Hurricane Earl was not so much in our area….some wind…..some rain….we were lucky.
I came home from work this afternoon and put my garden flag back up….
….and hung my wind chimes back where they belonged….
….refilled the bird baths I had emptied and put away last night….
….rehung the feeders filled with seeds for the birds….
….took photographs of my morning glories….
….and some unexpected fall roses….
….return to normal….
~ until the next time.
I took this outside my office in Williamsburg around 2:00 today….
….we were beginning to see some of the first bands of clouds this morning around sunrise.
Five o’clock today looking west.
Six o’clock looking east……he will be passing by us off shore.
Tropical storm warnings….maybe I will sleep through it.
An update ~ for those of you who don’t check the Weather Channel every hour on the hour after hearing the words “hurricane in the Atlantic moving west” 
…Hurricane Earl is still a powerful Category 4 hurricane headed towards the United States. Everyone keeps saying it is going to turn….the sooner the better please. I’m hopeful…but then ~
Image Credit ~ The Weather Channel
This is the worst case scenario….passing right over the Outer Banks. They have issued a hurricane watch for most of the North Carolina coast. Interests in Virginia and north to New England have been advised to monitor Earl. The best case scenario has it at a more desirable distance……
Image Credit ~ The Weather Channel
It is still a long ways off…..there is time for that turn. But just in case…..
I bought some water. I will keep my eye on the tracking and if it continues on the worst case scenario path, I will get some more things tomorrow. I know some people were going home this evening to look at what they will need to secure. It may seem a little early to begin to plan….but you got to have a plan when it comes to hurricanes.
I got the water while I was at Costco getting new tires. Yes….new tires. I had quite a surprise when I got to work this morning. While driving in…on the interstate…I heard this clunking kind of sound and looked in the rear view to see something black rolling around in the road as I thought “what the hell was that?”. Nothing seemed wrong with the car or the way it handled…..and I noticed there were pieces of tire or tread on the highway so I assumed I had run over a piece. I thought about pulling over to have a look see, but decided everything was alright and went on in to the office. I took my lunch and things in and went back out to check the tire….my supervisor came with me. This is what I saw….(I went back and got my camera, I didn’t have it at first glance)
My tire came apart! While I was driving down the interstate! How scary is that?!? Well….not as scary as when I looked at the other three tires and saw a similar crack all around each one ~ in other words, the remaining three were getting ready to join this one and fall to pieces exactly the same way. The piece of something I saw in my rear view mirror…my tire. I couldn’t believe it….there was no way I could ride home on this tire. And then the best thing happened ~ my manager changed my tire for me. Out there in the heat, in the parking lot ~ he changed my tire for me. He got hot, he got dirty ~ fortunately he was in jeans ~ and he didn’t even complain. A full sized spare, not an easy chore. I am beyond grateful. I’m nominating him for the best manager ever.
These tires were old, original tires on the Jeep. I would look at them to be sure they were inflated, but I never “really looked” close enough to see the crack forming around the outside of the tire. I only noticed them after this…..and then they were glaringly obvious. How long had they been there? I have to believe these have just come about in the last couple of weeks or so. It makes my heart skip a beat to think what if this had happened when I was traveling. Check your tires closely folks…..especially if they have a lot of miles and some age on them!
…..my wind chimes singing to me on a windy day.
….spring mornings.
….sunsets ~ always, any time of the year.
….the first snowfall.
Outside My Window…is a sunshine, blue skies with a few white puffy clouds. The temperature at 10:45 is 82ºF with about 60% humidity. It feels pretty warm when you walk outside. Forecast today is for the upper 80′s with no rain. That seems to have been the mantra for most of our summer…..no rain. We have managed to squeeze a few drops here and there to keep things from completely dying….but the ground is quite dusty and could use a few days of water. But…..be careful what you wish for this time of year because we are heading into the heart of the tropical and hurricane season right now and there are some storms a-brewin’ in the Atlantic. Hurricane Danielle missed the States completely by staying well off shore to our east. I understand we are in the area of the greatest risk for large waves and rip currents from that storm, but no other issues for us here. Hurricane Earl could be another story. The projected path is showing him staying off coast at the moment, but because it is at least five days away, that is subject to change. I did notice that on the projected path map it noted that Earl, right now a Category 1 storm, would be a Category 3 storm with winds at 120 mph when it is off our coast. For those of you unfamiliar with hurricane categories….an example of a Category 3 storm is Katrina, a storm that made landfall in southern Louisiana 5 years ago with winds of 125 mph. It destroyed the gulf coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. Hopefully Earl will stay well off the coast. I will be tuning in frequently to The Weather Channel this coming week.
