Post Sandy New Jersey

We have electricity, but much of our community does not. Trees down, no transportation. See some pictures of my mother (93) and a downed tree a few houses away:

 

 

Hurricane Sandy and Margie Hardesty's 90th birthday

Hurricane Sandy is coming, and we just got back from West Virginia where we went to Margie Hardesty's 90th birthday party! We've bought gas for the generator and have milk and bread, and moved plants and light chairs off porches or into protected corners.  I went to the garden and picked lettuce for dinner salad and some beans and tomatillos to freeze.  Big change from the lovely party for Margie.  First picture is Ina Jean Hardesty and MSW; second is MSW, David Hardesty and Margie, the matriarch and birthday girl;  then David, Margie, and Andy; and finally is Lucille and David.

Sometimes when I'm out exercising on my Nordic walking sticks (rain ending today, passages of warm sun), a haiku comes to me:

It's about motion:
Little feet flicker, hurry,
Head low-- gray flanked cat.

Fall at Last

   We're having a quiet week-end: my husband's birthday, with chocolate cake and lots of phone calls for him. It's beginning to feel like genuine autumn, including the disappearance of Destructo the Ground Hog and a salad of new greens (including lettuce, which is outrunning the slugs and protected from the ground hog.  Also in the salad, small leaves of Red Giant mustard greens, mache, and late green beans, blanched and marinated a while in the vinaigrette.  I love the garden best in the spring and fall when my flimsy little plastic cloches and mini-greenhouses and sunbrellas protect the hardy greens that want to live through the cold weather.