s***@gmail.com
2018-01-16 03:21:02 UTC
In a number of episodes in Middle Earth the weather appears to behave
with an apparent agenda, willfully intervening on behalf of (or in
opposition to) a party to the conflict.
Usually weather is considered a powerful but mindless force of primal Nature.
However behind that there was perhaps something else at work. I can put it
no plainer than by saying that sometimes the weather was "meant" to behave
as conveniently (or awkwardly) for someone as it did.
By whom, and why, I'm not always sure. However, the party aided is not
necessarily the one responsible for the weather event, although this
occasionally seems true. I suppose only a Higher Order Being, a Maia at
the minimum can influence weather. Even Tom Bombadil, with all his
Earthly powers admitted, "I am no weather-master, nor is aught that goes
on two legs."
Anyway, here are some examples, where:
{name} = character(s) helped
were. So far they had not camped before on this journey, and ... it
seemed a bad wet evening to begin, on. They moved to a clump of trees,
and though it was drier under them, the wind shook the rain off the
leaves, and the drip, drip, was most annoying.
[So far just standard bellyaching about rain. But then here follows
the kind of thing I'm talking about. What other agency could have been
at work that evening, and why?]
Also the mischief seemed to have got into the fire. Dwarves can make a fire
almost anywhere out of almost anything, wind or no wind; but they could not
do it that night, not even Oin and Gloin, who were specially good at it.
* ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS ALLOW MOONLIGHT - Rivendell; Midsummer eve, 2941
{Thorin & Co.} >>Smaug<<
The moon was shining in a broad silver crescent. [Elrond] held up the map
and the white light shone through it. "What is this?" he said.
"There are moon-letters here..."
"What are moon-letters?" asked the hobbit full of excitement. He loved
maps, as I have told you before; and he also liked runes and letters
and cunning handwriting... [this all applies to me as well]
"Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them," said Elrond,
"not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon
shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must
be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were
written. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens, as
your friends could tell you. These must have been written on a
midsummer's eve in a crescent moon, a long while ago."
"What do they say?" asked Gandalf and Thorin together...
"Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond,
"and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine
upon the key-hole."
[All this makes for wondrously enchanted reading. However it wouldn't
have been all that feasible on a Midsummer evening of heavy rain or fog,
but "luckily", as news articles often say, "the weather co-operated."]
* EXTREME THUNDERSTORM - Misty Mountains; ~2 weeks after Midsummer, 2941
{goblins} >>Thorin & Co.<<
[The travelers take shelter in the entrance to a goblin cave.]
* A BREAK IN THE CLOUD COVER - Mt. Erebor; Durin's Day, 2941
{Thorin & Co.} >>Smaug<<
Soon [Bilbo] saw the orange ball of the sun sinking towards the level
of his eyes. He went to the opening and there pale and faint was
a thin new moon above the rim of Earth. At that very moment he heard
a sharp crack behind him. There on the grey stone in the grass was
an enormous thrush, nearly coal black, its pale yellow breast
freckled dark spots. Crack! It had caught a snail and was knocking
it on the stone. Crack! Crack!
... The sun sank lower and lower, and their hopes fell. It sank
into a belt of reddened cloud and disappeared. The dwarves groaned, but
still Bilbo stood almost without moving. The little moon was dipping
to the horizon. Evening was coming on. Then suddenly when their hope was
lowest a red ray of the sun escaped like a finger through a rent in the
cloud. A gleam of light came straight through the opening into the bay
and fell on the smooth rock-face. The old thrush, who had been watching
from a high perch with beady eyes and head cocked on one side, gave a
sudden trill. There was a loud attack. A flake of rock split from the
wall and fell. A hole appeared suddenly about three feet from the
ground. Quickly, trembling lest the chance should fade, the dwarves
rushed to the rock and pushed-in vain.
"The key! The key!" cried Bilbo. "Where is Thorin?"
Thorin hurried up.
"The key!" shouted Bilbo. "The key that went with the map! Try it now
while there is still time!"
Then Thorin stepped up and drew the key on its chain from round his
neck. He put it to the hole. It fitted and it turned! Snap! The gleam
went out, the sun sank, the moon was gone, and evening sprang into the sky.
