Fallen tree

This is what I saw when I came downstairs this morning:

As we got into bed last night I heard a crack. It sounded like when you've turned a key in a lock and you haven't turned it quite all the way so it clicks into place. You know, just click. But now we think it might have been the tree...

Part-time Cat came to check it out a few times today too.

Apparently the wind was quite strong last night. Over the weekend there was even a tornado not too far from us. You can read about it here. So the wind has been quite strong at times over the last few weeks. We've been having rain on and off basically every day for probably three weeks at least now.

But then there's also this little visitor we've had, the badger. Now this tree is right next to the shed under which Andre saw the badger disappear that one morning. Next to the shed is also this hole which we believe to be the badger's work.

And next to the tree that fell over is a pile of soil which may be the badger's nest. 

Badgers eat, amongst other things, roots. So did this badger eat the roots of this lovely tree of ours? We still need to climb in there to see what exactly happened. Whether there are still any roots. We think not... It does look as though it came right out of the ground without much roots attached to it's trunk...

It's sad to loose such a big tree. It has yellow flowers which were just starting to flower. And just before winter it had this other climber with loads of white flowers. We're going to plant another tree. Don't know what yet. We'll be visiting the garden centre soon. But first I guess we need to visit the hardware store for a chain saw.