Goodbye Irene

After every hurricane I swear I'm leaving before it arrives and then when the next one approaches I find a reason not to leave. In the past the howling of the wind for 6-7 hours just wears me down but Irene's sustained winds didn't seem to reach the howling threshold but gusts did reach 60-70 knots. It had been very dry for the last month so the gusts didn't roll any trees out by there root ball but did break many branches. The winds and gusts on the backside after the eye moved past were as strong as before the eye arrived--this was unexpected. I spent the day cleaning up but only two broken limbs required a saw to cut but there were literally hundreds of smaller branches. I braced the weeping threadleaf arborvitae again for northeast winds which worked until the winds came from the northwest and a restraining line helped but it is leaning. I'm sure it will recover. Here are before and after pictures.

Irene brought a lot of rain. I had a bucket with a concrete block in it to hold it in place as a rain gauge. When I took the block out this morning there was slightly over 10 inches. That's the most rainfall in 24 hours that I've ever seen.

The night before Irene the Cereus decided to bloom. It started to rain shortly after I took this picture at 12:30. First a picture of the bud as it swelled before blooming.

The rose of the week is La Ville de Bruxelles. It is a Damask Old Garden Rose first introduced in 1849.

Church Flowers this week and an arrangement.