hurricane watch

8.15.21 ~ Avery Point

Woke up this morning under a hurricane watch. The path of Tropical Storm Henri is inching ever closer to us. Bob Maxon, my favorite weekday morning meteorologist, tells us that the last hurricane to make landfall in Connecticut was Gloria in 1985 and the last to make landfall in New England, was Bob in 1991. Right now Henri is making a beeline to Narragansett, Rhode Island, one county away from us. Last night it was aiming for Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. (Even though the outer bands of Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy hit us hard in 2012 it never made landfall here.)

This may be the first time I ride out a hurricane with my husband at home. Both times in the past his employment kept him at work for the duration. For Gloria, the kids and I evacuated to my parents’ house, 45 miles inland. I was pregnant with the baby I lost a month later. For Bob, we evacuated to a friend’s house about 8 miles inland. It was only three months after my mother died. This one will probably arrive as a category 1 hurricane so we probably won’t need to evacuate. Tim’s retired now. I suppose we will be glued to the TV and our laptops until we lose power…

Between the humidity, alarming pandemic numbers and medical appointments, it’s been a very long week. But Sunday evening we did take a saunter through the heaviness at Avery Point and enjoyed taking a few pictures. My blogging motivation is pretty low so I’ve been dragging my heels about getting around to sharing them.

“Erdoded Stacks” by Matthew Weber
“Thru The Black Hole” by Nick Santoro
(Champlain Limestone & Vermont Marble)

I do love my beach roses and the light this time of year is flawless…

I also saw signs of autumn approaching, reminding me of the pleasure I had last year exploring the woods, taking so many pictures in the cool, crisp fall air.

Rough weather ahead for Sunday! Time to batten down the hatches…

humid tranquility

35 thoughts on “hurricane watch”

  1. I am so glad i do not live where hurricanes visit. I hope you feel safe in your house! I enjoyed the – esp.the one who seems to have a hole for a head -! Be well, my friend

    1. Thank goodness hurricanes don’t come around here that frequently, just often enough to keep us on our toes. We should be fine. I had a feeling you might appreciate the sculptures. 🙂 I tried to take a picture through the hole but I wasn’t tall enough!

  2. Yes, this storm seems to have developed quickly and caught the weather people by surprise. We usually have to listen to days (or weeks) of hype (which I abhor. They love to get folks all stirred up, esp. with snowstorms). 🙂
    But I hope folks close to the coast are paying heed like you are. Lots of rain and wind can be worrisome. I hope you are spared the worst of it, stay safe. Keep us posted. <3

    1. Thank you, Eliza. We always play it safe and follow directions about evacuating. It was just a few days ago the meteorologists said it was going to curve around Bermuda and go out to sea and never bother land. Tim & I made plans to go to Napatree Point over the state line in Rhode Island on Sunday to see the big waves it was going to churn up. But it looks like we will be hunkered down here at home on Sunday. 🙂

  3. Be safe – I hated those hurricane storms while living in Massachusetts. Your photos were wonderful today!

    1. Thank you, Victoria! I could live without hurricanes and nor’easters and blizzards, but am glad I don’t have to contend with tornadoes and wildfires — at least not yet.

    1. Thank you, Ally. I figured I better get the pictures posted *before* the storm hit or I would never get around to it — lol.

  4. This is the last thing we all need now. Ugh. This morning they had hurricane warnings for the Cape, and now more of CT and MA. Good luck to all of us! Your photos are wonderful.

    1. Thank you, Pam! Even though these storms like to tease our meteorologists with their constantly changing paths we do have a much better warning system than they did for The Great Hurricane of 1938. As my mother used to say, “Hang on to your hat!”

        1. I wonder if that is where Mom got the saying? She used it a lot when we were navigating potholes while riding in the car, too. 😉 💙

          1. Thanks, Pam. I haven’t seen that movie — I will have to see if I can find it and have a look. 🙂

  5. Stay safe out there, Barbara! Here in Central Illinois, we don’t get hurricanes, but I used to live along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, so I know about the preparations, the decision to leave or stay, the aftermath. I always hated losing power — having to take a cold shower because the hot water isn’t working, lining up for ice water and gasoline, trying to figure out what to eat when you can’t cook. Hope you don’t have to fight all that!

