Irene and the mess she left behind

Irene made her way north, leaving us with 5.25 inches of rain and a big mess.   Though we have many big and small limbs down and some other minor damage, others around us were not so fortunate.  There are many downed trees around us, including two just next door.

Only one of the trees is visible in this photo taken from my 2nd floor balcony.

Here  you can see both trees across the road.

There was another large pine down at the other end of the street, and numerous hardwoods and other trees down in my neighborhood and all over town.  

For more photos see our local newspaper photo gallery.

We are thankful that Irene weakened before she arrived.  I can imagine how devastating it would have been had she made landfall as a category 2 or 3 storm as originally predicted.  Having been through two major hurricanes before - Fran and Floyd - after which we were without power for 10 days or more, we know that it could have been much, much worse.  But for those who have trees on their houses or whose property is flooded, it doesn't matter - this is devastating, and my heart goes out to them.
In my garden there's a lot of cleaning up to do.

These are dead ivy vines that had continued to cling to the pine.

Notice the trellis?

Uprooted sassafrass

But here's the good news - the caterpillars were still on the parsley (what's left of it, anyway)!

And I saw three butterflies today - I was only able to capture this with with the camera, but it made me happy.

Spending the day with Irene

Irene has been hanging around all day, and amazingly I've only been without power for a few hours. The wind has been gusting in the 60 mph range and the rain has been relentless.  Tomorrow, when the sun is shining, I'll go out to access the damage and begin cleaning up the debris.  Right now I'm counting my blessings, happy to have power and no trees down in my yard or on my house.
I have a group of resident birds who frequent a feeder that hangs from my side porch.  I love watching them from my kitchen window.  Last night I had to put the bird feeders away because of the anticipated wind and this morning the birds were confused.  They'd fly to the porch from their perches in  the nearby chestnut oak, expecting to find the feeder.  Their eyesight must not be very good, for they only realized that it wasn't there when they reached where it normally hangs.  Then they'd fly a u-turn, back to the tree.  I watched this over and over again and decided I had to do something.  First I put a plate of seed out on the floor of the porch, but it was quickly floating in water.  Then I put the seed in a colander, only to realize that the birds would have difficulty getting to it.  So I took a grill skillet, turned it upside down, and put seed on it.  The birds were happy.  They lingered on the porch, where they were somewhat protected from the rain.  And the skillet was heavy enough and low enough not to blow away.

This morning, when the wind wasn't quite as strong as it has been this afternoon, I took some video from the door of my second floor balcony.  Watching these tall trees sway is pretty mesmerizing. (click the photo and the video will load.)

Though Irene will be saying good-bye to me later tonight, she'll be traveling up the coast, placing others and their property in great danger.  I pray for safety for all of those in her path.

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.