Hurricane/blizzard!

Cold with snow/rain from sky which is not sticking and which I pray will not stick, not today, not tonight, not tomorrow! May bring Mr T down from the Blue house this afternoon, just in case a 4 wheel drive is necessary. Looks like Sandy/Frankenstorm is pushing up big waves along the eastern shore, Long Island south to Norfolk. I'm planning on baking cookies to warm up the kitchen from the damp dread day.Tiny marigolds from the Blue House!

Just 200 feet or so higher than the hollar, at the Blue House, snow was sticking on the grass, ducks were inside early and I took Mr T down to my house just in case the morning wakes to inches of wet snow. The wind has made the above freezing 37 degrees feel like 20 something, the dogs are wet and wanting treats. I am happy to be snug and finished with my duties; all the fowl are accounted for! But I fear the gardens will have a rough night; the wind too much for my attempts to cover fig with plastic. At least the fig is surrounded by three bails of hay. The greens should be ok. Blizzard warnings for Charlottesville! I imagine that Sandy is going to be very destructive inland.
A witches brew of a storm.

Wet and dog cozy inside

Just lighting up in the hollow under gray skies that dramatically expose the still bright orange/yellow leaves left on limb. Time to don boots and coat for the hike up to open the ducks and to pick some fresh greens to add to my arugula in morning green smoothie. I am relieved that the latest weather reports indicate less snow chance here - we're only 2,000 feet.

Rain from Sandy

Up at the Blue House! It is wonderful to have another garden to raid for greens and flowers (mine are dead down in the hollow). Yesterday evening when I went into the chicken house to look for eggs, I had to step into the house to retrieve one egg on the floor. The khaki ducks alarmed at my step fluttered around the house in one smear of tan and quack. They are lovely to watch, these khakis. 

Watching news on the hurricane/nor'easter, Sandy, who is due to impact Virginia by Monday - although it is raining this morning either from Sandy or from the cold front. I do hope that we do not get any snow! Off to work for Obama this morning; later to Giles with Alma. I am sad to see the warm weather end and to have the vivid last bright leaves by the house fall. My small sourwood's leaves are lovely orange red, the golden rain tree more yellow orange.

Pink Sky

It was dramatically pink, the sky that is, that I tried for a picture - strangely unreal. Light changes everything. Or perhaps, light is everything.

1968 - 1972

I was living on Audubon St, in one of the two second floor apartments of an old house in New Orleans; it was only a two block walk to get a nectar soda at the K&B on Broadway and St.Charles. My husband of 3 months was in basic training at Fort Polk (simulated Vietnam) and I had a friend staying with me to help with the rent. She was working for the McGovern campaign whom we both supported; weekends we joined anti-war marches. Barbara had a boy friend in San Francisco and had flown out to visit him one weekend as I drove up to Ft Polk to see Bryce. I'd left the 3 foot tall pot plant in the bathtub when I left. That weekend the downstairs neighbor said the FBI had knocked on doors looking for Barbara. It appeared that they were after files which she had of McGovern backers. Today George McGovern died at age 90.

I have so mixed up my memory of that incident; well, the FBI looking for Barbara's files is correct - BUT, it had to have been Humphrey. In my mind I have always chalked the event (or non-event as the FBI did not go in my apartment) up to Nixon paranoia.  By 1972, I was living in Charlottesville and that was the year McGovern ran. 

Half a sun and wind

The Mexican petunia is now inside and happily blooming.  Today was Wednesday morning with Pearl and the contagious delight of unbridled imagination. She blows me away with her prowess, hitting the child softball over and over - no t-ball necessary for her. I love watching her think as she makes a list of her home-school friends, marking down the letters of their first names! When she wants me to help her write a new word, she does not want me to write the word first, just to tell her the letters as she knows her letters (we spell pretzel and popcorn). 
Just ordered an organic whole turkey for Thanksgiving; Baldwin reminds me that last year at Alma's suggestion, I cooked the bird breast down. It was delicious. 

cold rainy rainy

Went outside to fill the bird feeder and to take a picture of this best to huddle inside day. Debating a walk which is losing out because of the chill and the wet and the fact that I'll most probably go to Qigong this evening. So Mr. Lee sleeps and I think of napping. 

Maybe a walk necessary to tug this sliding spirit, check out the hen house in case black snake back. I might even bag some watercress roots for Robin tonight which I have promised months ago. And I need to make reservations for my trip to Houston in December!

 


 

Invasion of privacy

Some person slipped a hand written note into my car parked at Krogers Thursday, accusing me of being a member of a party that "is destroying our country." The person asks if I remember "that Obama turned a 10.4 trillion dollar debt ceiling into one valued at 16 trillion."
So this is what I can expect from driving a sky blue Prius with an OBAMA magnet on the side, a LIBERAL sticker on the bumper along with a campaign sticker for FLACCAVENTO. Many friends have had their Obama yard signs pilfered in the night, or spray painted with a "N". 
I wonder just whose "country" this note writer lives in? Doesn't appear to be the same country I recognize. Of course, my fear for the country in which I live if Romney/Ryan were to come into power concerns a loss of women's choice, a loss of middle class, a loss of separation of church and state, a loss of regulations on water and air, a loss of the power of the EPA and so forth. The debt is great, but according to all the economists which I have read, it is manageable. But I can not write back to this anonymous invader of my car space.

Aunt Estelle amuses

We're not a family of horse whisperers, Aunt Estelle knows this. She speaks English and is sarcastic. She is glad to be home, but misses the view. Her take on "Loose Threads" was that for a half dozen old women, we rode hard and the wine didn't hurt. She's slightly jealous that Ms. Eek got to stay AND got a pair of tap shoes to boot.