Mr. Pelly Back In Winter Residence

Glancing out of the window this morning at breakfast, I was super excited to see that our first Pelican had arrived after a long summer absence. He was all alone on his branch, having a jolly good preen.

After quite a lot of effort, he sat back, well satisfied with his appearance. “Wow, look at me now! Even after that long flight from up north, not a feather out of place.”

I’m sure he’d been sent down in advance to check that the trees were still intact after Hurricane Irma passed through Florida in September, and he’s most probably already sent a Whatsapp to the rest of the gang, reporting that all is well.  I’m hoping that I’ll soon see more of these gorgeous birds decorating the branches.

Hope you’re all having a great weekend.

 

All’s Well That Ends Well

Here I am on the other side of Irma. I’ve never experienced a hurricane before, but they do say that there’s a first time for everything. Irma was one really wild woman and I certainly wouldn’t want her to come visiting again. Compared to many people, we escaped very lightly, with no damage to property or ourselves. The worst part was being without power for about 18 hours, but we had prepared for that, except that we hadn’t thought to buy a generator until they were all sold out. Anyway, I’d had the foresight to freeze water in several plastic containers in the freezer, which helped to keep our frozen food from spoiling. I’d also put jugs of ice blocks in the fridge which of course kept everything nice and cold.

The morning before Irma was due, Woody wood stork assumed the role of  ‘Town Crier’ sounding the alarm urging everyone to take shelter.

Poor old Igasho looked totally bemused. He had no idea who Irma was, but figured that he’d better run for cover anyway.

Sweet Anatole, stuck on the outside of our screen room was frantically calling, “Let me in! Let me in!”  but I’m afraid he had to take his chances, as we weren’t going outside to rescue him.

Daisy duck decided that she’d better get her brood across the lake and into the shelter of the trees, before it got too rough for passage.

Mr. GBH, who isn’t scared of anything, carried on regardless. I’m sure he knew from long experience that when the waters are stirred, there are sure to be some nice fishy pickings.

Several of our neighbours had left for pastures north and others just hunkered down with their hurricane shutters tightly fastened. Having quite recently replaced all our windows and doors to hurricane-proof standards, we didn’t need shutters, so were able to have a grandstand view from the comfort of our lounge.

I even went to my ‘famous’ bathroom window to catch the waves skimming over the usually smooth waters. One could have done a neat bit of surfing across there.

We went to bed, wondering just how rough it was going to get.  The next morning we were pleasantly surprised to find that we still had power, so showered and made porridge and coffee. The electricity went off quite soon after, the rain was still pounding. and the road looked like a river. That day seemed very long indeed, with no music, no TV news and no phone. I couldn’t play my piano as it was too dark to see my music, so I sat reading my kindle. Hubby read his stash of engineering magazines which had accumulated, as he never had a chance to look at them whilst he was renovating the house. Supper was salad, cold meat and boiled eggs with a glass or two of wine, followed by dark chocolate, which as we all know is very good for stress. We eventually went to bed hoping for a calmer tomorrow.  The morning arrived, sunny and bright, but still no power, so we had cereal, yoghurt and fruit and a couple of Starbucks frappuccinos for breakfast. The only damage we could see, were a few branches which had broken off of our neighbour’s tree, falling harmlessly onto the grass.

There was a  palm tree lying prone on someone’s front lawn across the road, but other than that, no damage.  Our power was restored about 9:30, and we heaved a sigh of relief. Today, the lake is once more calm and still. We are counting ourselves very lucky indeed.

You’d never guess anything untoward had happened, except for the garden service cleaning up some of the palm debris.

We even had our grass cut yesterday.

Igasho returned to our backyard. He appears to be changing to his autumn colours and by Halloween, he should be the perfect shade of orange.

Going out on the roads for the first time yesterday, we were shocked to see just how much debris there was on the sidewalks. So many trees had lost branches,  and hedges had been blown right over. it will take some time to clean everything up and to get the traffic lights all working again, but at least we didn’t suffer any loss, and for that we are most grateful. My heart goes out to those people who’s lives and livelihoods have been put on hold and in some cases, totally devastated.

I had an appointment with my eye surgeon yesterday and he said that everything is healing well and to see him again in two months. I still have the gas bubble in my eye, but that should disappear within the next week or two. I wish you all a very good rest of the week.