Shadow of Memory #ShadowshotSunday

Taken September 19, 2012, at a tailgate market in Asheville, North Carolina.

(This is what we call a farmers market; as I recall, they differentiate between a permanent market and what is not (tailgate market).

At a tailgate market, also September 2012, at or near the University of North Carolina in Asheville.

My spouse and I visited Asheville twice; this was the second visit.  Here's a post about my first visit in 2010.

And another one. 

Oh, how about one more Asheville visit?  A visit to 12 Bones BBQ and how I acted like a weird person under the influence of Cheerwine. (which, just for the record, is not alcoholic).

I have fond memories of Asheville, and it breaks my heart to see what the tropical storm that was once Hurricane Helene did to the area.  Because I saw firsthand (in 2011) what floods can do, and our flood was only a fraction of what happened to Asheville, Chimney Rock, and other area places too numerous to list, I know they will have a long road to recovery. Not just from the physical damage (and mental damage) from the flood, but the aftereffects.  

I-40 was decimated by washouts and mudslides. It will necessitate major detours.    It's happened before, in 2009-2010.  But this time, even damage to secondary roads is extensive.

We can hope that the recovery benefits the region in the end.

Joining Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventures for #ShadowshotSunday.

Winds Floods and Raspberry Applesauce

The weather is not being kind to us, or to many people in the United States.

In the Northeast United States, our trials are due to excessive rain and wind. Wednesday night was bad. More rain followed.   Sunday night we had even more rain, flash flood warnings and, a bit after 10 pm, a state of emergency was declared overnight.

I wish we could send that rain to the West Coast.  We've had more than enough for now.

 Here's a couple of pictures to show some of what's happening here.  These first two pictures are the aftermath of our Wednesday wind and rain storm.

Over the weekend, I posted a picture of a tree with red wood.  I was able to get closer to the tree on Sunday after I posted.  I don't think the actual wood is red, but what you are seeing is the layer between the bark and wood.

An uprooted tree shows the power of Nature.

But enough of this (and no, I wasn't going out in the middle of the night to photograph flash floods.  It's time to go raspberry picking and then make some raspberry applesauce.

Red raspberries are not a big U-Pick crop where I live in the Southern Tier of New York, unlike apples and blueberries.  The season is short - very short - because raspberries are fragile, and will mold right up if the weather is rainy.  And, oh yes, did I mention the thorns?  You've got to be careful.  Every rose, it is said, has its thorn, and the same is true for the delicious red raspberry.  Ouch.

But you can't beat fresh raspberries.

Now, about the rain and mold.

That is exactly what happened this year. The picking season is only a week or so old, and it may almost be over (per the farmer I talked to). 

Saturday, spouse and I, along with possibly every other person who enjoys raspberry picking in this area, descended on the same U Pick farm to gather raspberries while we had a break in our rainy weather.

We picked about three pounds, and immediately froze them.  We were afraid they would mold up even overnight in the fridge.

Back in 2016, I posted some raspberry recipes.  Today, I want to revisit raspberry applesauce.  It's basically apples cooked and then mixed with sieved raspberries.  Some years (like last year) we don't get the chance to pick raspberries so we weren't going to wait until apple season in the fall.  We had four large Gala apples in the fridge, so decided, since it was raining on Sunday, to spend some time making the apples. 

The ingredients are simple - raspberries (frozen are fine), cooking or all purpose apples, sugar.  We didn't weigh the apples or measure the raspberries, so the ratio of apples to raspberries is up to you.

 Defrost and heat the raspberries.  (Don't add any water).

While you are doing this, peel, core and chunk up your apples.  Put the apples in a separate saucepan and add some water, just (for these four apples) 1/4 cup.  Don't worry if any peel is left on.   Cook on low heat 20-30 minutes.  While the apples cook, take raspberries off the heat and let them cool some.

Mash up the apples with a potato masher. 

Now comes the hardest part.  Unless you want your applesauce full of raspberry seeds, you will have to strain the raspberries.

This is how spouse does it.  Add the seedless raspberry puree to the applesauce.

Keep chunky or smooth.  Spouse used a portable hand held blender to puree the mixture.  Then, taste and add sugar to taste.  

