Found Spring in a Hopeless Place

Who would have thought that the first place I'd spot some spring is a cracked corner of the garage on the edge of the driveway.

Project 52 - Week 13

While the weather is still a tad on the chilly side, the sun has been visiting more and more! Soon it'll be warm enough we can start cleaning up the mess and get things looking pretty again!

And it seems Mother Nature is about to help add some pretty to the world, some if the tree buds are getting ready to opening!

Project 52 - Week 12

Yay for a nice sunny day... even though it was very cold and windy out, it was nice to see some sunshine!

A Brief First Look of Spring

As I mentioned in Sunday's Project 52 post, I spent some time outside looking for signs of spring on the trees. Much to my surprise I found some! I can't wait for these little buds to start opening up!

However, just a few hours later, that fickle filly Mother Nature decided she wanted to give us some more snow. So I reshot some of the same buds... this time with a coating of the dreaded white stuff! It wasn't a lot, but it did put a damper on my nice springy photo shoot day!

I hope in a few weeks that cold and snow will finally say goodbye and I can retake these photos once the buds have had a chance to mature.

Project 52 - Week 11

I always take my picture of the week on Saturday, and was pleased to find that while it was really cold out, buds were starting to form on the trees and there were signs of springs starting to appear. I took my weekly shot, then went around to get some signs of spring photos for a post later this week.

The photos came out great and I can't wait to share them... however, this happend just a few hours later...

Yup, snow. It wasn't a lot, and didn't amount to anything, but it did leave a coating on the trees. You just have to love March weather in New England!

Project 52 - Week 10

When I asked for some color in the world last week, white was not what I had in mind! Let in snow, let it snow!

Project 52 - Week 9

Ok spring... it's time for you to arrive. I need to start seeing some color and we need to get some of the mess cleaned up!

Project 52 - Week 8

As the snow slowly melts away the trees bounce back to life...

Project 52 - Week 7

Thanks to a lot of sunny days, we have had some bounce back with the trees and bushes! Just have to wait till spring to see if there was any real damage!

Project 52 - Week 6

Thank you Nemo for the 30" of snow for making my picture of the week... interesting. All the branch and bushes are basically flattened under all the weight of the snow. Not sure everything is going to recover from this.

Project 52 - Week 5

There were some subtle changes to the backyard this week, thanks to a few very windy nights. All the broken branches from Superstorm Sandy that were still hanging on finally came tumbling down. Hard to tell in the picture, but you can see it in person.

The biggest area of chance was were the pine had fallen.

Lots of new branches added to the pile. Looking forward to warmer weather so we can get it all cleaned up!

Project 52 - Week 4

For week 4, Mother Nature brought a little snow our way. It wasn't much and it was gone by the end of the day. But it was enough to give this week's picture a little variation! 

And it seems I wasn't the only one out for a little stroll to check out the snow! I'm guessing these are raccoon prints, since we have a bunch of them in the neighborhood. 

Project 52 - Weeks 2 & 3

I have been taking me weekly photos, I just didn't get around to posting last weeks.

So here is Week 2:

And here is Week 3:

As expected, other than a slight change in the angle I shot the photo... nothing changed. Even that weather was the same. I'm hoping next Saturday for at least some sun or snow to really show a change in the scenery!

Project 52 - Week 1

For the last few years, I have attempted Project 52. And each year the same thing happens... by week 6 or 7 I find myself searching for things to take a picture of. Since I rarely leave the house and I don't have any children, I was left with random, meaningless items or photos of my cat. So I decided to do something a bit... different this year. 

With trees and nature being one of my favorite things to shoot, I picked an area of my yard and every week I'm going to take a photo from the same spot. This way I can record all the subtle changes the trees and weather makes throughout the year. I don't expect there to be lots of changes week to week, but at the end of the year I'll make a slideshow and it should be pretty neat. 

This is the area I picked to photograph. It's of the woods in my back yard. I thought it would give the most variety during the year.

Before I picked this location, I shot a number of pictures. Here are the runner-up locations. I really liked the pine tree, but being an evergreen I don't expect much change in the next 51 weeks.  As for the little tree, it's in my neighbor's yard and the house is currently empty. Can't guarantee that when someone moves in that tree will remain.  

Someday soon, I hope to redo or relocate the site so I can make the horizontal pictures larger!

And the Weather Hits Keep Coming...

I'm not sure what the Northeast did to Mother Nature, but I think she is a little mad at us. Just a week after Hurricane Sandy, Winter Storm Athena graced us with her presence. And she hit most of the areas Sandy did... with snow, wind, rain, and more snow. A very wet, heavy snow. We got maybe 4". Thankfully, not much more than that because it was the type of snow you couldn't use a snow blower for... it was that wet and heavy.

Some people that had just got power back lost it again, this time being left with much colder temps than the week before. Last night dropped to around 30º for my area. Same prediction for tonight. We got lucky, we power surged once... it was enough to reset some electronics, like my stereo, but wasn't enough to reset the clocks. For that brief moment, I feared the worst. But that surge was it. But we were prepared this time if we lost power... we had no food in the fridge. And seeing that we kept power for this storm, I'd say the worst is over and it's time to hit the grocery store. That is if the stores are stocked. They've also been a bit slow to recover since they had to toss a great deal of their food due to the power outages. It's quite sad really, the amount of much need food that got wasted with this storm.

