Storm Update ~ All is Well Except there's Flies!

Hi! Thank you everyone for sending safe wishes and prayers and kind thoughts! Jose was not much a threat but ya never know! Quick post to show you some photos.

Yesterday despite the wind and rain I had to go to town for a much postponed doctor appointment. You know how on the expressway, there's the signs that say, "Acc'dt Rt 30, 4 Hour Delay"?, well, here they use portable versions and they were busily saying "Coastal Overwash, Road May Flood Without Warning." Well, gee.
Anyway the ride was uneventful and since the weather was crappy there was even a parking space for me. The MD's office is right on the boardwalk, which I suppose gives him lovely coffee and surfing breaks, but there is usually no parking for miles; one has to be dropped off and picked up. No cell phone service either, a dead zone. It's annoying..

The fences are erosion protections, installed each fall until April.

Only a few surfers, shore break instead of good waves here yesterday.

The doctor's office building is to the left.

Slightly better waves down a couple blocks, but the jetty makes it iffy here.

When I got home, this was the view from my deck, I was too tired to hike down. Usually waves aren't visible over the dunes. These are about 1/2 to 3/4 of  a mile away.

Later the sunset turned the world violet lavender. Very eerie and beautiful.

Today I walked out to see how the beach fared. All looks fine!

 That's water, midline in the photo, usually sandy beach.

This is a swale that, while not man made is maintained by conservation department. It acts as a catch basin, so water floods into the swale[s] and not over the upper dunes. Usually there is little or no water here.

The dark areas show how the storm waves came up to the outer dunes but then went on into the swale without damage.

This is looking in the other direction. See the black fence pole? The swale cut is that notch behind it, then the swale runs along the boardwalk between the lower and upper dunes. It's dug out each spring to form low ground.

And look who ran over to say Hi! If it's not the real Gully, we can pretend.

But even as I stood to take these photos, swarms of large biting horseflies attacked! I looked down to see what bit me and my legs looked like I was wearing black polka dot leggings. I screamed and hustled back to Mo's and my bench in probably record time. Let's hope lots of birds reappear to gobble the flies up!

Mo and I retreated to the sewing room. HTs on deck!, 2 Silent Night stars completed.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach....

Hurricane Waves

Hi! Storm, what storm?

Hermine was a bit of a disappointment, I must say. Not that I want us to have a huge awful hurricane but there is something pleasantly soothing about a nice tropical rain storm after a long hot and very sunny summer. I did not do a big ''preparedness'' thing because it was pretty obvious Hermine was not a threat. I did finally charge my second Kindle [ya never know!] and I was all set to sit down and sew at my machine for the first time since May.
Lifeguard stands were taken off the shoreline.

But really---no. Bright hot sunshine as Hermine meandered out to sea to our south.

Photos sent from the beach by friends, for us here on my blog.

Some dune erosion and overwash at high tide.

Dear little Gully!

Today, as the waves became bigger, I was tempted to walk on down the boardwalk to check things out. I went about halfway, not wanting to overdo with my hip issues.

It looks pretty!

Then a lovely sunset with a rainbow!

The rainbow is far away, embedded in the storm far away.

Sunset against the storm cloud sky.

Not ONE drop of rain fell, not one puff of breeze blew. Just big waves, hurricane waves.

This would have been Mo's first hurricane! He got a lovely bath/ brush/ groom to celebrate the season's finale.

It was , he said, exhausting! [Mo selfie!]

love 

lizzy

gone to the beach...

PS Here are my two Westering Women blocks I completed on Saturday morning, before the storm wandered away.
This is "The Platte River": the brown center is the muddy water, the purple, the river's banks, the bright edges are the prairies in bloom across Nebraska.

This block is "Hills and Hollows", referring to the rolling landscape of central Nebraska.

I used a few of my antique blue fabrics in the center, they may date to about when this quilt story is supposed to take place, in the 1850s.

[This block made absolutely no sense to me. Too many colors and triangles. I just sewed each square slowly, matching the photo on Brackman's blog. In the end it could finish exactly 12 1/2" or all the points could match. But not both.]

I mocked up a collage of the Hills and Hollows, it would make a very interesting allover quilt. [I don't have a symmetrical collage template but you'll get the gist.]