Waiting for Irene

I had planned to post a Skywatch Friday post this week, using some of the photos I shot at the beach over the weekend - the glorious morning sky over the water.  But I'll hold on to those because a hurricane is bearing down on us here.

That's us there near 2 p.m. on Saturday, on the western edge of the circle.  The governor has declared that we're in a state of emergency.
We've been through two devastating hurricanes - Fran and Floyd - and we know what hurricanes can do - but no one really knows what to expect, just what to prepare for.
Realizing that the heavy rain and wind would beat down any blooms in my garden, I went out this afternoon and cut some to bring inside - zinnias and roses, some salvia, a few marigold blooms.
And this morning I took a few random photos.

Morning Light in the front of the house

zinnias

Luna Blush Hibiscus

Luna Blush Hibiscus 

I'll take more photos after the storm and hope that the only difference will be debris on the ground. If we're lucky we'll be counting our blessings that all of the tall pines around our house stood strong.  When the previous two hurricanes came through, we lived in another neighborhood - one in which the streets were lined with tall massive willow oaks.  Many of those oaks fell on houses and across streets.  In our current neighborhood there are tall pines - trees that can snap and slice right through a house if the wind is strong enough.  We pray that won't happen with this storm.  We expect power outages - we were without power for a week to 10 days before, and we're prepared for that to happen again.
We're going to "batten down the hatches" - bring in the bird feeders, take down the hanging baskets, store the deck furniture - and pray.