As you might (or might not) know, there's been a lot of rain in my hometown, and even more in W's hometown. Roads are flooded, people are drying off knickknacks with hair dryers in the laundry... etc. W's mom's house has had some major changes.
Grass has been pressed down and covered in mud - you can see how far the flash flood reached.
The creek is still really high - you can't even tell where the banks were originally!
This tree appeared in the yard - we walked upstream and looked and peered but couldn't figure out where it came from!
The water is orange-ish because of the clay-ey soil in the area.
I also found this:
What kind of shrub is it!? I'm going to have to look it up when I get back to school.
I also checked the garden for save-able veg; most of the pumpkins and squash are still going strong, and the tomatoes are still ripening. I picked a bunch, but some had burst from all the rain.
You can't eat fruits and veg that have cracks like this - some people insist it's okay, but I firmly believe that you should put these tomatoes in the compost pile. The cracking lets in bacteria - if you wouldn't buy it in the grocery store, don't eat it from your garden. *steps off soap box*
There was also two flowers that fell down, so I cut them up and brought them in so they can live out the rest of their lives in the kitchen.
Happily, the single rose bush appears to be fine! When I look at it I think of the rose in The Little Prince.
Then it got dark and we went out for pizza, which was FULL of refugees - well, people that were too worried about their crop/livestock being safe to want to cook.
At home, we found a refugee of another kind!
I'm not sure what kind of caterpillar is, but check out the tail!
While the damage WAS pretty bad, no one was hurt and the only thing that was lost was a few tomatoes, some junk that was stored in the basement, and part of the yard. I'm sending prayers to those downstream, where the flooding wasn't flash - the photos that I've seen from Binghamton are absolutely horrible. I also found a photo of the facility I used to work at! Yikes.
Be careful of that caterpillar-looking bug. That tail doesn't look to good. Tomato Horn Worms are dangerous because it has a hook tail like that. My Uncle got snagged by one years ago and they had to rush him to the hospital because his arm swelled up fast. You better google that one!!
ReplyDeleteOh my! The big, permanent kind of flooding is finally going down here and uncovering the same kind of damage, so yikes! Good to hear everyone and everything came out okay for the most part. That purple flower looks like what we so scientifically call a butterfly bush! It smells sooooooo good! What a pretty rose!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear things are OK. I think Ness is right, we have a type of butterfly weed in our yard and the flowers look the same.
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry… I hope things get better quickly and you don't have much permanent damage.
ReplyDeleteThat worm gives me the creeps!
Wow, sorry to hear about the flooding, but glad to know no one was hurt. Amazing flowers to come out of all that.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear nobody was hurt!! I really hope things get better. -hugs-
ReplyDeleteAt a guess, I'd say your caterpillar is from this family: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphingidae. The ones we've had in our garden have been green, but otherwise they look very similar. The first time we saw an adult, we were visiting family in NJ, and we thought it was a hummingbird. They can be huge!
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