After the storm

Although Hurricane Sandy went directly over our heads, we had absolutely no damage where I live in Maryland. I was really surprised that the power stayed on throughout the ordeal – despite some flickering of the lights throughout the evening. The noise from the wind was at times like a train but only if I opened the front door to hear it. These old walls are so thick, and they made me feel safe.

I stayed up late watching what I could of storm coverage, watching as power was cut to millions, and flooding along the coast was at historic proportions. My heart is breaking for the people who have sustained so much damage. I still haven’t heard from our son in NYC and he actually called us yesterday to make sure we were doing alright. I’m sure he’s fine, that his phone probably lost its charge, and I know he’s not in one of the evacuation zones in the city so I am sure he must be fine.

 

I took a small walk this morning in the rain.

 

Lots of leaves down but no trees, thank heavens.

 

I headed down the driveway.

 

And was surprised to see the big feather still stuck in the old gate there.

 

I can’t believe the wind didn’t rip this out. I think it was me that put this here back in the early Spring.

 

I decided to head back up to the house for one more cup of coffee. My husband put on another small pot for us when he heard I was going for a walk.

 

And then I see something moving from around the house. It’s George who’s coming to greet me.

 

He’s quite excited because someone is outside and may want to play stick with him. Here he is getting the biggest one he can find.

 

Hardly any leaves left on the dogwood out back, and the raindrops glitter like diamonds on the bare branches.

 

This is a combination of two photos taken while standing at my back porch.

I can hear traffic below, and things sound like they’re coming back to normal. School is closed today but I expect it will re-open tomorrow. No plans other than maybe doing a little knitting and some reading. And hey, maybe even some stick throwing with George.

My husband is glad to have me home. And there’s still some pie left ~

So how are things in your neck of the woods?

Vignette #2

The wind has been picking up quite a bit just in the past hour. I’ve heard on the news that over 22,000 homes are without power in Maryland and for the first time in memory, the bridge on I-95 that traverses the Susquehanna River, the Tydings Bridge, is going to be shut down. The worst of the storm is supposed to happen around 6 tonight when it slams into the coast just south of Atlantic City and then makes its way directly over our heads. I’ve heard different landfall prediction times. And it’s at high tide with a full moon. Geez Louise.

I am comforted by the fact that I’m in a house that has been weathering storms since 1769, some of which had to have been pretty darn bad. Our walls are thick and I can’t hear the full force of it until I step outside which I did just now while taking that last photo and nearly got blown over as a big gust came through the very moment I got out there.

I spent a good part of today in the kitchen.





For those new to this blog, the pink countertops came with the house. We've been here four years and I’m almost used to them.

I made a homemade egg mcmuffin for brunch today, heating up some of the bacon I cooked earlier.

Snarf. (I love these).

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Made some chicken salad with the leftovers from last night’s dinner, followed by an apple pie. Along with the usual storm preparedness, I had made sure to have the right apples in the house ~ my favorite, Stayman Winesap.

I have the recipe {here} if you’re into this sort of thing.

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Then I got really industrious and made some Ghirardelli chocolate chip cookies with pecan chunks.
You know, just in case.

I took the shot below standing on the little back porch.

The hurricane is picking up strength and speed as it heads our way. And I’ve noticed the lights beginning to dim and then quickly coming back to full strength. That doesn’t bode well for the power ~

The worst is supposed to come tonight. Things are always more scary in the dark, aren’t they? I’m just glad my husband is still here with me.

Keeping the fires burning here in Maryland ~

How are things in your neck of the woods?

Vignette #1

Well, it’s not really a true vignette . . .

I may be posting from time to time over the next couple of days as we hunker down in the path of this hurricane. We’ve been feeling the effects of Hurricane Sandy since yesterday morning when the wind picked up and it began to rain. It rained steadily through the night and continues to do so. If you don’t hear from me, it’s because we’ve lost power. The governor of Maryland has told us to stay inside our homes for the next 36 to 48 hours. Here on the hill, things are ok so far but the worst will come late today and into tonight as this unusually large hurricane turns from a tropical storm into a nor’easter.

We’ve been losing satellite every now and then and the pump in the basement has been going on fairly regularly. But other than that and the constant coverage on the tv, it has been quiet in this old house. These walls are thick. And I love this place.

 

Looking out the living room window when I woke up this morning. I slept til 8:45 because it was darker than normal. I still have my pj’s on and it’s nearly 11 am. Gah!

 

Taken from the front porch as the rain came down.

 

 

I shot this out of the kitchen window just now as I was frying bacon on the stove. Our son called from NYC to tell us that the architecture firm where he works is closed for at least today because the transit system is shut down in the city. I heard on the news that the NY Stock Exchange has shut down as well. It’s the first time since Hurricane Gloria in 1985 that the Stock Exchange has closed due to a weather-related incident.

 

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I took the photos below yesterday before it really started raining.

 

 

 

I love seeing the morning glories here.

