The Sun is Out!

Glory be, the sun is out!  Just as I had hoped for, after the long, dark, windy, voice, fear filled night that was Hurricane Irene passing though here; the day after is a whole new day.  I know, a long sentence but you get the idea of what I'm trying to say.

What a wonderful feeling to feel the warmth of the sun's rays after last night.  I can hear the vehicles steaming again down Route 1 to Lewes, Rehoboth Beach, Bethany Beach, and Ocean City, Maryland.  Now that is a sound I am glad to hear again, life getting back to normal here on the Delmarva peninsula.

In fact, I am so enthused I'm going to go outside right now and do some yard work!

A Drive Through Our Neighborhood After Irene

This is a video of Bill and I driving through our neighborhood the morning after Hurricane Irene slammed into us last night.  There wasn't too much damage.

We took a drive to the town of Milton (which I may have already posted about) to check our friend's house.  It was still standing intact.

We saw some big trees down at one house but the owner was outside walking around with a coffee cup assessing the damage and I didn't have the guts heart to take a picture of his new involuntary landscaping project.

More video to come (now that I know how to upload videos directly to my You Tube account).

Hungry Hummingbirds

All is well here now.  Thank goodness!  Bill and I took a ride around our development as well as the development next to us.  Some major tree damage but otherwise we basically dodged a big one.  I didn't even have any roof shingles blow off like I did this past spring during a heavy windstorm.

The windy remnants of Irene are still here, breaking up my too big knock-out rose bushes outside my sunroom windows.  They needed trimmed back anyway.

Bill and I ventured out of our development (no, we didn't seek the permission of the AUTHORITIES - hear that Wayne?) and took a drive to the town of Milton to inspect our friend Bob C.'s house to make sure there was no damage (there wasn't).  We saw his neighbor M.J.  She smiled and waved at us.  Life is getting back to normal.

The video posted is of our hungry hummingbirds.  Irene totally messed up their food source which is plentiful around the house.  I make sure I plant a lot of flowers that are humming bird friendly and they know it.  They come back here every summer to lay their eggs and raise their little ones, all the while feeding off of our salvia and impatience plants.  Irene's tropical downpour has temporarily cut off that food source for our diminutive avian friends.  That's all right, we have plenty of humming bird nectar to supplement their natural food source.

The sun is out but the winds are still blowing, with gusts up to thirty mph.  Life is slowly getting back to normal.

Does it feel like a Sunday to you?  It doesn't to me either.

Preparing for Irene

Just got a call from my neighbor Barb.  She said that Ocean City, MD turned off their water treatment plant.  You know what that means, fill up the bathtubs!  I don't want to be stuck not being able to flush the toilet.

The rain has been coming down for about five hours now.  I just got up from my afternoon nap (a very nice nap by the way with the rain falling outside).  We're expecting the full brunt of Irene in about eight hour or 2 a.m. this morning.  I wonder if I'll be able to sleep tonight as well as I did this afternoon.

We have a lot of water outside but I've seen worse during several nor'easters that have blown through here since we moved here in November of 2006.  The wind is buffeting the side of the house now.  If I told you I wasn't afraid I would be lying.  This is NO FUN, believe me.  Thank God I haven't heard anything more about a tornado for our area.

Waiting for Irene

We await Irene.  The weather today is deceptively calm. I guess you could really say this is "the calm before the storm."

I took this video a few hours ago to show what my lovely impatiens look like.  This flowers will be no more after Irene arrives.

I just heard on the news that Mayor Bloomberg ordered a mandatory evacuation of all lower areas of New York City.  Delaware governor Markel has ordered mandatory evacuation of all areas of coastal Delaware. Guess what folks?  That's where we live.  We're staying here.  Bill says if it gets too bad we can always get in our car for protection.

Bill and I dragged the generator from our shed, down through our grass to the garage.  Bill revved it up.  It's working. We'll have enough backup power to keep our refrigerators and freezers going.  That's all we need. It would be nice if we don't lose power but I fully expect to lose power.

I'll keep blogging until we lose power.