Anyways.

While Athena didn't do much, it did make it pretty easy to see just how much damage Hurricane Sandy, last summer's hurricane (Irene), last winter's Nor'Easters, and all the minor storm over the last year have done to my backyard and all the neighborhood trees. Poor, poor trees. They are my favorite thing to photograph, hope there will be some left by next spring!

The snow looks like it's really high in this photo, but it's not... the trees are just hanging crazy low. Their poor branches are still so weak. The hole on the left side of the picture... that used to be filled with trees. It might not be easy to see in the photo, but there are a number of fallen branches and trees in the back there. If things keep up the way they are, we aren't going to have woods left for very long.

More trees bending under the weight of the snow. 

This is one of the saddest sight there is. My favorite little tree near our front porch. It's not supposed to look like that. At all. And it's never split before.

This is the same tree during a storm in January 2012, also with about 4" of snow. This is what it normally looks like. Standing pretty. Thankfully, once the snow fell off it regained most of its shape. Still will need some TLC before the year is over to get it back to tip top shape.

Temps are predicted to hit the low 60ºs Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, so all the snow should melt away. Till the next storm.

Descending into Madness

I promise, this is my last post about the Frankenstorm. During the storm of early last week, I kept a diary of events. It is very clear from my writings, that I did not handle being without power very well. You'll see what I mean as you read it.

Disclaimer: No humans or animals were harmed during the course of events. Can't say that about my sanity though.

Monday

Morning and Afternoon - Typical damp day. Winds are pretty strong. Mom heads to work, post office, vet, and then is home by 10am. Rest of day like a regular Saturday around here when everyone is home... even though it’s a Monday.

4:30pm - Finishing up with laundry, changing sheets, putting away clean clothes, and preparing for the city’s power substations to shut down.

5:22pm - Two hours before the substations are to be shutdown to avoid any major problems, a transformer has blown in the neighborhood. Dad gets warm meal. Mom and I eat sandwiches.

8:22pm - Record broken for the longest time without power. Record breaking is overrated.

8:30pm - Mom using iPad. Bored. Going to bed. Ambien induced sleep kicks in.

10:00pm - Mom returns iPad. Write poem about Sandy. Must have revenge on Sandy. 

Tuesday

2:30am - Gryffin's dish is empty. He lets me know in every way imaginable. House is really, really dark except for a little bit of glow from the full moon. Or maybe it's Spike Lee.

6:30am - Gryffin becomes giant pain in the butt, again, because his food dish is empty. Now at 12+ hour mark for no power.

Morning - Sleep on and off. Thought power was restored. Wake up to find out it wasn't real. Go back to sleep.

11:00am - Tour outside. Everything non-living survived.Trees not so lucky. Sunny out. Take photos.

1:00pm - House runs out of Coke, still good on the cupcakes.

1:15pm - Dress new Becky doll. Take some photos. Pack her away with Mandy. Try to upload photos to Toy Box FB page. Phone won't let me. Hate phone.

1:30pm - Dad leaves for work after he gets new Taylor Swift song suck in head. Must now take ice pick to brain to remove it.

Afternoon - Test out some new building toys. Very anticlimactic. Buying them was more fun than playing with them. Still, will be useful for blog project. Also, more sleep.

5:00pm - Next street over has power restored. Streetlight shines right through front window. It is taunting me.

6:00pm - Governor press conference. Tells us nothing new.Radio hosts suck. Want to punch them.

6:30pm - Eating warm salads by flashlight. Watch as light gets dimmer and dimmer. Flashlight dies.

7:30pm - Write piece on Women's issues. Need facts and can't get them. Wish for old timey encyclopedias. Get angry. Move on to modern day issues. Get angrier at people's stupidity. Change to different article.

8:30pm - Neighbor gets a generator. Generator is crazy loud.Want to punch neighbor in head.

9:30pm - MacBook battery dies. iPad at 52%. Droid has a full charge thanks to battery backup.

10:00pm - Neighbor's generator stops. Hoping it has run out of gas.

10:10pm - Neighbor's generator restarts. Thinking about stealing it. If it’s going to be super load, I might as well benefit from it.

10:20pm - Open SimCity App. City in the red. Unleash all disasters on city. Watch it burn.

10:30pm - Ambien kicks in. Gryffin is snoring. Sleep has taken me.

Wednesday

1:30am - Need to pee. Stub toe on way to bathroom. Smear blood on cheeks like warrior. Feel like I should have a spear in hand.

2:21am - The generator has stopped. And there is no longer power on the next block over. Cackling like a bad movie villain.

3:00am - Gryffin starts crying over empty dish. Think it would be fun to hunt him like deer. Grabs a spear.

4:30am - Looters have come. Must defend home. Going to give head hunting a try.

5:00am - Have two heads to start my collection. Also got a squirrel. Wearing its paw on a string around my neck.