[Isn't that totally awesome writing? From JRRT's masterly command of
the language I can see that scene vividly in my imagination alone without
any need for high-tech audio-visual gadgetry (or a screenwriter like
Ralph Bakshi or Guillermo del Toro to interpret it for me).]
* SUNSHINE - open field adjoining Bagshot Row; Party Day: Sept 22, 3001
{partygoing hobbits}
Then the weather clouded over. That was on Wednesday the eve of the Party.
Anxiety was intense. Then Thursday, September the 22nd, actually dawned.
The sun got up, the clouds vanished, flags were unfurled and the fun began.
* RAIN - Tom Bombadil's house; Sept 27, 3018
{Frodo & Co.}
As they looked out of the window there came falling gently as if it was
flowing down the rain out of the sky, the clear voice of Goldberry
singing up above them. They could hear few words, but it seemed plain
to them that the song was a rain-song, as sweet as showers on dry hills,
that told the tale of a river from the spring in the highlands to the Sea
far below. The hobbits listened with delight; and Frodo was glad
in his heart, and blessed the kindly weather, because it delayed them
from departing. The thought of going had been heavy upon him from
the moment he awoke; but he guessed now that they would not go further
that day...
"This is Goldberry's washing day," [Tom] said, 'and her autumn-cleaning.
Too wet for hobbit-folk - let them rest while they are able!
It's a good day for long tales, for questions and for answers,
so Tom will start the talking."
* FOG - Barrow Downs; Sept 28, 3018
{Barrow wights} >>Frodo & Co.<<
* SNOW - Redhorn Gate, Mt. Caradhras; Jan 11-12, 3019
{Saruman} >>the Nine Walkers<<
"Ah, it is as I said," growled Gimli. "It was no ordinary storm. It is
the ill will of Caradhras. He does not love Elves and Dwarves, and
that drift was laid to cut off our escape."
..."Enough, enough!" cried Gimli. "We are departing as quickly as we may!"
And indeed with that last stroke the malice of the mountain seemed
to be expended, as if Caradhras was satisfied that the invaders had been
beaten off and would not dare to return. The threat of snow lifted;
the clouds began to break and the light grew broader.
[PJ's version seems to imply that this one is Saruman's doing, but the PJV
isn't canon. However, Saruman could benefit by the next item as well.
As long as the Fellowship can be hemmed in and constrained to stay west
of the Misty Mountains they can't reach the sanctuary of Lorien and are
also vulnerable to detection by Sauruman's spies and attack by his Uruk-Hai.
Although Saruman has become subservient to Sauron (to whom he "reports"),
he wouldn't hesitate for an instant to betray his master if he could get
his hands on the Ruling Ring. And of course later on the rivalry between
the servants of Sauron and Saruman gives Merry and Pippin their chance
to escape, which leads directly to Saruman's downfall.]
* CLEAR, SUNNY SKIES - Hollin; Jan 13, 3019
{Saruman} >>the Nine Walkers<<
That day the weather changed again, almost as if it was at the command
of some power that had no longer any use for snow, since they had
retreated from the pass, a power that wished now to have a clear light
in which things that moved in the wild could be seen from far away.
* GLOOMY SKIES - Minas Tirith; March 10, 3019
{Sauron} >>Gondor<<
It was dark and dim all day. From the sunless dawn until evening
the heavy shadow had deepened, and all hearts in the City were oppressed.
Far above a great cloud streamed slowly westward from the Black Land,
devouring light, borne upon a wind of war; but below the air was still
and breathless, as if all the Vale of Anduin waited for the onset
of a ruinous storm.
It was the sunset-hour, but the great pall had now stretched
far into the West, and only as it sank at last into the Sea did
the Sun escape to send out a brief farewell gleam before the night...
But to the fields of the Pelennor, under the shadow of Mindolluin,
there came no gleam: they were brown and drear.
[Pippin] turned his tired gaze away from the darkling fields below and
yawned, and then he sighed.
'You are weary of this day?' said Beregond.
'Yes,' said Pippin, 'very... Indeed what is the good even of food and drink
under this creeping shadow? What does it mean? The very air seems thick and
brown! Do you often have such glooms when the wind is in the East?'
