With howl of winds and roar of streams and beating of the rain

Well. All things considered, it wasn't that bad.

At least, not for us. Belfry HQ escaped last week's sampler plate of natural disasters with very few casualties.

Behold, the casualties:



Before anyone goes tsking at me for not protecting my poor tomatoes from the winds, let me assure you that's not wind damage. Those pots did not blow over. Instead, that's what happened when a neighbour's tree dropped a largish dead limb into the tomato thicket. A couple of the tomato cages were crushed by it, and a portion buried itself in the poblano peppers like a thrown spear.

While I am sad for my smashed tomato vines and skewered peppers, I am grateful that the dead limb in question landed on them, and not on the windshield of my car, or on my house. Some of my neighbours were not so fortunate.



The power went out on Saturday night and remained out for about 36 hours, but we'd done such a good job cleaning out the fridge before going on vacation that there was nothing really to go off, and the freezer remained frozen. The greater inconvenience was that without power, the electric pump that brings us water from our well didn't work. One can survive without refrigeration and cable tv, but not having running water is a significant inconvenience. We had plenty of bottled water for drinking, and had filled the bathtub before the power went out so we had water for flushing the toilet as well, but had to go to Maman's to wash and do laundry. Maman is on municipal water and had power anyway -- how, I don't know, though I suspect witchcraft.

Then, I came home from work yesterday and found that my indomitable 'Iceberg' rose was starting a late flush of bloom:



So really, I have nothing to complain about. Everyone else all right?

William Cullen Bryant