Senior kitty

I don't want to lay it on too thick, but kitty turned 12 last month. Elmore was only 13 when we lost him. They say that indoor-outdoor cats tend to live about 13 years. I don't think that Sisco's behavior has changed one iota over the five years that we've had him. But you'd better believe that I'll be watching closely!

Wistfully, wisteria

We have a smattering of bloooms, still, on our trellis. Nothing like what we had when clematis clung to the vine, but enough to sustain belief that summer won't end for another three weeks.

Prepare for fall

We had to pull our boat off the water for Irene. That really hurt. We might have gotten another six weeks of enjoyment out of the season.

The close-up picture is a few days old. The side-of-the-house pic is from last year, but you get the idea.

Then, when we went to Rocky Neck to look around -- to see what other boats had been pulled -- we saw chestnuts on the ground. Of course, you may think that the hurricane knocked them down. But the hurricane was not able to bring down our tree's last apple, which Victor really wants to eat. It's going to be fall too soon.

After Irene: Personal

We had not limbs but twigs and leaves down in the yard. Pots blew over, and our sunflowers out front bit the dust. So we now have a lovely vase of sunflowers on our table.

Hatteras, post-Irene

Seriously, new inlets? We didn't really need new inlets... or did we? Would nature create what it does not need? I don't think that Mother N is prone to redundancy. Below, that water is pretty blue, which means: deep.

Note: These pictures are in pairs as each pair depicts two views of one area (three areas in all). Two images were provided by the N.C. Coastal Federation; the others I gathered in shock and did not note from whence they came.

On Hatteras they were debating last year whether to extend the Bonner Bridge through Pea Island (the uninhabited, protected stretch of northern Hatteras). It looks like they should have decided to do so, but they did not.

The segmented roadway is what has isolated approximately 2,500 Hatteras residents. You can't get there by car, and the ferry from Ocracoke has stopped because Ocracoke is having some highway issues: The dunes are completely gone along some stretches, which must be cleared to ensure that they remain whole.

We are supposed to be vacationing there in, I believe, 53 days. Despite what NC Governor Purdue has said on the news, I *believe* (believe, believe) that our oceanfront cottage will be accessible via Ocracoke. As long as no additional storms blow through.

After the storm: Local

It feels mean to describe the minor damage that we have here in Gloucester. From North Carolina to Vermont, people are truly being pushed to the limit. (You probably just saw some North Carolinian imagery, intended to be one of the posts atop this one. Awful.) Here on Cape Ann, the storm brought out more gawking than distress.

The top two pics here are lifted from area blogs and papers. Number One is credited to John McLaughlin, and Number Two bears a credit. Three and four were taken during the "eye" -- not that the clearing is bright enough to be noticeable.

Below is what happened on our sea-glass beach on Rocky Neck.

Victor glasses

Victor keeps finding opportunities to get over to Ten Pound Island, often when I'm at work. Nearly all the glass that we've collected so far this year (in the big pile) was collected by him.

The pieces that are segregated are some of the nicest ones collected during his Saturday trip. (I was, again, at work. Harumph.) My favorite is the dark green triangle, sort of in the middle.