Nasty Nicole

 As predicted, yesterday we spent the day indoors as Hurricane/ Tropical Storm Nicole made her way across the state.  By the time she reached us, the winds had died down considerably to about 35 - 40 mph, and by the end of the day we received between 2 - 3 inches of rain.

Folks on the east coast of Florida did not get by quite as well as we.  Four people lost their lives to the storm, and parts of the coastal beaches were washed away, taking homes and properties with the waves.  The devastation is far worse than many expected.  I could not imagine leaving my beach house, some of which were perched up on high ground about 75 feet from the shoreline, to return to find that those homes are totally destroyed.  Parts of the coast have been declared uninhabitable, and there is talk that those folks may never be able to live on their land -- that is, what is left of it -- again.

The worst that we received was one blown off fence-post cap, which I was able to retrieve and Rick reinstated today, a leaking front door that needs a new seal underneath, and a back yard full of debris.  

Small branches and hundreds of leaves and sticks
litter the back yard after the storm.

Since we have trees on both ends of the yard,
the debris covered the entire area.

We started today with lingering rain, but by noon we were able to get outside to rake the branches, leaves, and sticks that littered the yard.  The debris came both from our live oak tree and the neighbor's camphor tree.

Piles of debris await bagging.

I really DID rake, too!  I am always taking
the pictures instead of being IN the pictures.

After a couple of hours of work, we once again have a clean yard and three very full bags of debris to haul to the curb for pick-up on Monday.

Three full bags will have to wait until Monday 
to be picked up by the city workers.

Nicole was the latest hurricane (November 10) to make landfall in Florida in the past 38 years.  I hope that we can bid goodbye to the storm season for good now and enjoy a peaceful winter.