Sunday, February 17, 2013

Weather Whiplash

We're back in St. Martin after about two weeks in Rhode Island and we're still sort of adjusting to being here. It was beautiful flying over the Bahamas on the way north and seeing the sand banks and all the colors of the water streaming together.


Then we landed in Boston. It's January in New England (and everywhere else of course). What were we thinking?! The first thing we did when we got into our house was this.... 


.... and we didn't put it out until we left almost two weeks later. Our apologies to our really nice new tenant - we just about used up what was left in the wood pile. We cleaned dirty things, repaired broken things, replaced missing things and generally worked our butts off while we were there, which is just what we were there to do. We had a flight booked to leave on Monday and on the Friday before, this happened...


Those are giant arborvitae bending almost to the ground with the weight of the TWO FEET OF SNOW that fell on Friday and Saturday. The snow fell and fell and fell and the wind blew and blew and blew and then more snow fell, and then this fell...




If this looks at all familiar it's because it's practically a repeat of this. So where we used to have two big beautiful trees in our yard, we now have only one half of a big beautiful tree. The snow was so heavy and the wind so gusty that it split our big juniper tree in half and it came crashing down in the back yard. We lucked out this time though - it didn't land on anything but grass. It missed the house, the studio and all the wires running to the house.... and not by much! 

I do NOT miss this at all.
A call to our tree guy found him vacationing and lamenting the fact that he was missing the biggest tree removal week for a while. I promised him our tree will be waiting for him when he returns. So we locked up our neat, clean house and started thinking warm thoughts as we headed for Logan airport. I had a little trouble with the warm thoughts part as I watched them de-ice our plane. Cripes.


We have to say a big thank you to Eliza who ferried us back and forth to the airport, at night when we arrived and then in the snow and slush and muck when we departed. Thanks Lize... you're a gem.

I haven't taken any photos of lovely things here since our return. Just this photo....


.... of Skip working on our windlass which has been protesting as we use it to bring up the anchor lately. Stay tuned for an update, but it's not looking good.


7 comments:

Miles said...

It's good to be #1 for a change. Even if I did have some insider information. Hope to see you guys on your next visit to the mainland. Keep an eye out for our future post-maho vacation spot please. And get a couple good "skecthable" cockpit shots.

Cindy Barnard said...

Being #2 is fine. Really. Fine.
That being said, this was a great post. Talk about both ends........
Get going now, I want to use the new map Dad gave us to start tracking you to new and exotic harbors. P.S. I have biz cards!

Eliza said...

Unfortunately your backyard STILL looks like that because we got even MORE snow. Luckily the arborvitaes bounced back and I was able to retrieve the birdhouse :)

Madeline said...

Thanks for rescuing the bird house Lize.... sounds like the remaining bit of the tree is alive and well so we'll find a new home for the birdhouse somewhere in it's branches.

Cin - We'll get going soon.... I promise. Keep that big chart handy.

Miles - I'll take a shot of the cockpit for you when we get it cleaned up. So... don't hold your breath.

Kerry said...

Been there, done that. But I do sometimes miss that woodstove! I'm so glad that "Tree Fall 2013" was less destructive than "Tree Fall 2010." I'm also glad that we weren't there this time. I'm pretty sure our landlords would have kicked us out! :)

Kim said...

Oh, Maddie...that was a lot of snow. Ha! Welcome home...lol.

Glad you're back "home" and thanks for scanning the beach for me. :-) You two looked awesome.

xoxoxox
me!

wingssail said...

Nice blog, nice photos, great to meet you. Fred & Judy