Rains and snarky skies

Out back skies from the west

The skies are ominous, that is the way we describe the darkness in the dayllight.  Storms approach from the west and all day we will and have had thunder storms, which are better than the tornado warnings to the north and east.  It is a day to hang around close to home with flash flood warnings.  

Daily I do a yard patrol and pick up debris  tree twigs, branches, leaves, etc. mostly from our very might Maple in the back. Being a conscientious good person,  I even pick up what it drops  onto the neighbor's yard. I doubt she even knows I do this because she has never said a  thank you nor mentioned it.  I wish the ones who live the other side of us would retrieve the debris from their multitude of trees that always blows over here, but there is no possibility of that because they do not even collect their leaves in the fall.  So when I can I toss their branches across onto their lawns.  They are oblivious and just mow over them.  In some ways it must be nice to be so carefree, but I was raised to be tidy and to keep things up, maybe too much, but at this age I will not be able to change my ways and preference for neatness.  Perhaps it is a compulsion but I despise clutter and disarray.  

Looking up through the red maple tree

So as Mother Nature sends storms and prunes I pick up .  Whenever I lament the ash trees that gave us so much shade out back until we had to have them removed two years ago, I remember how much more debris they scattered in the storms and so today maybe it is a good thing they are gone, ravaged by the emerald ash borer and so cut down and taken out .   Just yesterday Facebook showed a picture of Jerry at the back garage door and there was one of the big ash trees.  That is another thing I enjoy  about FB, the memories it provides. But I started to write about our thunderstormy day. 

Last ash soon to go 2017

Preparing to take them down. 2017

 

Front of our home on this dreary day

Japanese Beetle in Apple Jack Rose

But we can weather these storms, water for the grounds although we have more rainfall than adequate already.  And perhaps this weather will discourage those nasty Japanese beetles that have returned, the scourge of the East and Midwest gardens. I spray with copious does of Sevin and that helps.  The stragglers are hand scooted into  what I call my Death Jar, a jar I keep in the garden, covered and  half filled with water with Dawn soap.  They go in there for a swim and that is the last of them.  So far keeping ahead of them, but this is supposed to be a bumper crop year.  I heard on a radio  gardening show  that the larvae thrived over the severe winter, one would think just the opposite but apparently they did not get enough deep freeze to do them in.    

We celebrated good medical news yesterday, well all week was hell week with all mine and Jerry's medical appointments.  My follow up cardiologist appointment went well, all good to go for another year although Dr Myers agreed with me, this extra 6 pounds I accumulated over  late winter has got to go, as he said, "you are a small person and cannot carry extra weight."  Don't I know it.  Besides, I  do not want to expand and outgrow my clothes.  So watching my fat grams again, which curtails my nightly enjoyment of ice cream.  But all for the good.   Jerry's oncologist appointment to discuss his 3 month follow up blood tests and CT scan went well, although we knew the good news ahead as Mayo gives us access to all our tests, medical notes, etc online.  I look at all this online so we knew his tests were good, no cancer signs.  Hooray!  Also his heart tests show improvement in the pumping function which had some concern earlier in the month.  His pulmonary rehab appointments  are over but he is back to exercising at home, working out in his own private  gym with treadmill, weights, slant board for crunches, he monitors his oxygen level and watches that carefully.  But his  muscular strength is returning and now if he can wean off  or decrease the supplemental oxygen will be good.  Would have gone out for dinner last night to celebrate but the weather was too hot, heat index almost 100, so I opted for a  boiled but then cold shrimp dinner at home,  mac salad, tomatoes, fruit, melons and fresh bread.  

Good news to end the week.  Tonite will be a tenderloin filet at home, using the convection oven and probe.  And fresh asparagus, locally grown.  We eat well, no cheap cuts in this kitchen!

After the storm

Call me  strange but I have always loved a big howling storm; something about the thunder and lightning and sheets of  rain coming down so that you cannot see through; an experience that involves all the senses.  When I was a kid I always wanted to  be out in the rain but was always pulled back inside and cautioned to stay away from those windows.  Our home in PA had a big front porch so I liked to sit out there but if it lightninged Mom made me go inside.  I guess a howler is not so frightening from the inside of a secure home.

Well last night here we had a humdinger of a storm right on the  edge of tornadoes.  No I don't want or need to experience a tornado because sometimes I think I have  or am already living in the land of Oz like Dorothy when it blew her from Kansas. Where oh where are my ruby red slippers, I've already encountered flying monkeys.   But today the skies are bright blue and clear and all around town there are trucks pulling small trailers filled with limbs heading for the disposal where everything will be crunched into free mulch for those who want it.  Here is one man at it on Oak Street, taken through my SUV windshield.

We were very fortunate here as only limbs and leaves came down, like this one in the back yard, nothing very significant. We were protected and are thankful.   Oh one of my angels who normally sits on the back rail flew into the yard but this morning I picked her up, whole and ready to sit guard again, although she needs a good cleansing and a patch to her broken toenail;  come to think about it, the wind whipped right  past our back yard so she did her rightful duty if you can believe such  things.  Even our dinky plastic chairs stayed in place, odd because so many others had overturned things, broken, etc.  The oriole feeder was still in place and the black and orange are right back at eating jelly today. Just lots of clean up, not what we'd planned today but you know the old saying, we plan and God laughs. 

Just two blocks over, a friend was not so lucky as their front tree came down into their yard, still it could have been worse as it was in other parts of town. This  one did not hit their home nor their carport. 

 Right across the street their neighbors left tree limbs in the drive and went to work, it will wait.   

At the Shepardson's (Jerry's cousin & Kathleen,friend) another big old Oak will be gone; seems they keep getting hit by the storm. If I didn't know better I would say that someone in the Great Beyond is out to get them, because this is the  second storm where they have lost trees, limbs, major damage with close calls. 

On my way up town to capture some photos of Main Street and the clean up I swung into Milo and Kathleen's and that 'hood really got it.  Still fortunate though because it is in the back yard and hit no part of the house.   They will have to employ more  tree removal service again soon though.  Here's Kathleen among the limbs of a used to be grand oak.  

That street is going to have to be renamed from Oak Terraces.  All the 100 &  200 year old oak trees are being storm wreaked and coming down.  The birds will miss the trees and the residents will miss all the shade.  Fortunately even this approach to the front which got it in the previous storm had no damage to the home. But there is no entering their driveway now until the debris is cleared.   And two doors down from them   an old tree crashed onto part of the home and   destroyed the vehicle in the driveway. 

Below is the used to be grand old oak in their back yard that came  apart  in last night's storm. You saw part of the limbs where Kathleen was in their midst.

There were some kids out looking around this morning too and one little boy was so obliging to have his photo taken in the stump of this gorgeous hemlock that was uprooted on Main Street.  His friends were more shy but he was proud and full of giggles. 

All around town it's the same story today.  How can the sun shine so bright after so much darkness?  That's life exemplified.  All we can do is get back up the next day and start clearing out the debris.