Fall Flowers

Although the temperatures have remained rather warm (it was 86 degrees today!), Fall has definitely arrived in Mathews County.

Along with the brownish colors of the corn crops that are ready for harvest, beautiful wildflowers abound.

I'm not sure what these pretty yellow ones are called, but they're growing like weeds wildfire along the roadsides.

Although I don't have pictures handy, there are also beautiful purple and pink flowers making themselves known along the roads and in the fields.  I've been picking the ones at the end of my lane and enjoying them in flower arrangements.  They last a good long while, although some of them do leave a ton of seeds when they're finally giving up on life. It's a small price to pay though.

We survived the hurricane that wasn't supposed to hit us.  Technically it didn't hit us, but the storm delivered a great deal of residual wind and rain.  Some folks here lost power, there was some flooding in some areas, but eventually things returned to normal.

Whatever that is.

The weather is supposed to turn a little cooler this weekend, just in time for the Gloucester Wine Festival.  Baby Sis, Middle Sis and I will be attending this event on Saturday.  We were supposed to go last year, but a little life-changing event known as my car accident (click here for that story) changed those plans.

This year will be different.

I cannot wait.

I hope all is well in your world.

Pine Tree

This pine tree lives on a point that juts out into Stutts Creek.

I guess you could say it juts into Stutts.

It juts into Stutts and it's just on Stutts.

Thanks to my fascination with Dr. Seuss-level rhymes, I've completely forgotten what I came on here to say.  Please be patient while I recollect my thoughts.  Thank you.

(*Tries to stop thinking about more words that rhyme with Stutts but can't think of a way to weave pork butts into the story.)

ANYWAY.

A storm called Hermina passed through Mathews yesterday, and all things considered it wasn't that big of a deal.  As far as I know, there was no major damage around here, just lots of wind and flooding.  A few folks lost power.  I have lots of tree limbs in the yard and pine needles stacked six inches deep on my deck and patio, but otherwise, everything's fine.

Have a great Labor Day weekend. I intend to.

Town Point Landing

These were taken last Thursday from the public landing below the Court House called Town Point.

The day was sunny, crisp and clear.

And the tide was unusually low.

As has been the theme here lately, there wasn't a hint of wind.  

Not even a whisper.

The tide was so low...

(...how low was it?)