    1. Thanks, Debbie! You sound like a hurricane survival pro, having lived where they are so much more common. Losing power is the pits, but our little city has its own utility company so our electricity is usually restored very quickly. I hope that holds true this time. We’ve got our non-perishable food supply and flashlights ready. It might even be fun doing jigsaw puzzles by candlelight. It won’t be fun not having air-conditioning in this humidity, though.

      1. We usually took off to Grandma’s, where she had a gas stove and could put a decent meal on the table, ha! As for drying our hair, we were out of luck. And trust me, cereal straight from the box (sans milk) gets old mighty fast. Prayers, Barbara.

        1. Thank you, Debbie. Now we’re the grandparents, but nobody’s coming here — lol. My grandparents had a gas stove, too. Big old-fashioned thing they also used for heat in the winter. We bought a jar of peanut butter so we can have protein on crackers for a while. I even brewed some tea ahead of time for some caffeine…

  6. You and I were just chatting about hurricane Bob. I thought about you when I saw Henri and wondered about how it might travel and if it might be close to where you live.

    1. Yes, funny how we were just talking about Hurricane Bob. It seems like this one might not be as bad, Bob Maxon (meteorologist) says it might feel like a nor’easter to us. Bob was a category 3, Henri should only be a category 1. For a time yesterday they were predicting the eye would go right over us, but now the projected path has moved a little west of us.

  7. I know what waiting for a hurricane feels like. During the last two that looked like it might be bad, we headed out to my niece’s house in Georgia…cat, dog and all. She and her husband teach abroad so her house is empty during the school year. Hunker down and I hope you don’t lose power. Beautiful photos as always. Loved the ERODED STACKS and the spidery red flower.

    1. Thank you, Anna! Your story made me think of two hurricanes in 2018. The extended family was in Kentucky for our niece’s September 8th wedding when we started worrying about Hurricane Isaac threatening North Carolina where her parents lived. So her parents went home with the newlyweds to Florida. About a month later Hurricane Michael threatened Florida so the newlyweds fled to North Carolina to ride out the storm with her parents.

  8. Your photos show serenity which belies how you and Tim must feel right now – hurricane or tropical storm, it doesn’t matter, as the forecasts that I hear for your area are all dire. I hope you are spared the brunt of Mother Nature’s wrath especially if heat and humidity are on the way and no power. I love the beach rose shots and I’ll enjoy them vicariously, since I reached out to the Detroit River Refuge a few weeks ago and asked where they might be located – at Humbug Marsh, in the Vernal pond, the Delta – could they pinpoint it for me as they are mentioned on the website. They e-mailed back a few days later: “we asked around and don’t know.” Hmm. I love the cairn shots … but all the shots are calming and capture the beauty of Avery Point. That blue moon shot for this Sturgeon Moon (a blue moon) is my favorite, though that last shot of the tree is equally stunning.

    1. Thank goodness the dire predictions didn’t come to pass. But you never know so it’s better to be safe and prepared than sorry and caught off guard. We humans don’t deal with uncertainty very well but uncertainty is what we have around us all of our lives. I’d rather the meteorologists erred on the side of caution. I’m so sorry you can’t find those beach roses!!! I’m glad you liked the moon. I never get tired of seeing it set in a blue sky, a winning color combination. 🙂

      1. Yes, people around here get angry at the hype beforehand if severe weather peters out … but the hype about weather events (we have severe weather this Wednesday) as well as the weather alarm keeps me in the loop. I was kind of surprised by their answer since they mentioned it on their site. The moon in that blue sky complements your blue profile photo.

        1. You seem to have a lot more severe weather alarms than we do! Please stay safe, tomorrow, Linda. I guess it’s obvious that blue is my favorite color. 😉

          1. I’m hoping it fizzles, but not likely – it is 91 at 8:00 p.m. and a heat index of 95. We have a storm starting in five minutes. I’m trying to get through comments and likely will not get to Reader. I want to return to your post and the link you referenced.

    1. We were very lucky, Donna! Henri fizzled out quite a bit when it hit the colder waters up north here. 🙂

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