The weather forecast yesterday was for ‘unseasonably strong winds’. Now I’m good at worrying about anything but high on my list of what can cause me concern is gale force wind. Roughly ten years ago we had been away for a couple of nights and on our way back up the M40 we could tell that it was extremely windy. When we arrived at work we found that three of the four polytunnels had lost their covers. Not blown away into the next county but ripped and flapping and causing a huge amount of damage to the plants which previously were being protected by the covers. The noise of torn polythene flapping in the wind is quite ear shattering. Initially there was not much we could do except cut away some of the long trailing pieces which were sweeping pots, compost and plants backwards and forwards and smashing against each other. And weep….

A new cover was ordered the next day which arrived within the week. The unenviable task of clearing things away, removing the rest of the polythene and preparing to fit the new cover took some considerable time. Then we had to wait for a calm day. The nursery is on an exposed site so patience was required. We lined up some friends to help. The day finally dawned about three weeks later when the conditions were just right and we got started. Unfortunately all the friends were unavailable so we did it ourselves without too much swearing.

I’m reminded of this because yesterday, in the middle of the afternoon, at the height of the strong winds, I was explaining to a friend that the covers are vulnerable at such times. As I was speaking and pointing I noticed, to my horror, a tear along one of the hoops. Luckily it was at one end and luckily Philip hadn’t left so he got the ladder out and some sticky tape and patched it up. I’m hoping it will last for a while until we feel strong enough to recover it. The last time this needed doing on one of the other tunnels was just before P started his course of chemotherapy. Some brilliant friends stepped in and did the job for us but unfortunately one of them is not so well at the moment so it looks like we shall have to do it ourselves……and we are now ten years older since we did the last one. Ho hum.