Claudia — Page 792

After the Storm

May 16, 2018 at 8:47 am by Claudia

This photo has nothing to do with this post. It’s a picture of the wild honeysuckle that is blooming near the shed. It’s everywhere on the property.

Yesterday ended up being a rollercoaster of craziness. It started off with me sitting on the porch, writing my blog post about how much I love my house and gardens. Then it got very, very humid – 88 degrees and humid in mid-May is not normal. I knew we were going to get some severe thunderstorms in the afternoon, so I ran some errands in the morning.

I kept an eye on the forecast and read that the worst of the storms would be headed our way sometime between 3 and 7. As I watched the radar, the band of storms looked pretty ominous and there were hints that there might be a tornado watch, so I moved everything that could be a projectile onto the porch floor or into the house and I moved the white chairs from the funky patio to a place near the shed. The prediction was for high winds and golfball sized hail.

Then, the minute I saw that there was a tornado warning, I got a text from Rick, who was in NYC, telling me to get in my basement. At the same time, Doug, who is here, called me. We agreed to keep in phone contact – neither of us was ready to go in the basement yet. My basement entrance is outside, if you remember, and I wasn’t about to go down there unless I had to.

That started about an hour or so of fear. We kept clocking the tornado warning and when it ended at 3:30, we thought “Okay! That’s done.” The band of storms hadn’t reached us yet. Then a new tornado warning came through as an alert on my phone (first time that’s ever happened) and it was to last until 4:15. In the meantime, I was texting Don and Rick and talking to Doug on the phone. That warning ended (I had my phone charged and a flashlight at the ready in case I had to go to the basement) and, sure enough, we got another warning that went to 4:45. In the meantime, the storms had started to hit and Doug urged me to go in the basement, but when I saw the rain going sideways and the wind, I knew it would be very hard to get the outside door open, so I went into the bathroom instead. I plopped a chair in the tub, closed the shower curtain, and stayed there. (Quite the picture, I know.)

All the while I heard thunder and wind and rain pelting the house. The sky turned black. It was very, very scary. The wind sounded like a freight train. Cell phone in hand, I kept tracking the storm. Finally, both Doug and I thought we could emerge from our shelters since the storm seemed to be winding down. We were about 2/3 of the way through it at that point. The lights kept blinking throughout the storm. I could hear the siren in town go off. And I saw several emergency vehicles speed past my house. That happened throughout the evening. I smelled a fire throughout the night, so something was hit by lightning.

I was tracking friends through Facebook. The damage around the Hudson Valley is severe. Tornadoes did touch down, though the National Weather Service has yet to verify it officially. Trees are down everywhere, commuters couldn’t get home on the train from NYC because of damage to the tracks, power is out in many communities.

We were lucky.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t terrified. I was. I know many of you deal with this quite often, but we don’t. I can’t remember one tornado warning in the almost 17 years we’ve lived out here. Tornado watches…yes. Not warnings. The occasional, very rare, tornado touches down out here in the East. But a line of storms like this is not the norm.

I went outside later and put everything to rights. It’s supposed to rain again today, but I’m assuming it will be rather gentle compared to what we saw yesterday. Honestly, I kept thinking how bizarrely ironic it would be if I lost my house and gardens on the same day I had written so glowingly about them.

Sigh of relief.

Don had to be in a rehearsal and kept checking on me via text messages. Imagine how powerless he felt. I had left him one phone message where I was crying, but thankfully, he didn’t hear that until after he knew I was okay.

Exhausted today. But thankful. And grateful for Doug’s calm voice on the other end of the phone.

Happy Wednesday.

Grateful

May 15, 2018 at 9:18 am by Claudia

I’m sitting on the glider, having a cup of coffee. As I finished FaceTiming with Don, I thought, “Why go inside? Bring the laptop outside!” And so I did. I’m writing to you from my comfy seat on the glider.

It was very foggy this morning and now the sun is making itself known, though it’s in and out. We’re due for big thunderstorms today, perhaps serious storms. That makes me nervous, of course. I want the lilacs to hang in there until Don gets home this Sunday. I stood by the lilac bush this morning and just inhaled the scent. Oh heavens, there’s nothing like it.

