blown away

It’s been a very windy spring out in the country this year, We’ve been having 20 - 25 mph sustained winds with gusts up to 35.  Not every day, of course, but quite often.  We are pretty much surrounded here by open fields on three sides.  There is a half acre lot on one side, a 13 acre field behind, another 1 acre on the other side with a small house on it and across the road, acres and acres of fields.  A few windbreaks, but not many.  It’s been a very dry wind which is bad for the farmers.  It leaches any moisture right out of the soil.  

When the wind blows, it’s hard to get away from it.  We’re hoping the wind will be a blessing during the long hot summer, but now, at this time of year, it can wear on you.  I’m beginning to understand why those poor women isolated on the great plains went so crazy.  Today it was blowing in a storm so the air was moist.  The wind blew all day and it became darker and darker.  Finally in the afternoon, I started to hear distant thunder but still no rain.  The storm skirted by us and just when I thought we wouldn’t get any rain, it started.  It’s been raining gently, fairly steadily.  Good for the farmers.

We did have one casualty of the wind though.  A cardinal was building a nest in the protected inside corner of the house in a shrub I don’t know the name of.  I have to say it was quite a flimsy nest she built up over about three days.  No solidity that I could see, just a jumble of twigs and leaves.  I imagine the wind would undo her tidy weavings as soon as she left and today, it was finally blown to the ground.