I am thinking…about how fast this past summer seemed to go by. I have to admit, as hot as it has been ~ I’m a bit grateful it did go by quickly. I couldn’t have stood a slow summer and baking like we were. I had hoped to do several things during the summer and have not been able to. I guess it is a cautionary tale for putting things off…..wait too long and time will have passed you by before you know it. One thing I have wanted to do was take the ferry from Jamestown to Surry and back. Nothing extraordinary….just something I wanted to do. I kept putting it off because it was so hot when I could go….it may be a better adventure for the fall.
From the kitchen…is my cup of French Vanilla coffee at the moment. I’m craving something delicious, but I don’t know what it is….I just know I want it to be delicious.
I am creating…a mess in my room. I was looking for something the other day and couldn’t find it……and that started me cleaning out one cabinet of things I haven’t used in forever….which lead to another…..then another…..then the linen closet. You see where this is going don’t you? I have everything torn up as I resume my quest to eliminate clutter and non-essentials from my life. For the life of me I can’t figure out why I have hung on to some of this stuff for so long!?!? Of course I realize as soon as I throw or give some of this stuff away, I will have a need for it ~ but I’m not even thinking about that and fighting my OCD urge to keep it “just in case”. I think if I’m finding stuff I didn’t even realize I had in the cabinet….I don’t really need it. I think I have a fear of becoming one of those people I have seen on the show “Hoarders”. I have only seen it once or twice but has anyone seen that program? Just amazing ~ and disturbing ~ homes where there is rotten food everywhere….critters running through your house of garbage….no place to sit, eat or sleep….Hello!! ~ it is time to through some stuff away folks!!
I am going…to finish this little cleaning project before the television crews show up ~ just kidding…not even close to camera crews being interested in my place. I am going to finish up my room and move on to other projects I have rambling around in my head.
I am hoping…that Hurricane Earl stays far, far away from our coast.
I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks…..the drying tumbling clothes dry…..an otherwise quiet house.
Around the house…a bedroom in shambles….a few dishes in the kitchen that need to be washed….some clothes hanging outside to dry.
Plans for the week include…finally seeing the light at the end of the paperwork tunnel at work ~ I’m never really caught up because the nature of my job means a constant flow of work, but there is a point when I can actually see my desk and I’m almost there. As far as home life goes….starting to work on a few more journals I do believe. I also need to figure out if I can repair my sliding glass door….I think it needs adjusting because it seems to be lower on one side than the other. Now the trick is to see if I can figure out how to do this ~ I will let you know if I succeed.
One of my favorite things…is sitting quietly in my backyard and enjoying the sounds and sights. I did just that yesterday for about 30 minutes…..just sat quietly, me and my camera. I have discovered some very little birds are quite brave when there is fresh seed in the feeder. I also noticed another hummingbird…and felt a bit sad for the fact that I couldn’t have a feeder out there for him/her to enjoy. Who knows, maybe I will try again next year with a feeder. I have been reading about hummingbird gardens so I will also try planting some of their favorite flowers. I took some photos of my visitors yesterday and will post soon…need to find the time to sit down and process the images.
A picture I’d like to share with you…remember the blooming morning glories from the section I cut off ~ they are still blooming. I’m not even kidding….
This is the first summer I have had the opportunity to get so many images of butterflies….and another presented itself to me one afternoon on a blooming zinnia in my garden….
While visiting my parents earlier this month, I was able to take a few photos of some visitors to the house. I wanted to share them with you today…..
Baby blue birds in the house…..my father carefully opened the house so we could see if they had left the nest. We were pleasantly surprised to see the birds still in residence. They kept so very still while we were there ~ except the little guy in front did flinch a bit when I took this photo.
Of course, there were hummingbirds…..
There were butterflies visiting the butterfly bushes…..
….and our friend the Polyphemus Moth….it was brand new….
This little green guy…..each morning as we ate, I watched him walk across the railing past the kitchen window. On this particular morning, I ran to get the camera….determined to get a photo. Well, he must have been really moving because by the time I got the camera and got outside, he was up on the gutters. Not my best shot because I’m shooting towards a grey sky. Perhaps a better one the next time we visit.
I love these purple flowers that grow within the green, leafy border in my flower beds.
I have been going through the many, many photos I took while visiting my parents in Catawba, South Carolina. Many of those photos were of the hummingbirds that visit their feeders. I’m not talking about one or two birds……there were occasions when there would be as many as 15 to 20 birds competing for the four feeders at the same time. It was hysterical watching them…..they did have a way to make you laugh, especially when they took away the feeders for cleaning and refilling. Some of them were quite brave and would buzz close and take a look at us on the porch watching them….others were quite shy.
It is taking a bit longer to sort through and process the images but I do have a couple I wanted to share. Maybe not a million dollar shot ~ but I was pretty happy with them.
…and attached to the plant too!