For dinner last night, I roasted a chicken and some vegetables and the whole house smelled glorious. Today, I’ll make chicken salad and probably an apple pie while we still have power. We have several gallon jugs full of frozen water in the freezer and will use them to keep the freezer and frig cool when we lose power. And I fully expect for this to happen although it will be a pleasant surprise if we keep power.

 

And I made brownies for dessert.

 

 

I took this sweet shot of Miss Blackie at the back door yesterday. We’d been outside moving things in, and she began her usual begging at the door to be let in. Then you let her in and she wants out again. She likes this game.

To those of you who live along the coast in the path of this storm, I wish you well. Keep safe, my friends.

I’ll check in from time to time, as long as I can ~

All quiet on the Eastern front

For the past several days, we’ve been getting dire warnings about the impending storm that’s coming our way. We’ve had some severe weather in the past, and this hurricane could really be something big, something unique.

I think we’re prepared, and there’s just some odds and ends I have to go out for tomorrow that I neglected to do today. But one thing I did accomplish today is to take some images of the property before most of the leaves are gone.

These were all taken with my 60mm macro lens and edited with Florabella actions and some assorted textures, most of which came from Jerry Jones at Shadowhouse Creations.

 

I spent part of the day taking pictures and editing them, rather than cleaning.

 

 

I look at my images, and ask myself if I would rather have a clean house.

Or look at these lovely images.

And the answer is that I would rather have a cleaning person.

 

 

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.

The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go, not one lasts.

~ Carl Sandburg, 1918

 

 

 

falling leaves

hide the path

so quietly

~John Bailey

 

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one autumnal face.
~John Donne

 

 

 

 

I love that this has looked pretty much the same since 1810.

 

 

The clouds rolled in overnight, and it was fairly quiet early this morning when I left to get the new car serviced for its first oil change. I can’t believe it already has over 3,900 miles on it and is only two months old.

I wish our mail was delivered to the box you see in the photo above. They stopped doing that years ago when the people who lived here passed away.  But I like seeing the mailbox there.

 

I figured today might be my last chance to get any autumn color. Tomorrow the winds are supposed to pick up a little, and it’s difficult using a macro lens on leaves that are blowing, you know.

 

A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.

~Hal Borland

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I hope that if you live in the States and you’re in the path of this hurricane, that you’ll be safe. I’ll keep you posted from this end – here at the head of the Chesapeake Bay.

Hope you enjoyed my images today ~

Until later, my friends . . .

 

Early Friday morning

It’s early morning and still dark and for some reason, I’m dressed and completely ready to go off to work having done so on auto-pilot because I woke up late and just kept moving. My husband has just told me that I looked more awake in my robe and slippers than I do now in my dress up work clothes.

Thanks, Honey.

So maybe another cup of coffee will wake me up, and maybe writing this quick post will help. I’ve only had these photos set up to write something for the past three days and every time I came here to Live Writer, I could think of nothing to say.

 

And I love this photo.

I do have a beautiful dog, and he’s a good soul (if not a little neurotic at times). And his coloring against the old oriental rug in the entrance foyer, is just perfect.

 

 

And it matches the mums I have in the planters on the little back porch.

 

 

* sigh *

 

 

Miss Blackie needs to get in the picture. She does this a lot.

And speaking of kitties . . .

 

 

What the what?

Cat Bounce

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Hope you enjoy your weekend . . . wherever you are and wherever you roam ~

{thanks for stopping by}

Autumn images from my phone

Oh, how I love autumn. We’ve been having a full blown Indian Summer here in northern Maryland, and the trees are in full color at the moment. I’ve taken several photos lately using only my camera phone, and have some to share with you today.

Many of them were taken from the window of my car as I drove along the driveway.

This one was taken yesterday, coming home from work.

Our driveway is a third of a mile long, and much of it runs through a wooded area.

I shot this one right through the windshield.

Color!

Does anyone remember watching Disney on Sunday nights when you were young? I am really showing my age here, but some of you may remember Tinker Bell with her magic wand, changing the black & white screen to “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color”. Prior to this, we watched TV in black & white.

I found this to prove it ~

That was almost 50 years ago!

Back to the photos.

Taken last week, heading down the driveway to work in the morning.

One thing I love about this lane it is the sense of timelessness that pervades.

It probably looked like this in the past.

Coming home, almost at the top of the hill where I make the right hand turn into our lane.

This is my favorite part about going to Johns Hopkins: Coming out of the parking garage onto Broadway on a sunny morning. It’s dark when we arrive, but when my husband’s treatment is finished, the sun is coming up and I don’t even care that it will be in my eyes part of the way home. It’s beautiful.

And tomorrow (Wednesday) is the last day of radiation treatment for my husband. I won’t miss the long drive there and back. Let’s just pray it worked. We’ll find out next month.





Just so you know, these pictures didn't come straight out of the camera phone. I messed about in Photoshop with them a little and added some frames to many of them. But they are originally camera phone images.

I hope your week is going well. Thanks for stopping by today.