September 2006

The trees have had quite the summer up here in eastern Ontario and throughout the province. This has been the summer of torrential rains and tornadoes. Hot humid air would collide with the cooler air flowing down the valley of the Ottawa River and, kaboom, sheet lightning, high winds and then our power would go off.

Sometimes I think the power lines up here are made with old string, a copper wire, and some scotch tape. People here experienced the ice storm in '98 and went without power for 10 days, so most of my neighbours now have generators. The noise from them, when you step outside, is as loud as the storms.

We are lucky by the river here; we can fetch a pail of water to flush the toilet. I don't know that my house guests like it when they have to carry pails for three days of their vacation, but it's all manageable. When the power goes off I miss having a cup of hot tea. I tried boiling water on the barbecue but it took so long I almost used up the propane for dinner. Everyone should have a nice little camp stove for quickly boiling water. I finally bought one on Saturday, but the power has been on for five days straight and now there is a coolness to the night air that tells me ice storms soon will dominate, so it may not be needed until next year.

Last year as we caught images of the storms hitting New Orleans and up the eastern seaboard, I was grateful that I lived so far from all that volatile weather. Ironically, it felt very volatile up here this summer, and it's not fun, especially for the trees.

Combermere was hit by two tornadoes in one night. I sat with a friend, who lives in the town, and looked out over the devastation. It was so shocking to be able to see the damage everywhere at once, in a vacation area known for its lake side views of rolling hills covered in 150 year old white pines. As people described it, one moment it was calm and within a split second the trees were bent almost flat and then spun round and round from their waists. Next, there was too much debris to see and then all you could hear was the sound of trees, huge trees, cracking and crashing to the ground.

This friend also witnessed how the trees twisted out of their way to miss her house, how branches fell neatly around her Buddha in the garden. There were stories such as these everywhere. Trees had, where possible, avoided damaging people and property. Many things were destroyed by the winds, like the top of the Home Hardware building vanishing within seconds, but no one was hurt. A man in a pickup truck was lifted up and over the bridge and put down again on the road below.

Tens of thousands of huge trees fell in a populated area within minutes and no one was hurt. The belief, in this community, is that there is so much prayer in the area that the trees and wind responded. The primary businesses there are an intentional lay community known as Madonna House, as well as St Francis Herbs. The Madonna community was founded by a woman of Russian nobility, who believed fiercely that to know God, one merely needs to communicate with, and live in respectful harmony with, Nature. The trees in Combermere are prayed to and thanked each day by hundreds of people, and it appeared to many that they responded.

At the other extreme, in my town, two healthy pines were being cut by hydro across the road. When the hydraulic Grove Crane reached over to cut off the top of the second tree, it found that the tree had other ideas. In slow motion the tree fell, in an unexpected way, taking the 35-tonne crane with it and breaking it like a toothpick. It was quite the sight. The town came out to watch and add suggestions on how to right it and dismantle the arm without the cables breaking and causing serious damage. I noticed a pottery face of a Green Man Spirit nailed to the base of the tree.

Well, the largest and oldest White Pine on the street is the one beside my house, so I walked right over and talked to it, as I often do. I felt compelled to be sure we were clear that we were friends, and that if anything really dramatic started to happen to him/her in some crazy storm, that I thanked it in advance for twisting away from the house. I also asked it to live another two hundred years. I think I heard a smile.