It was so low that perfectly respectable sailboats 

pretended to need ropes to secure them even though 

they couldn't move an inch if they wanted to.

~~~~~~~

Over the weekend we experienced quite the weather event. Saturday, a whirlpool of various hot and cool temperatures caused quite the brief but intense storm.  Depending on who you ask we either had a tornado or the next closest thing.

All I suffered was a few downed tree limbs.  There are stories of trees landing on homes, but so far I've not heard of any major injuries, thank goodness.

As quickly as it came, the storm passed.  Sunday was filled with sunshine and thousands hundreds of Canada geese who insisted on using my back yard as a grazing ground. Upon arriving home from the grocery store and spying the trespassers, I took the car for a spin in the back yard to chase them off.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimmer of something sparkly and shiny coming from the sliding doors on the back corner of my house.  

After the geese were gone, I stopped the car in the middle of the back yard and glanced in the direction of the Something Sparkly inside my house. There standing proudly in my living room was my Christmas tree, mocking me, the person who should have taken down the lights and decorations instead of chasing off Canada geese or buying groceries.

In other words, things are back to normal after the storm.

And my Valentines Christmas tree still stands.

Rope

All except the last shot were taken from the public landing at Edwards Creek over on Gwynn's Island.  That last one, taken from the Seabreeze, includes a glimpse of the full (or close to full) moon in the upper right corner.

Daughter and I took a joy drive over to the island Saturday after supper.  Son is spending the week at a NASA program, so she and I are trying to keep ourselves busy and distracted, once again. (He left us earlier this summer for Boys State and let's just say we were ecstatic extremely happy when he returned.)

Sunday we went for a five-mile hike over in the Northern Neck.  (She was not too thrilled with this idea of mine, particularly since it was hot and her tennis shoes were less than ideal for the hike, but we got our exercise in, that's for sure.)

There's more to report, but this post will be brief.  My internet has been acting up, so I want to toss this up while the gettin' is good. A storm last night must have caused a temporary outage, and it's pouring down again this evening with even more clouds headed in this direction.

Hope all is well in your world.

The Weekend

These are a few weeks old, taken from Aarons Beach.

The sand there has been pushed up into the marsh
during various storms.  The beach is definitely shifting.

The weekend was busy but good.

Daughter's basketball team remains undefeated after barely pulling off another win Saturday night. They won by only one point in a very low scoring game, 21-20. It was absolutely excruciating to watch, and my throat is raw from screaming.

(Poor Mr. Junie Crosby, who sat next to us, probably still has ringing ears from all the commotion. Ann Marie, your father witnessed these antics from the other side of the court.  He can no longer say we don't do enough cheering.)

My mother and I have sufficiently embarrassed the county my father with our hollering and jumping up and down and what not, which includes stomping on the bleachers to (in theory) intimidate the opposition.

We I can't help it.

And they won! So all the embarrassment is well worth it.

Actually my mother and I are superstitious and believe that our antics helped propel the team to victory.  It all started in the Middlesex game when our bleacher thumping marked the point in the game where the tables turned and we gained control of the scoreboard.

Things have gotten progressively uglier/better (depending on whether you're asking my father or me) ever since.

There's another game at 5:30 tomorrow at home and one at 6:00 Thursday at West Point.

(Big Hair Envy, do you want to meet up? We could reminisce about the 1980-ish tournament we played in Back in the Day.)

***

After Saturday's game I went to a friend's birthday party and proceeded to laugh and laugh and laugh at all the stories told by some of my lifelong Mathews friends.

***

Today is a federal holiday, so I am in hog heaven enjoying a rare Monday off.

Life is good.

How was your weekend?

Before and After

We interrupt all the focus on The Storm Called Sandy
to bring you a few pictures taken before the storm.

Remember that?  Life before the storm?

When the skies were blue and

people weren't stampeding to the grocery store 

talking about how this was going to be
  The Big One, Elizabeth! The Big One?

Before we started filling our tubs with bathwater

and cooking everything in sight
in anticipation of losing power--remember?

I barely do.

Guess what snuck up on us while we were so focused on The Storm Called Sandy:

1. Halloween. Today!
2. The month of November. Tomorrow!
3. The Oyster Festival. This weekend!
4. The half-marathon, also known as 13.1 miles of Sheer Torture. Next weekend!
5. Thanksgiving.  As soon as I blink!

The Christmas trees are up in Wal-Mart.

Happy New Year.

Green

This cornfield lives on the road leading to the public landing referenced yesterday.  The trees, fields, lawns, gardens, marshes--everything around here seems to be glowing an emerald green lately.

This is my favorite time of year, especially since we've suffered only a few really bad days of horrible, oppressive heat and humidity.

Speaking of oppressive heat and humidity, which sometimes spawn storms, last night as I left work in Williamsburg a fierce thunderstorm bulldozed its way through. I'm pretty sure I haven't seen rain and winds like that since one of the last hurricanes, although it didn't last very long.

Driving home along the Colonial Parkway, I saw white caps on the York River that rivaled scenes from that show Deadliest Catch. The schooner tied up at the Yorktown waterfront was being tossed about like a cork. We won't talk about the extremely ferocious winds whipping as I crossed the dreaded Coleman Bridge.