'Nay,' said Beregond, 'this is no weather of the world. This is some device
of his malice; some broil of fume from the Mountain of Fire that he sends
to darken hearts and counsel.'
* WIND - Anduin River upstream from Pelargir; March 15, 3019
{Aragorn & Co.} >>Sauron<<
' "It is forty leagues and two from Pelargir to the landings at
the Harlond," [Aragorn] said. "Yet to the Harlond we must come
tomorrow or fail utterly."
'The oars were now wielded by free men, and manfully they laboured;
yet slowly we passed up the Great River, for we strove against its stream,
and though that is not swift down in the South, we had no help of wind...
'But at midnight hope was indeed born anew. Sea-crafty men of the Ethir
gazing southward spoke of a change coming with a fresh wind from the Sea.
Long ere day the masted ships hoisted sail; and our speed grew, until dawn
whitened the foam at our prows. And so it was, as you know, that we came
in the third hour of the morning with a fair wind and the Sun unveiled,
and we unfurled the great standard in battle. It was a great day and
a great hour, whatever may come after.'
[This same wind was sensed by the Wild Men guiding the Rohirrim:]
Ghân-buri-Ghân squatted down and touched the earth with his horny brow
in token of farewell. Then he got up as if to depart. But suddenly
he stood looking up like some startled woodland animal snuffling
a strange air. A light came in his eyes.
'Wind is changing!' he cried, and with that, in a twinkling as it seemed,
he and his fellows had vanished into the glooms, never to be seen by
any Rider of Rohan again.
[If Sauron is powerful enough to "torture and destroy the very hills"
or cover the sky with gloom why couldn't he have prevented the wind
that brought his foes to the battle at the critical moment? Was there
some kind of shift in the balance of power between conflicting Forces
in the Unseen Realm?]
* WIND - Morannon; March 25, 3019
fulfilled his Quest.' And as the Captains gazed south to the Land
of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud,
there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned,
filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out
towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even
as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away,
and passed; and then a hush fell.
* WIND - Bag End; Oct 30, 3019
gathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire,
as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered,
looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away,
and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.
* EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD WEATHER - The Shire; SY 1420 (TA 3020)
{Shire hobbits}
Altogether 1420 in the Shire was a marvelous year. Not only was there
wonderful sunshine and delicious rain, in due times and perfect measure,
but there seemed something more: an air of richness and growth, and
a gleam of a beauty beyond that of mortal summers that flicker and
pass upon this Middle-earth.
* WIND - Grey Havens; Sept 29, 3021
{Elrond, Gandalf, Frodo & Elves}
Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard;
and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship
slipped away down the long grey firth...
----- Example from other fiction -----
* RAIN - Pago Pago, American Samoa; early 20th century after 1914
a heavy and relentless downpour seems to accompany (and deepen
the discomfort of being in the presence of) the Davidsons. They are
a missionary couple with puritanically oppressive zeal for which
the oppressive rain appears to be a metaphor.]
----- Real life example -----
* DRY WEATHER - Vancouver, Canada; early September, AD 2017
{Myself}
I live in a trailer with a leaky roof. (The British would call it
a "caravan".) Last year I put a flimsy tarp over the top which kept me
dry in spring and summer but wouldn't have stood up to the storm winds
of fall and winter.
So I bought a roll of 1.2mm EPDM roofing rubber and some tubes of black goo
to glue it down. This was in late August. Normally the autumn rains here
start right after that but last September the weather conveniently stayed dry
until mid-month; just enough time for me to install the new roof
covering without getting either myself or the already weakened (by dry rot)
wooden roof parts drenched.
Perhaps this was merely a lucky coincidence, but I prefer to believe that some
other friendly Power was at work.
--SPQ--
with an apparent agenda, willfully intervening on behalf of (or in
opposition to) a party to the conflict.
Usually weather is considered a powerful but mindless force of primal Nature.
However behind that there was perhaps something else at work. I can put it
no plainer than by saying that sometimes the weather was "meant" to behave
as conveniently (or awkwardly) for someone as it did.
By whom, and why, I'm not always sure. However, the party aided is not
necessarily the one responsible for the weather event, although this
occasionally seems true. I suppose only a Higher Order Being, a Maia at
the minimum can influence weather. Even Tom Bombadil, with all his
Earthly powers admitted, "I am no weather-master, nor is aught that goes
on two legs."