You are done!

If you can't use it right away, you will want to freeze.  Spouse freezes this in quart freezer bags so they can lie flat.  Don't forget to label with name of the food and the date prepared.

And, oh, the farmer we talked to as he weighed our purchase?  It's a gamble, he said. (This U Pick operation actually concentrates on apples.  They are famous for their raspberry applesauce and I suspect that's why they grow the raspberries.)  They've been growing raspberries for over 10 years now.  They used to grow strawberries, but gave up last year.  Sweet cherries were also something they gave up - cherries do well along the Finger Lakes, but not where we live.

He shrugged when we asked him if they would have more picking dates.  Not before midweek, he said, if at all.  But it's all part of farming, he continued.

Thank heavens for our farmers and their perseverance through winds, floods and more.

Another Boulevard of Broken Trees

 Our country is experiencing bad weather in so many states.  

Wednesday night it was our turn in the area where I live in New York State. Trees down, people without power - at one point, over 10,000 without power.  Yesterday, the local utility (NYSEG) started to distribute dry ice to residents.  Today, we saw utility repair type trucks from a couple of out of town companies.  I just checked NYSEG's website and it appears all but a few households have had their power restored.  Thankfully, our hot weather had paused for the occasion.

I know one person who lost her garage when a tree came down.  Their gas grill was blown across the street.  She was positive it was a small tornado, but it appears to have been "only" a microburst.

I didn't want to take pictures in my immediate neighborhood (at least two neighbors lost parts of trees and there were branches down everywhere) or in a residential area, so we headed to the Vestal Rail Trail. These pictures were taken July 9, after crews had a chance to clear the path.

The interesting thing about this first downed tree (see upper center) is the red color of the splintered wood (noting that most of the foliage belongs to a sumac, not the tree that came down, and the red in the lower left are the sumac's red berry clusters.)  In a search, I come up with dawn redwoods, but do they grow in my part of New York State?  If anyone has a guess, I'd love to know in the comments.

A broken tree along the Boulevard of Broken Trees.

A (I'm guessing) male sumac down here.

 Parts of trees.

At another park, I saw several small branches driven into the ground.   Here is one (upper left).  It doesn't look impressive but I think it's more evidence of the microburst, given there were several of these, just not close enough to photograph together.

I missed the weather excitement in New York City from the recent tropical storm, but I wrote about a different downstate weather event on March 13, 2010.  Here is my original "Boulevard of Broken Trees" post.  If I had only known then how the weather would turn even more deadly.

The Boulevard of Broken Trees - March 13, 2010

 We are 40 miles north of NYC today, and experiencing a nor'easter.  The house where we are staying has lost power twice already.  There are downed trees everywhere, both from last month's snowstorm and today's windstorm.  On the Taconic Parkway there are a lot of old historic stone fences - a lot of them have damage from last month's storm.

After the power went off this morning, we went to McDonald's that had power for breakfast.  Just as we were finishing up there, the power went off.  Everyone laughed-obviously it isn't a rare occurrence down here.

Where we live, we escaped last month's snowstorm but down here, the tree services will have job security for a long time.  I have not seen anything quite like it in many many years.

Today we are having lots of wind and rain.  We had to drive to a party in Yonkers and on the way home there was a traffic tieup on the Sprain Brook Parkway due to a tree that had come down, blocking the leftmost of 3 northbound lanes.  Fortunately it appeared no one was hurt-but in the past people have been killed on this parkway from falling trees.

We saw signs that the nearby Sawmill Parkway entrances were closed due to flooding, and I don't think it will be long before the Bronx River Parkway and the Sprain Brook are closed down, too.

I hope the power stays on tonight and we don't have any trees that fall down here.

We sometimes call Binghamton "Borington"...and on days like this, we can be grateful for Borington's boring weather.

(Even in 2021).

Spirit of Punta Gorda #SkywatchFriday #blogboost

The weather for sunset wasn't promising, but I had learned my lesson last week, and we went to a park in Punta Gorda, Florida just in case.  Am I glad we did.

There, in a park, we found a statue erected after Punta Gorda survived Hurricane Charley.  It's called "The Spirit to Punta Gorda".

