Monday, October 17, 2016

We Did Not Blow Away

We are here! We are happy to say that the big storm bearing down on us fizzled!  While we have had plenty of rain and blustery weather, most of us escaped the damaging winds.

There was a tornado on the Pacific coast, in the town of Manzanita, just north of Rockaway Beach, that did a lot of damage. We don't have tornadoes here, except when we do, because some freak storm occurs. 

So we still have leaves on our trees and the coloring up is in various stages of lovely. Like this bonsai tree. 

We have been busy in the week since we returned from our travels in New England. We got home late on a Saturday night, and the next day we participated in the scattering of ashes in a beautiful old growth forest in Mt. Rainier National Park. Tom's sister-in-law's parents were put to rest in a place they loved.

On Monday we went early and stayed late at a friend's home for lunch. Tuesday and Wednesday we took advantage of the sunny weather to work hard in the yard. Then Wednesday evening we went to a Sounders match at the stadium. 

Thursday the rain returned and I made applesauce again, and pozole for dinner. When I wasn't busy doing other things, I was sorting, editing and posting my trip photos. I finally finished them on Friday, not knowing if we would have power over the weekend. On Saturday we watched for the storm to come, prepared to be powerless, but did go out to watch Isaac play soccer. 

Since the storm didn't materialize, we got in lots of TV watching, catching up with programs we had recorded while we were gone.

Sunday we were able to get in a walk, even though we got rained on, before we settled in to watch the Seahawks and the Sounders, who were unfortunately playing at the same time. The Seahawks managed to pull off a win just about the time the Sounders lost a heart breaker in the final minutes. We were just happy to have power and a warm house so we could watch. 

And so that brings us to Monday, today. We cleaned house, did the laundry, and went for our exercise walk, without rain! I got some flowers picked and arranged, and I even had enough of a rain gap to get some photos of the garden.

Everything is soggy and messy, but we'll get to the clean up when it dries out a bit. Meanwhile we'll enjoy the increasing color as dogwoods and maples turn. 



 The cedar tree is doing its annual thing. 
 The vegetable/flower garden tumbledown is ready to be cleaned out







 Areas of the lawn were completely torn up by moles and raccoons, so we have put wire down to discourage the raccoons from digging where the moles are tunneling. Of course new areas erupt over night. 
 We are ready for a festive fall.


17 comments:

  1. Love the pretty spider web. And we didn't get the wind here, either, although it's been rainy all day long today, until about an hour ago. The wind on Saturday went west of us, I hear. :-)

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  2. Love those fall flower arrangements. Wow, how dare those moles and raccoons tear up your yard like that! That's terrible. Glad you're about caught up from your wonderful trip. Soon it will be all about the business of year end holidays.

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  3. It's great that you can get all these things done. Lucky that the storm was not as bad as forecast. My son lives near Vancouver and said the same thing. They got very wet.

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  4. Even in a soggy state of decline your garden is powerfully beautiful.

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  5. I love your pretty centerpieces and those glass pumpkins are so lovely.
    Weren't we lucky that the storm missed us? I kept waiting for the wind but all we got was more rain. Clean-up started today.

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  6. I too fell in love with the glass pumpkins, what a delight. Glad the storm wasn't as bad as anticipated.

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  7. When we heard about the storms on TV, of course, I thought about you all first thing. Glad it wasn't any worse. Your yard is always beautiful, in all seasons. I love the fall centerpiece. It is so pretty!

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  8. Beautiful color - even on the gray days of October. I love the new cover picture!

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  9. what beautiful colors, glad you are safely home-the best part of the trip is coming home...

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  10. So glad you dodged the bullet. Never a bad thing when the weatherman is wrong. Guess raccoons and moles eat the same thing. Perhaps getting rid of the grubs would help both problems. They sure make a mess of your lovely yard.

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  11. Glorious, and welcome to soggy home.

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  12. Nice photos of your plants. I love plants, too, but yours are better than mine.

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  13. So much to do in the yard when it is Fall. Well every season has it's bits of fun and not so much fun stuff to do. Great colors.
    I scrolled through you New England visit. Pretty nice.
    Oh and by the way I like your header.
    MB

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  14. Your gardens are lovely in the fall, too bad about the voles and the coons...have you tried mothballs:)

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  15. I'm so relieved that the storm fizzled so that we could enjoy more foliage color. You do look ready for a festive autumn.

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  16. Oh my goodness. Those moles and raccoons really made a mess. I hate that they tear up your beautiful yard. I guess we don't have moles down here because I've never had those holes. Raccoons we do have and they'll raid anything the little girls leave out after a tea party.

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