I gave up trying to do something with the bed behind the kitchen. When I worked on it on Sunday, I found poison ivy everywhere and it’s a far bigger job than I had imagined it would be. Maybe we’ll hire a crew to clear it out next year. I would like to change it, to have control over the bed and not have it control us, but it will have to wait.

Consequently, I had to find places in the other garden beds for the plants I purchased for that area. Thankfully, there weren’t a lot of them. I spent the morning digging holes and plopping plants in the gardens. I’m not sure about the new hosta. It may be getting too much sun where it is – if so, I’ll have to move it. The jury is still out.

Then I mowed the corral and the back forty. And then I was exhausted, so I went inside, took a shower and took it easy for the rest of the day.

The lavender that I planted in this pot is really taking off.

And the catalpa is finally showing new growth. These leaves will eventually big huge and heart-shaped. Mother Nature is extraordinary.

While chatting with Don this morning, I started crying as I spoke about this house and this garden. I have to remind myself occasionally that having a cottage in the (sort-of) country was a dream of mine that I didn’t think would ever come to fruition. But it did. And then, when I look around at the porch and the garden beds, I am humbled by what we (but mostly me) have managed to create in the past twelve years. The only bed that was already in existence was the big garden bed and it had two plants in it. Oh, and there was the big hosta in the bed beside the porch entrance. That’s about it. A few hostas, some sedum Autumn Joy, the peonies down by the road and the daffodils, spread here and there on the property. Everything else came in the last 12 – almost 13 – years.

The gardens aren’t manicured. They’re sort of wild and very cottage-like. They suit the cottage and the uneven, hilly property on which we live. I’m so grateful for all of it; the cottage, the porch that is the porch of my dreams, the gardens, the critters and birds who live here. It’s a lot of work, and this year I really feel it, but it’s so, so worth it.

Happy Tuesday.

City Gardening & Old Friends

May 14, 2018 at 10:18 am by Claudia

What was to be a work day outside yesterday turned into a rainy day. All day. Not heavy rain, just a constant light rain. Curses! I was surprised by the rain. Did I check the updated weather forecast? I’m not sure now. All I can say is that I was sure it wasn’t going to rain, so at some point, that’s what the forecast said.

Anyway.

This is going to be one of those weeks where there are maybe two days without rain. Today is one of them. Thursday is the other. I know we need the rain, but frankly, it’s cramping my style!

I forgot to share these pictures with you. When I was in NYC last week, Don told me that he wanted to show me the courtyard behind his building, so we went out the back door and saw this:

Someone is gardening there. I suspect it is the tenant on the first floor because it looks like that apartment opens on to the courtyard and I saw some grow lights and seedlings inside. (Yes, I peeked through the window.) Is it open to all of the tenants? I think so, because you can get out there quite easily. Nevertheless, I think it’s probably part of that tenant’s lease. Don’s going to find out.

Isn’t that neat? Another way to grow things in the city.

I’m fascinated and want to learn more, of course. But we didn’t linger, just in case we weren’t supposed to be there. There are other raised beds and this contraption looks like it was an investment, so I think my instinct about it being the ground floor tenant’s domain is correct.

I saw her one day. Hopefully, I’ll run into her again and we can chat a bit.

Don’s great friend of 45 years and his wife were in town from California yesterday and they saw the show. They loved it, of course, as does everyone who sees it. Then the three of them went out for dinner. I chatted with them via FaceTime. There’s nothing like a friend who has known you for that long. Incidentally, both Don and his friend Adrian have the same surname. I’ve known Adrian as long as I’ve known Don, and I got to work with him when I was back at the Old Globe several years ago coaching the Shakespeare Summer Repertory. If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, you might remember that Adrian had his dog with him and his apartment was right next to mine so I got to hang out with both of them.

Old friends are the best.

Happy Monday.

After the Storm

Grateful

City Gardening & Old Friends

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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