This statue was created in 2005 by artist Peggy McTeague and friends, who welded various pieces of metal, including I-beams from destroyed hurricane trailers.  At the base (you will have trouble seeing it in my photos) there is a sundial, with a shadow at 4:27pm marking the time Hurricane Charley hit the city.

Approaching the statue, which is one upright palm and one bowed down palm separated by a sundial.

I think this one was my favorite.

Here you can see both metal palm trees, with real ones in the near distance.

Just think - Punta Gorda ("Fat Point" in Spanish) remained unbowed despite being hit by a Category four hurricane in August of 2004.


Join Yogi and other skywatchers each Friday for #SkywatchFriday.

Day 17 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge #blogboost

Taking Life for Granted

Two events shook our country in the past 48 hours.

1. Tornadoes tore through Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, killing at least (at the time I write this) 23 people, including a 10 year old girl and a six year old boy.

My spouse loves to watch the weather.

Sunday he was watching his radar app because he heard of storms near Americus, Georgia.  We had stayed in a bed and breakfast there once, and have fond memories of our stay.  He put his finger on a couple of radar spots and said "those storms are pure evil".

One of them may have been the storm that hit Lee County, Alabama and killed the 23 people. Some families lost multiple members.

In an instant, their lives changed forever.

I used to live in tornado country - four years in Wichita, Kansas, nearly a year in Wichita Falls, Texas and five years in Northwest Arkansas.  Two years after I left Texas, a tornado hit the Wichita Falls area and killed 45 people. 

When I hear sirens, my heart still stops.  Ironically, the closest I have ever come to a tornado was right here in the Binghamton, New York area, when an EF-1 tornado hit near where I worked at the time.  I remember the people I knew back south and west who survived tornadoes (I met several of them.)


Weather is beyond our control.  We do not respect Nature at our peril.

2.  Luke Perry, once a teen heartthrob, died from a massive stroke he suffered last week, at the age of 52.  Luke was not a member of my generation, but I am seeing younger people I know so impacted.

At some point in your life, the knowledge of mortality knocks on your door.  It can be a brush with a serious illness such as cancer.  It can be caring for your parents in their old age.  Or it can be the death of friends or even actors/actresses of your early life.


It's hard to live life knowing we can leave it at any moment.  Many of us live in denial of that fact, until it is forced upon us.

It's a lesson we all need to be reminded of from time to time.

Winter Wednesday - Snow No Not Again

Not again.

We fared comparatively well in the nor'easter that hit the eastern United States last Friday, although we had plenty of photo ops anyway - like this picture, taken in Binghamton, New York on March 3.  How would you like to be driving (I wasn't, but still) and see this tree leaning over your lane?

And now, we wait.  Right now, it's above freezing, but the day has only started.

Another March day in the Southern Tier of New York...

Throwback Thursday - Top 5 Ways Not to Help People After Disasters

This is a repeat of a post from July 2012, with some minor editing.

Watching the reports of flooding in the state of Texas, something seems so familiar.

Because, on a smaller scale, it happened to my part of upstate New York in August and September of 2011.  It seems like natural disasters strike almost every week, all around the world.

I hope you, my dear readers, never have to learn the following lessons first hand.

My post from 2012:

There's a huge market, isn't there, for the "everything was horrible but I/my city/my country overcame, and now everything is hunky-dory" story.

Except, sometimes it just isn't so.

Actually, I think a lot of times it just isn't so.  I hate to be a Debbie Downer here, but the blind don't always see after miracle surgery, the amputees don't always become Paralympic champions, and people who have struggled with the terrible impact of natural disasters don't always get back to where they were before the fire/flood/tornado hit.  And, sadly, that third thing sometimes isn't because of the disaster - but because of scum masquerading as fellow citizens.

I do know a little something about the third topic.  I've gotten to the point where I can talk about well meaning people (and the not-well meaning people and the harm (or the non-help, at best) they sometimes provide.  What I am about to say may not be popular but it is what I have learned out of the truths of what my neighborhood, my town, my area, went through during a natural disaster last September.

We have been conditioned to think that it is so easy to help those in need.  Just text '12345' (or whatever) and presto, you have helped!

Not exactly.