Anyway, here are some examples, where:
{name} = character(s) helped
name<< = character(s) hindered
* TURBULENT WIND - Trollshaws; a few days before Midsummer, Third Age 2941Thorin & Co.<<
They decided in the end that they would have to camp where theywere. So far they had not camped before on this journey, and ... it
seemed a bad wet evening to begin, on. They moved to a clump of trees,
and though it was drier under them, the wind shook the rain off the
leaves, and the drip, drip, was most annoying.
[So far just standard bellyaching about rain. But then here follows
the kind of thing I'm talking about. What other agency could have been
at work that evening, and why?]
Also the mischief seemed to have got into the fire. Dwarves can make a fire
almost anywhere out of almost anything, wind or no wind; but they could not
do it that night, not even Oin and Gloin, who were specially good at it.
* ATMOSPHERIC CONDITIONS ALLOW MOONLIGHT - Rivendell; Midsummer eve, 2941
{Thorin & Co.} >>Smaug<<
The moon was shining in a broad silver crescent. [Elrond] held up the map
and the white light shone through it. "What is this?" he said.
"There are moon-letters here..."
"What are moon-letters?" asked the hobbit full of excitement. He loved
maps, as I have told you before; and he also liked runes and letters
and cunning handwriting... [this all applies to me as well]
"Moon-letters are rune-letters, but you cannot see them," said Elrond,
"not when you look straight at them. They can only be seen when the moon
shines behind them, and what is more, with the more cunning sort it must
be a moon of the same shape and season as the day when they were
written. The dwarves invented them and wrote them with silver pens, as
your friends could tell you. These must have been written on a
midsummer's eve in a crescent moon, a long while ago."
"What do they say?" asked Gandalf and Thorin together...
"Stand by the grey stone when the thrush knocks," read Elrond,
"and the setting sun with the last light of Durin's Day will shine
upon the key-hole."
[All this makes for wondrously enchanted reading. However it wouldn't
have been all that feasible on a Midsummer evening of heavy rain or fog,
but "luckily", as news articles often say, "the weather co-operated."]
* EXTREME THUNDERSTORM - Misty Mountains; ~2 weeks after Midsummer, 2941
{goblins} >>Thorin & Co.<<
[The travelers take shelter in the entrance to a goblin cave.]
* A BREAK IN THE CLOUD COVER - Mt. Erebor; Durin's Day, 2941
{Thorin & Co.} >>Smaug<<
Soon [Bilbo] saw the orange ball of the sun sinking towards the level
of his eyes. He went to the opening and there pale and faint was
a thin new moon above the rim of Earth. At that very moment he heard
a sharp crack behind him. There on the grey stone in the grass was
an enormous thrush, nearly coal black, its pale yellow breast
freckled dark spots. Crack! It had caught a snail and was knocking
it on the stone. Crack! Crack!
... The sun sank lower and lower, and their hopes fell. It sank
into a belt of reddened cloud and disappeared. The dwarves groaned, but
still Bilbo stood almost without moving. The little moon was dipping
to the horizon. Evening was coming on. Then suddenly when their hope was
lowest a red ray of the sun escaped like a finger through a rent in the
cloud. A gleam of light came straight through the opening into the bay
and fell on the smooth rock-face. The old thrush, who had been watching
from a high perch with beady eyes and head cocked on one side, gave a
sudden trill. There was a loud attack. A flake of rock split from the
wall and fell. A hole appeared suddenly about three feet from the
ground. Quickly, trembling lest the chance should fade, the dwarves
rushed to the rock and pushed-in vain.
"The key! The key!" cried Bilbo. "Where is Thorin?"
Thorin hurried up.
"The key!" shouted Bilbo. "The key that went with the map! Try it now
while there is still time!"
Then Thorin stepped up and drew the key on its chain from round his
neck. He put it to the hole. It fitted and it turned! Snap! The gleam
went out, the sun sank, the moon was gone, and evening sprang into the sky.
