgettes and marrows have already got mildew.  On the bright side I might find time to go fishing or play the odd round of golf again.😀.  I bet the ground would be glad of a rest too !

[Growster...]

What a rotten post for you both, Steve and Snoop.

My heart goes out to you guys, much more than somewhat.

Been there, done the clear-up, but it just doesn't help really does it, except that you have chums here who''ll make sure you get going again soon!

:0!

[mjg000]

It's devastating when your growing world comes tumbling down.  You do wonder why do I do it?  It's only if the pro reasons outnumber the cons that you can muster the energy to get up again and fight on.  Snoop, I know you have lost all your winter crop hopefuls and it means you can't expect to feed yourself over the coming months, it's almost like a plague or biblical blight or something,  I expect you don't even feel like talking about it at the moment, what a year you've had.... but if you survive this, really you know you can survive almost anything.  I (we all) wish you well and hope you can summon what you need to survive the coming months.  Steve, yours is a different problem and it involves you deciding what your priorities are and what, in the long run, gives you satisfaction.  I think you are right in thinking "cover the lot up and come back when I've got a bit more energy and enthusiasm".  That after all is what many of us do in short term emergency situations.  Good luck to both of you.... at least it's at the end of the "growing" season and you have time to stand back and take stock.

[Snoop]

Thanks for all the commiserations guys. Fishing and golf sound like good options, Steve (unless you're the fish!), and would provide much of the pleasure I get from the vegetable patch, being outdoors, getting a little exercise and engaging in what is almost a meditative activity, as I'm totally distracted from work or household issues.

Yesterday one of the locals came round to view the damage to my plot. In a village near us, they're declaring a disaster zone, the storm was so bad. His vines have been shredded (grapes not quite ready for picking), all the almonds are on the ground (just about ready, so could be gathered off the ground, but it's harder work than gathering off the trees), as are the few olives that the trees produced this year. Puts my caulis and cabbages into perspective. He's a lovely man and we talked about plans for the future.

Mr Snoop's view is that six years out of seven, everything will be fine. I just have to accept that every now and then it won't. He thinks I should carry on, and he's the one who does nearly all the donkey work but doesn't get the same pleasure out of it that I do. So I'm rethinking my rethinking. Goats figure prominently after Tosca's recent posts on the new members of her family. Not immediately, but definitely in the next couple of years or so.

The cat hasn't been back. So he's our worst loss.

[Grandmasue]

Hi snoop, I am a newbie to the site so I hope you won't mind me joining this thread. I followed from Steves first post and felt so sorry for you. It is soul destroying. I have felt like giving up this year. Our problem is heavy salt winds. As fast as I repair, tie up or replace ,the wind does it again. I got an e mail from Thompson and Morgan today for 72 plug plants, pot luck, pansies etc for £6.50 inc p,p, so I bought them. Pansies look so happy. I will put them in pots where hopefully the wind can't get them and look at them and not the devastation in the garden, and maybe next year it will be good.
I really do wish you good luck with your plot and the others in your region, Mother Nature is a hard adversary.

[brokenglass]

Snoop your sad loss gives me another insight into growing veg in Spain!   I was of the opinion that it would be so easy and bountiful to be able to have more than one crop a year with all the sun and heat your true life experience just brought me back down to earth.     I hope that you can salvage some veg/fruit and that you don't give up we all have our problems unfortunately we , or maybe just me, don't always see the problems others have.

Please keep you chin up and remember you start again tomorrow.

[Snoop]

Grandmasue, I read your thread on wind. Yours is a far more difficult situation as it's constant, whereas I just have to factor in and accept disasters every now and then. So I feel for you. I wonder if looking at French or Welsh sites for salt marsh lamb might start you off in the right direction: even if you're not about to start up a flock or take up shepherding, there might be some inspiration for gardens in there somewhere.

And thanks, brokenglass. Another local has been round today. We're all commiserating with each other, but at least I can carry on working, whereas they depend on their agricultural produce for their livelihood. My situation is a disappointment, whereas theirs is a disaster.

[madcat]

Snoop!  that is just so disheartening and downright scary.  So much damage so fast. 

I feel for you, and your neighbours.  And the poor cat.