5:16am - Sensing my desire to hunt him, Gryffin deploys his cuddle moves and climbs into my bed. Calm washes over me.Followed quickly by a heat wave. How can one tiny little thing generate so much heat?!

6:45am - Realize it has been over 36 hours without any political nonsense. Smile for first time in days.

8:20am - Still powerless. Woke up in major pain with dry blood on my face. Feel like I might have been to war in my sleep. Mom and dad both at work. It's cold and wet outside. Gryffin has come to snuggle, going back to sleep.

10:20am - Seems like reports of rain all day were wrong.Sunny out. Can no longer trust food in fridge, so having cold pop tarts for breakfast.Forgetting what the taste of warm food feels like.

11:30pm - Head outside to attack dead trees. Trees attack back. Stupid zombie trees. Hands covered in sap. Overhead full of widow makers.Give up and climb back into bed.

12:00pm - Battery backup runs out of power. Phone at half power. Get notification of system update, repetitively. Phone isn't going to make it much longer. iPad at 38%

12:10pm - Mail was delivered. Mailbox now overflowing with political flyers. Fight urge to chase mailman down the street like rabid dog.

2:00pm - Sun has abandoned us. It's getting cold. Sleep has overtaken me.

2:30pm - Cupcakes are all gone. Mother Nature has bested me.She is like a scorned mistress.

3:30pm - Used last bit of phone power to text Happy Birthday to dear friend. iPad at 23%.

4:00pm - Mom stops home with mozzarella sticks. Stomach does not know how to react to lukewarm food. She takes all devices back to her office to recharge.

5:00pm – Tummy revolts.

5:15pm – Gryffin is crying his little head off. I’m not sure why. He is asking to be hunted.

5:30pm – I’m alone. It’s cold. House is getting dark.Realized it is Halloween. There is no candy in the house. Glad doorbelldoesn’t work.

5:45pm – Found a candle and a lighter. Going to go old school and write by it. Manage to get a number of pages done. Have indent in my finger from the pencil.

6:00pm – Wishing I had some music… “When a cold wind blows it chills you chills you to the bone. But there's nothing in nature that freezes your heart like years of being alone”.

7:00pm - Sitting alone in the cold, dark family room with my thoughts. Feel sanity slowly slipping away. It feels like I have been sitting here forever.

7:30pm - Made friends with a flame. I named her Amelia. She likes to dance.

7:45pm - Amelia is just sitting there, waiting. She is the flame that waited.

8:00pm - Mom returns home with a full charged battery backup and phone. iPad only got charged to 70%.

8:15pm - Amelia blinks and then she was gone.

8:30pm - Curled up in bed waiting for sleep to carry me away. Hoping the end is near.

10:00pm - Still no power. Pull on a pair of sneakers, grab my spear, and go hunt down the blown transformer.

10:15pm - Transformer found, turns out to be a Decepticon. We battle. He breaks my spear. Defeated, I return home and crawl into bed. 

Thursday

1:25am - Woken up by a strange, but familiar sound. "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"A 12:00 flashes blood red in the corner. The cable box is doing its restart dance. Random lights are on. Power has been restored.

7:00am - House is a buzz. Alive. Steam rolls out from the bathroom. A blow dryer turns on. 

10:00am - Turn on the laptop. Greeted by the familiar sounds of a Mac booting up. My TARDIS lets off a warm glow.

11:00am - Took a hot shower. As the hot water rains over me, I feel my sanity slowly returning.

1:15pm – Final Entry – Sitting down to a bowl of mac &cheese and a glass of Coke, while playing some games on Facebook. My world has returned to normal. Hoping the rest of the East Coast isn’t too far behind. 

After the Storms: Photos of Frankenstorm's Wrath

Here is a little photo tour of how the Frankenstorm hit my corner of the world. Not too terrible, but I would have preferred it didn't happen at all, as I'm sure most of the East Coast is preferring.

How I spent the evening after both my iPad and laptop died

My front yard... not all that different from the before photos I posted in my prepping for the storm post

Back stairs the morning after the storm

Large limb that fell

 Was once a very tall pine tree, reduced to a pile of branches

Where the pine tree once stood, a lot of its branch are caught up in the branch of other trees. Next storm we have (due later this week I believe) is going to knock them all down

 This tree has been dead for awhile... Sandy struck the final blow

With my backyard being woods, with a lot of dead trees, we were pretty lucky nothing fell on the garage or house or power lines... heck all the trees that fell in my neighborhood landed away from people's property.

This photos I didn't take, but I wanted to show you what happened just 3 miles South of me at our beach.

Photo: Christian Abraham / CT from CTpost.com

Photo: Christian Abraham / CT from Ctpost.com

Associated Press from The Wall Street Journal

Let's just say that's not how it is supposed to look, however, it's still not as bad as New York or New Jersey. We were pretty lucky... didn't stop people looting or tossing threats at the police, fire, or utility service... but that's a whole other story that I'll get into some other time.  

While my immediate area ended up pretty okay, my Tri-State area sisters NY & NJ, did not. If you would like to help out any areas that were damaged during the storm, you can donate $10 to the Red Cross by texting REDCROSS to 90999 or visit the American Red Cross to see what else you can do!