[Isn't that totally awesome writing? From JRRT's masterly command of
the language I can see that scene vividly in my imagination alone without
any need for high-tech audio-visual gadgetry (or a screenwriter like
Ralph Bakshi or Guillermo del Toro to interpret it for me).]
* SUNSHINE - open field adjoining Bagshot Row; Party Day: Sept 22, 3001
{partygoing hobbits}
Then the weather clouded over. That was on Wednesday the eve of the Party.
Anxiety was intense. Then Thursday, September the 22nd, actually dawned.
The sun got up, the clouds vanished, flags were unfurled and the fun began.
* RAIN - Tom Bombadil's house; Sept 27, 3018
{Frodo & Co.}
As they looked out of the window there came falling gently as if it was
flowing down the rain out of the sky, the clear voice of Goldberry
singing up above them. They could hear few words, but it seemed plain
to them that the song was a rain-song, as sweet as showers on dry hills,
that told the tale of a river from the spring in the highlands to the Sea
far below. The hobbits listened with delight; and Frodo was glad
in his heart, and blessed the kindly weather, because it delayed them
from departing. The thought of going had been heavy upon him from
the moment he awoke; but he guessed now that they would not go further
that day...
"This is Goldberry's washing day," [Tom] said, 'and her autumn-cleaning.
Too wet for hobbit-folk - let them rest while they are able!
It's a good day for long tales, for questions and for answers,
so Tom will start the talking."
* FOG - Barrow Downs; Sept 28, 3018
{Barrow wights} >>Frodo & Co.<<
* SNOW - Redhorn Gate, Mt. Caradhras; Jan 11-12, 3019
{Saruman} >>the Nine Walkers<<
"Ah, it is as I said," growled Gimli. "It was no ordinary storm. It is
the ill will of Caradhras. He does not love Elves and Dwarves, and
that drift was laid to cut off our escape."
..."Enough, enough!" cried Gimli. "We are departing as quickly as we may!"
And indeed with that last stroke the malice of the mountain seemed
to be expended, as if Caradhras was satisfied that the invaders had been
beaten off and would not dare to return. The threat of snow lifted;
the clouds began to break and the light grew broader.
[PJ's version seems to imply that this one is Saruman's doing, but the PJV
isn't canon. However, Saruman could benefit by the next item as well.
As long as the Fellowship can be hemmed in and constrained to stay west
of the Misty Mountains they can't reach the sanctuary of Lorien and are
also vulnerable to detection by Sauruman's spies and attack by his Uruk-Hai.
Although Saruman has become subservient to Sauron (to whom he "reports"),
he wouldn't hesitate for an instant to betray his master if he could get
his hands on the Ruling Ring. And of course later on the rivalry between
the servants of Sauron and Saruman gives Merry and Pippin their chance
to escape, which leads directly to Saruman's downfall.]
* CLEAR, SUNNY SKIES - Hollin; Jan 13, 3019
{Saruman} >>the Nine Walkers<<
That day the weather changed again, almost as if it was at the command
of some power that had no longer any use for snow, since they had
retreated from the pass, a power that wished now to have a clear light
in which things that moved in the wild could be seen from far away.
* GLOOMY SKIES - Minas Tirith; March 10, 3019
{Sauron} >>Gondor<<
It was dark and dim all day. From the sunless dawn until evening
the heavy shadow had deepened, and all hearts in the City were oppressed.
Far above a great cloud streamed slowly westward from the Black Land,
devouring light, borne upon a wind of war; but below the air was still
and breathless, as if all the Vale of Anduin waited for the onset
of a ruinous storm.
It was the sunset-hour, but the great pall had now stretched
far into the West, and only as it sank at last into the Sea did
the Sun escape to send out a brief farewell gleam before the night...
But to the fields of the Pelennor, under the shadow of Mindolluin,
there came no gleam: they were brown and drear.
[Pippin] turned his tired gaze away from the darkling fields below and
yawned, and then he sighed.
'You are weary of this day?' said Beregond.
'Yes,' said Pippin, 'very... Indeed what is the good even of food and drink
under this creeping shadow? What does it mean? The very air seems thick and
brown! Do you often have such glooms when the wind is in the East?'
'Nay,' said Beregond, 'this is no weather of the world. This is some device
of his malice; some broil of fume from the Mountain of Fire that he sends
to darken hearts and counsel.'
