After the Storm

I was awakened around 5.30am by what I thought were aeroplanes, but the noise kept going at the same level. I remembered then about the storm warning. Looking out at the trees, I could see they weren't moving much, but even though our flat's on the second floor we're quite a way down-hill from the heath. Still, the windows were being battered enough to dissuade us from walking down the High Street to the swimming pool.

Later we walked up to the park, where so much damage had been done in the great storm of October 1987. It was pretty breezy across the heath - at one point Roy, struggling with an umbrella, warned me not to walk so near to the narrow road that runs north-south along the western edge. He was afraid I might be blown onto the road in front of a passing car.

All seemed well on the park - no trees fallen over, as far as we could see. We came back on the DLR and as we were walking from the station we saw this heap of abandoned umbrellas. Just as well that we weren't out earlier.