Two days ago I was awoken by the wind howling and the trees outside my window going crazy. I sat at my desk and watched as branches whipped about like an electric egg beater. 

I love watching storms. Lightning gives me a thrill. The sound of rain lulls me to sleep but the sound of a savage wind turns my blood to ice. I watched in horror as trees bent so far over from the strength of the gusts that it seemed to uproot them every time the wind blew. 

My beloved trees, which were normally a thing of beauty and peace had turned into ugly twisting monsters and seemed hell bent on entering my window. The only thing that stopped them from doing so, I hoped, was our balcony made of archways and bricks. 

Crashing, banging, howling and screeching ..... I thought it would never stop. I watched as branches broke off and went flying through the air. 

There was a loud bang right above my head. I looked aghast at the ceiling, expecting it to rip off and disappear. My poor dog howled with fright and tried to squeeze under my desk. He's a big dog and if I wasn't so frightened it would have been funny. 

Suddenly it went quiet outside and Sabre and I looked at each other in surprise. I didn't believe a wind as strong as that could just disappear, so we very cautiously stepped out onto the balcony. 

Every where we looked we could see damage the wind had created. I looked with despair at my poor tree's broken branches and the empty space where foliage used to be. 

Sabre, who was being very brave now that the wind had stopped, rubbed  against my legs and looked at me as if to say, "Don't worry, it'll grow back". 

I stood there rubbing his head and planning what I was going to do to fix my trees. That's when I remembered my roof. I hurried downstairs and moved as far back as I could to see if there was any damage. A huge tree branch was resting on it. 

I found out later that the wind strength had reached 90klms an hour. While this is not the fastest wind I'd experienced, the wind chill factor had reached minus 6. The combination of strength and cold meant that my trees didn't stand a chance. 

It was another day I will never forget. 

©Janine Daniel