* WIND - Anduin River upstream from Pelargir; March 15, 3019
{Aragorn & Co.} >>Sauron<<
' "It is forty leagues and two from Pelargir to the landings at
the Harlond," [Aragorn] said. "Yet to the Harlond we must come
tomorrow or fail utterly."
'The oars were now wielded by free men, and manfully they laboured;
yet slowly we passed up the Great River, for we strove against its stream,
and though that is not swift down in the South, we had no help of wind...
'But at midnight hope was indeed born anew. Sea-crafty men of the Ethir
gazing southward spoke of a change coming with a fresh wind from the Sea.
Long ere day the masted ships hoisted sail; and our speed grew, until dawn
whitened the foam at our prows. And so it was, as you know, that we came
in the third hour of the morning with a fair wind and the Sun unveiled,
and we unfurled the great standard in battle. It was a great day and
a great hour, whatever may come after.'
[This same wind was sensed by the Wild Men guiding the Rohirrim:]
Ghân-buri-Ghân squatted down and touched the earth with his horny brow
in token of farewell. Then he got up as if to depart. But suddenly
he stood looking up like some startled woodland animal snuffling
a strange air. A light came in his eyes.
'Wind is changing!' he cried, and with that, in a twinkling as it seemed,
he and his fellows had vanished into the glooms, never to be seen by
any Rider of Rohan again.
[If Sauron is powerful enough to "torture and destroy the very hills"
or cover the sky with gloom why couldn't he have prevented the wind
that brought his foes to the battle at the critical moment? Was there
some kind of shift in the balance of power between conflicting Forces
in the Unseen Realm?]
* WIND - Morannon; March 25, 3019
Sauron<<
'The realm of Sauron is ended!' said Gandalf. 'The Ring-bearer hasfulfilled his Quest.' And as the Captains gazed south to the Land
of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud,
there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned,
filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out
towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even
as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away,
and passed; and then a hush fell.
* WIND - Bag End; Oct 30, 3019
Saruman<<
To the dismay of those that stood by, about the body of Saruman a grey mistgathered, and rising slowly to a great height like smoke from a fire,
as a pale shrouded figure it loomed over the Hill. For a moment it wavered,
looking to the West; but out of the West came a cold wind, and it bent away,
and with a sigh dissolved into nothing.
* EXCEPTIONALLY GOOD WEATHER - The Shire; SY 1420 (TA 3020)
{Shire hobbits}
Altogether 1420 in the Shire was a marvelous year. Not only was there
wonderful sunshine and delicious rain, in due times and perfect measure,
but there seemed something more: an air of richness and growth, and
a gleam of a beauty beyond that of mortal summers that flicker and
pass upon this Middle-earth.
* WIND - Grey Havens; Sept 29, 3021
{Elrond, Gandalf, Frodo & Elves}
Then Frodo kissed Merry and Pippin, and last of all Sam, and went aboard;
and the sails were drawn up, and the wind blew, and slowly the ship
slipped away down the long grey firth...
----- Example from other fiction -----
* RAIN - Pago Pago, American Samoa; early 20th century after 1914
Everyone involved, including anyone reading it<<
[In this short story _Rain_ by Somerset Maugham, published 1921a heavy and relentless downpour seems to accompany (and deepen
the discomfort of being in the presence of) the Davidsons. They are
a missionary couple with puritanically oppressive zeal for which
the oppressive rain appears to be a metaphor.]
----- Real life example -----
* DRY WEATHER - Vancouver, Canada; early September, AD 2017
{Myself}
I live in a trailer with a leaky roof. (The British would call it
a "caravan".) Last year I put a flimsy tarp over the top which kept me
dry in spring and summer but wouldn't have stood up to the storm winds
of fall and winter.
So I bought a roll of 1.2mm EPDM roofing rubber and some tubes of black goo
to glue it down. This was in late August. Normally the autumn rains here
start right after that but last September the weather conveniently stayed dry
until mid-month; just enough time for me to install the new roof
covering without getting either myself or the already weakened (by dry rot)
wooden roof parts drenched.
Perhaps this was merely a lucky coincidence, but I prefer to believe that some
other friendly Power was at work.
--SPQ--