But, dear reader, there are other ways you CAN help.  I compiled this list not that long after the flood that hit my area of upstate New York last September.  I don't want to presume, but I have a feeling this may be of help to others who truly want to help, but don't know how. They feel they have to do SOMETHING.

5.  Don't come out to see us.  No, really, don't.  First, we aren't animals in a zoo, to be stared at.  Please, give us space.  At first we are in shock but then that shock wears off - and really, we don't want you to see our tears, or some of the things we do that may seem bizarre to some, but actually make sense in context.  If you aren't an emergency worker or with a charity that knows what it is doing, STAY HOME.

4.  Don't take pictures of us.  We aren't one of those commercials where charities use pictures of sad, beaten dogs or starving children to get your sympathy and your dollars.  I got so upset at a cousin (at a family event, no less) a couple of months ago when he told me how he wasn't impacted by the flood but he had gone around and taken pictures where his city did flood.  No Kodak moments, please.  Not unless you are a journalist or a historian.

3.  Don't send clothes.  Well, sometimes we do need clothes but not the clothes that get sent so many times - clothes full of stains, holes, and rips.  If you wouldn't wear it, don't send it.

So many people sent clothes after the flood, and charities were overwhelmed with them.

2.  Don't trash our neighborhood.  We aren't your garbage dump, either.  If you carry in cigarettes, coffee, and sandwiches, please take out what they came in.   Respect us.

1.  Don't call us victims.  We are not victims!  And while I am on the topic of victimization, I hope there is a special place in hell for those who went to charities for help that they didn't need (and literally took food out of the mouths of those who needed it).  Or the "contractors" who showed up, but were really scam artists. 

Ten months ago, the people in my neighborhood were very grateful to the volunteer firefighters, who came on 9/11 to pump out basements, the Salvation Army, who served meals, and the many people who did really help: who showed up out of nowhere and started to help with the filthiest of chores or to set up tents and serve meals.  More times than you would think they had been impacted themselves.  Or, they found their workplace closed and just decided to see where nearby the need was greatest.

THAT was true help.  It will not be forgotten.  For many, the road back is long, and as I pointed out before, they may never be in the same place as they were before.

Today, in 2016,  I would add one other item:  a donation to a major organization experienced in disaster relief might be an excellent way to help, if you are moved by the TV stories.  I will never forget how some of my neighbors depended on the Salvation Army for meals.  Or the Red Cross for infant formula.  The relief organizations need money to operate, and have resources to use donations to buy the goods that are truly needed.  There are many excellent local organizations, too, but you have to do research to find them.  Be careful of scammers!

Just don't exploit us in our hour, day, or year of need. I suspect that is what someone impacted by any disaster would say.

Spring Things - High Anxiety

No lovely photos tonight, although I have some nice ones to show you.  Please, if you want to see the beautiful part of spring, come back tomorrow for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

Spring can sometimes be a time of high anxiety here in the United States.  It's beautiful, but don't be fooled.  It can be deadly.

Early this morning, flash flooding hit upstate New York. This took place less than 100 miles from where I live in the Binghamton, New York area..

Tornadoes in Nebraska.  

I used to live in what is called "tornado alley", so I've had a taste of tornado anxiety. ( I missed this tornado, one of the worst up to that time in the United States, by slightly over two years.)  And now, the city it terrorized and where I used to live, Wichita Falls, Texas, thirsts so for water that they are thinking of treating their waste water for drinking purposes.

And spring isn't over yet.

The neighborhood I live in flooded in 2006 after a weather system stalled and rained, day after day.  It then flooded again in 2011. For us 2011 was a record wet year that climaxed with two tropical storms several days apart.  I've written quite a lot on my blog (check posts after September 8, 2011 if you are interested.) about the aftermath of the 2011 floods.  Only now is the town tearing down some 36 homes in my neighborhood that were less fortunate than my house.

When a book was written about that flood by the local newspaper, an aerial view of my neighborhood was on the cover, although far more neighborhoods than mine suffered - some, I know, even worse.

Since then, it's hard for me to enjoy the sound of rain on the roof, although the terror has faded with time.

But it doesn't take much to get the anxiety going.

