Lost power, and heat, for eight hours, but I managed to find my survival blanket, everyone should have one, and made up a warm place on the sofa with that and two regular blankets, warm as toast, accompanied by kitty Duncan, who objected to the shiny survival blanket until I covered it with a regular one. It was an adventure getting the blanket open. It's packed down to the size of a postage stamp in the emergency kit, and is not anxious to be unfolded to the size of a large blanket, particularly since it was already dark when I found it. But we prevailed.
Neighbor had stopped over to lend lantern and flashlight in case my own weren't up to it. And to give cellphone number in addition to what I had, in case anything happened during the night.
Earlier in the day, while making soup just in case, good idea as it turned out, and lemon ginger marmalade, just because, I thought of taking pix of the old cherry tree, just in case. Another good idea. Most of it came down in the course of the day, very sad sight.
She was a lovely tree, gave shade, food for bees, birds and squirrels, lovely scent in blossom time.
I was glad to have the soup, since my stovetop is gas and I could light the burners with a match and get hot food after the house went cold. And a nice snack of homebaked bread, labneh and lemon ginger marmalade helped with the spirits.
Here's the cook's privilege, homebaked wholewheat, homemade labneh, and a nice helping of the marmalade. No need for pectin in this, just cooked the cubed fresh ginger and the lemon slices, and a couple of lime slices, down until all tender, in a syrup of sugar and water, and it jelled itself.
Power returned during the night sometime, but the local police department is still out, no internet, posting updates on road closings, which are numerous, from a smartphone. Emergency number working though.
Temps in 40sF will help melt the masses of snow burying my car, and I hope for a bit of help with that, too. It will need to be moved for the plows to finish clearing.
A bit tired today, after all the drama yesterday, and now in daylight see that the falling tree knocked the young cherry tree sideways so I hope that's something I can remedy once I can get out there and do something about it.
Liz, so glad to hear that you came through warm and cozy. Nothing like blankets, a kitty, and some homemade soup to warm the heart and extremities!
ReplyDeleteSuch a shame about the cherry tree. I always hated the aftermath of storms, with the downed trees. Somehow, it's worse when that's a flowering and sheltering tree. We lost almost half of a crabapple one year in WI and it was painful for a couple of years following.
good to see you survived, and Duncan as well. Fruit trees sometimes have a way of resprouting themselves, and do recover quite quickly sometimes. It's always sad, though, to see one decimated like that, though.
ReplyDeleteWe missed your first storm for the most part but got a solid foot of heavy snow out of this one. I just checked, and it's still piddling away out there.
I love the way you and your neighbors tend to each other. It's most inspiring.
So sorry about your tree, but very happy to hear that you are okay and managed to stay warm and feed yourself something hot. Good to know that you have such good neighbours too!
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about the tree, Liz. Will you be able to salvage some of the wood? Maybe some nice handcarving to commemorate an old and valued friend...
ReplyDeleteTake care. We're expecting more snow in the next few days, but I don't THINK any more big storms are predicted.
The Other Quinn
Update on the cherry tree. Neighbors hauled away the downed branches for me, and later will get a relative to fell the rest of it, since it looks awful now. And they will get the logs for firewood, sad, but it makes wonderful fires. And I will get a log back,for my own purposes. So, onward. New plans for the total lack of shade on the patio this summer are called for.
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