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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

The Nightmare Before Halloween

Also known as Sandy! Well after taking an unintentional month's break from blogging, I certainly could not have anticipated my first post back would be about  my random thoughts and the unthinkable devastation that we are all seeing on the news. 
Walking in the neighborhood. The beautiful calm before the storm

Although for the last decade we have made the southern coastline our beach destination, the New Jersey shore was the vacation destination of my husband's family since the 1920's. Cape May, New Jersey was the first beach my own children ever experienced.  This area, along with many I was not familiar until Sandy, seem to be all but wiped out by water, sand or fires. It's hard not to get emotional over the images I've seen, though I don't know a single person living in these areas.
I took this photo from the French doors in our kitchen just before it got too dark and the storm really ramped up.
 And, in case I never saw these majestic trees again! The tree to the left soars high above all the roof lines
 and is the tallest and widest tree in the neighborhood.
 Not comforting during storms!
That left me wondering how you all fared? We were beyond lucky. We had power outages for just a brief time, and though the winds howled and the rain was relentless, not a single tree came down. Just two are leaning over. We braced for the worse and stayed in the basement, but compared to the damage of the Derecho storm this summer, Hurricane Irene, and the Blizzard of 2009/2010 we got off with barely a scratch.
Our backyard.
Irregular flagstone path just after installation. The very next day, the ground was covered again in leaves.
The little rock wall with 2 Hosta (the only plants in this bed still living!) I built years ago and our landscaper said it could stay :)

Ironically, we had just installed the new landscape plan for the backyard including the installation of an in-ground sprinkler system and flagstone path. The ground is so unsteady between the work and all the rain, I'm afraid to even walk on it. Just from the deck, I can see things have sunk and shifted and though I am concerned what will survive and/or need to be re-done, I feel so incredibly lucky that our house didn't flood and the 2 tallest trees in the neighborhood, located in our backyard, did not fall onto our house or our neighbors.
New sod...approved!

Oddly, this was the first year ever, I did not purchase a single pumpkin, mum, cabbage or put out a single Halloween decoration inside the house and though it was an incredible busy month with wrapping up our house hunting, overseeing the landscaping installation and trying to finish up my final client projects of the year, I'm not sure it really had anything to do with any of these things. Last year, I only did pumpkins. Could that have been the forecast of things to come? If not for the calender, I would not even know it was Halloween. Scary.

8 comments:

  1. Have you noticed that the month of October always brings a surprise and not usually good ones? I have stopped Halloween decorations and buying pumpkins the last few years too...
    Happy Halloween just the same and so glad you fared the storm!!!

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  2. Welcome back, so happy to know you got through it all... our hearts are just so concerned about everyone. Nice to see the viewpoint through your eyes.

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  3. So glad you all did ok R! We came through it with only minor damage to our dock and a few downed limbs, but nothing compared to Irene...thankfully. I have always wanted to visit Lewes, DE and Cape May, NJ...it's all so very sad. And I didn't buy a single pumpkin or mum this year either for the first time ever...maybe we jinxed ourselves?! Take care, and I hope your landscaping will be fine.

    Kat

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  4. Welcome back, so glad to hear that you and your family were safe through this horrible storm. Sandy sounds like such a friendly name, I think of a blonde girl on the beach, not this horrible, horrible lady that caused turmoil beyond belief.
    I did by pumpkins but for Fall not Halloween, we still have to go and buy candy for tonights trick-or-treaters.
    No Jack-o-lanterns. I purchased some fun white pumpkins years ago with circles, diamonds, squares etc. , they are artificial and very fun so they will go out later.
    I think once the kiddos are grown it is harder to get in the mood, plus real life sometimes gets in our way.
    Be safe,
    Kathysue

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  5. Rebecca- I am so glad that you were pretty much unscathed by Sandy. What a blessing. I hear you about decorating. I did some Fall decorating but hardly any Halloween decorating. I think my life is shifting and different things move to a higher level of importance. God bless- xo Diana

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  6. Rebecca, thank goodness you were spared the devastation of this storm.
    You have so much going on in your life; like me, I did very little decor for autumn and nary a pumpkin!

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena
    2012 Artists Series

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  7. So glad all is well Rebecca! Scary indeed.

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  8. I think the decrease in
    Halloween decorating has
    more to do with our stage
    in life than anything else....
    Although my 14 year old
    son and 17 year old daughter
    insisted the week before
    the holiday that I dig out
    the box of decorations.
    What remained of them,
    as I've pitched over the
    last couple of years. I'd
    have been content with
    pumpkins....

    So glad you sustained little
    damage. I'm sad as my mom
    and I always wanted to visit
    Cape May. What a terrible
    time NY & NJ have had!!

    xo Suzanne

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