Once I arrived in Mathews, though, it was almost as if nothing happened. Evidently the worst passed to our south.

This post, which started with the color green and a public landing before morphing into white caps and hurricanes schooners at Yorktown, is now forcing itself to a merciful close.

Thank you for stopping by.

p.s. If you live in the Richmond-Hampton Roads area, did the thunderstorm impact you at all? 

Scenes from Bethel Beach

Last week for the first time in a month of Sundays, I took a drive down Bethel Beach.

And while I'd love to do what I do best usually do, which is take a very simple event and twist it into something completely unrelated to the original topic, there's a bad thunderstorm flashing overhead as I type this.

So rather than tempt fate, I will let these photos speak for themselves.

But not without one very quick observation.  

Doesn't the landscape above look like some prairie out in Kansas or Oklahoma?

Based on how violently the wind is whipping outside now, I'd say that's not all that looks like Kansas.  

Auntie Em!

p.s. The storm passed without event just like this blog post.  Have a great week.

Storms

'Tis the season where almost every evening there's a good chance of a thunderstorm.

That season runs from July through about September.

We have lots of seasons around here:  Old Bay seasoning deer season; turkey season; daffodil season; crab pot season; grass cuttin' season, hurricane season, and invasive insect season, to name just a few.

These were taken about a week or so ago from my back yard.

They're a little out of order just like everything else around here.

The first few were taken after the storm passed.

The one below was before the storm hit.

This particular evening, the Chesapeake Bay Children and their friends were outdoors playing volleyball.  Not long after I called them all inside, a bolt of lightning struck very close by.

I'm reasonably sure the vast majority of the citizens of Richmond could hear the scream I let loose.

In fact, the lightning struck so close I ran to the window to make sure my parents' house next door hadn't been hit. Of course it hadn't.  And the storm quickly moved on.

Like they always do.

And the Chesapeake Bay Children and their group of friends got a good laugh at this frazzled mother's expense.

Like they always do.

HIcks Wharf

Across the river from Williams Wharf, located between Cardinal and Bohannon, is Hicks Wharf, however an alert reader informs me these photos are not Hicks Wharf.

The extent of what I know about Hicks Wharf can be summed up in exactly two sentences: I went to school with Richie Hicks and played summer softball with his older sister. They may or may not be kin to the original Hicks who ran this wharf, who knows. The End.

This wealth of factual information and historical detail is brought to you by the very same person who is supposed to be compiling a pictorial history of Mathews County.  As you can see, I am thoroughly qualified. 

Anyway.

A post office and a store operated at Hicks Wharf until 1933--which was also the year of The Big Storm.

Recently, while doing some research in the offices of the Gazette Journal, I stumbled upon several newspaper articles describing that storm, which was actually a legendary hurricane. 

It seems one Captain West, known as the unofficial "Mayor of New Point," failed to realize the strength of the storm until the water was well into his house and the winds threatened to tear it apart. Realizing the house could collapse at any moment, he attempted to flee to higher ground but was quickly overcome by the elements.  To survive the fierce winds, pounding rain and encroaching waters that were already very deep, he climbed up the flagpole that stood in his yard and strapped himself to it.  

He stayed that way overnight.  Overnight.  Tied to a flagpole, with his feet on the cleats that would ordinarily hold the rope to the flag.

 The next day he told someone he clung to that pole so tightly he nearly squeezed the blood out of his hands.

These are the sorts of stories that distract me when I'm in the library or the Gazette Journal trying to find facts and figures and lions and tigers and bears, oh my! details and dates.  

These are also the types of stories that help put things in perspective.

While most days I feel like I've been strapped to a flagpole during a major hurricane, I've never actually had to spend a night doing so.  

So, there's always that.  

Does anyone out there have any information to share about Hicks Wharf?   Anyone? 

Has anyone had to endure hurricane-force winds, horizontal rain and flood-level tides while clinging to a flag pole? Bueller? 

p.s. Reader Bay Browder has informed me that Hicks Wharf was located just up the river from the point shown above.  Thank you, Bay Browder, for keeping me straight.  

Haven

This is a shot from a few weeks ago of  Haven Beach in the morning.

I hardly ever go to Haven any more because I don't have time to do anything much less lollygag at the beach prefer our other two county beaches,  Aarons and Bethel.

What a shock to see how much of Haven has eroded away - even with the county's efforts to take protective measures to preserve it (note the rocks just off the shore above).  One of the big nor'easters last year certainly took a toll, but I think it's become even worse here lately.

I'd love to see pictures of our beaches from decades ago, and perhaps in doing my research for the book I'll come across some.  But if they exist they are few and far between - so far I've not found any.

For now, though, this recent trip to Haven made me realize how important it is to document the beaches as they exist right now, because the next big hurricane or nor'easter could do some devastating damage.

Rather than end on that depressing note, I'll close by saying there should be no devastating storms this week, anyway.  If you believe what the weather people are saying, we can expect 80-degree days filled with sunshine.

Enjoy the day and have a great, storm-free week.