Ernesto, the Pesto

Hallo!

We've been having a break from the 21st century. For nearly a week we've enjoyed campstove & campfire cooking, lovely oil lamp lighting, and beautiful sunsets as we sat chatting with one another until the mosquitos drove us into our shelter ...our darkened house... sans power.

Our impromptu camping experience was courtesy of Ernesto, a tropical storm with unusually powerful winds in it. The forecasters expected it to weaken much sooner, but its feeder bands kept it at near hurricane one strength for at least 12 hours after making landfall. They say Ernesto was only 60-70 miles in hour (sustained) but its gusts bent over many trees in the forest in which we live...to the breaking point. Several landed on lines, though nothing - not even blown debris- landed in our yard.


As the gales blew by, we remained in a gentle, swirling eddy of air (marked by the flying leaves). It just about looked like an invisible angel was flying circles round us - or like a protective forcefield had been set. For this we have properly thanked God, as our neighbors were not so blessed this time and are still clearing up. Several families in the area lost more than possessions or ornamental plantings in the yard and are still grieving their loved ones. We did not even know of these losses, however, until last night when we finally got our power & cable back so - for us- it was a very peaceful period once the inital storm passed. Afterward the weather cleared and the temps remained in the 70's & 80's F (21-28 C). Very nice! We were a bit griped because of the water issues on the last day, as we had used all our buckets & hadn't gotten a turn with the generator yet, but otherwise found we can still adjust back to a more traditional lifestyle & enjoy it. I will admit though that its nice to have the computers back!

I wrote a poem in the first stages of the exceedingly polite arboreal bowing competition & took some pics of lovely scenes that I hope will come out well. At the moment I can't find the transfer cord! Guess I'll share them together when I get that loaded up. The current images are from free sites. Meantime You can see some images of Ernesto's effects from a regional paper.

Right now we're still busy cleaning up thoroughly & using up thawed foods. We were able to save most of our perishables, but not to a frozen state. Some of things we threw away were probably edible - but fish stick mush just isn't very appetizing. Even the kitties weren't impressed by that offering. LOL

We're also replacing used picnic supplies, getting more bottled water, lamp oil backups and such like because of the off chance that we may have another 'holiday' visitor. Florence is spinning away in the Atlantic, but nobody knows yet what yarns (if any) she will make.