Today, we got up to 82 wonderful degrees.  But Friday's forecast is for a high of 66, a low of 44, (I'll let my European friends do their own conversions today-sorry) and a "potential for heavy rain". After the flash flooding of today - well, it may be time for some high anxiety.

But there is nothing I can do about it.

What do I do? Just sit, wait, and enjoy spring while I can.  I'm happy to be alive, and I want to make the most of it.

Are you ever nervous about the weather where you live?

Forty Minutes to a Changed Life

Forty minutes was all it took for a massive tornado to sweep through Moore and Newcastle, Oklahoma, yesterday afternoon.  Forty minutes that changed many lives forever.  Forty minutes that took at least 91 lives, as of this writing. 

Tornadoes are a fact of life in that part of the United States we call Tornado Alley.  I lived in that area of the country (Iowa, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas) for almost 10 years.  In fact, last night, the county where I lived in Arkansas was under a tornado warning for awhile. (A tornado warning is issued when a tornado has been spotted - vs. a tornado watch, which simply means conditions are favorable for formation of a tornado.)

When I lived in Kansas, I met people who had survived tornadoes.  It is a traumatic experience none of us would want to go through.  In this tornado, two elementary schools suffered direct hits and the survivors will live with that memory for the rest of their lives.  A horse farm was hit and, in part of the live coverage, you could see horses that survived wandering around near what used to be a residential neighborhood and was now a pile of debris.

It was surreal, this live coverage, which would have been impossible when I was growing up.

All you had to do is go to Twitter to find out the latest.  You saw photos and videos from the scene.  And, you read worse.  It was heartbreaking - simply heartbreaking - if you read some of the other hashtags that were trending, you saw tweets from people whose relatives are in the affected area of Moore, or Newcastle, Oklahoma.  At least one tweet came from a woman whose cousin attended one of the destroyed elementary schools.  Her cousin was missing.

If you didn't have a Twitter account, you could try the New York Times website, which was streaming live video from the various scenes.  You saw emergency workers, with yellow helmets, swarming over the debris that had been one of the schools.  The only way you could have survived this tornado was to have been underground, in a reenforced concrete bunker.

Google?  You can Google a city or county and if it is under a tornado warning you will see it in a box at the top of the search result.

People continue to live in what we call the "tornado belt". Many grew up there, and their families have been there for generations. When I lived there, we had tornado sirens to warn us.  Now, things are a lot more high tech, but sometimes you only get several seconds of warning.  You can not look out the window and see a tornado coming. And, these storms don't always strike in the afternoon.  Sometimes they strike in the middle of the night.

I saw some of the coverage live, from KFOR-TV, channel 4 in Oklahoma City, yesterday, as a weather helicopter filmed a tornado in action.  When you see the power of those storms close up, you know that your life is so much less in your control than you think.

When dealing with nature, control is an illusion.  All we can hope for is to spend our lives without ever feeling the full force of nature's power.  Especially if you live in Tornado Alley.

Today, the storms are expected to return.

No Comment

Yesterday I blogged about storm chasing contractors who arrived in my neighborhood in the Binghamton, NY area, with a brightly decorated mobile home and pickup truck, all ready to give the homeowners free estimates - and claiming that "We have determined that the complete cost of [their] services in your neighborhood will be, in most cases, fully covered by homeowners insurance".

Today, I came home from work and signed onto Facebook (the Ultimate Blog Challenge page) and found that several people had tried to comment - and were unable to.  I want to thank them for their time, and for taking more time to post on the Ultimate Blogger page.

One person said in part " However, what those people don't say is that if you use the services, even if the deductible is waived, your insurance costs can go up phenomenally. That's the real cost."  I think that, and a comment that did get onto my blog, cut to the heart of the matter.

What I now want to report is what I learned when I spoke to my insurance agent today.  My homeowners insurance is with a major national company.  My agent said my company does not have any such arrangement with anybody to have deductibles waived if I have such company do storm repair work on my house.  She said the firm I wrote about yesterday might be legit, but she suggested I might want to call the police.


Today, when I came home from work, the mobile home and the pickup truck I saw yesterday were not there.


So now I know I did not overreact.  I'm glad I had good instincts in this matter - and that many people out there experienced what I experienced yesterday.  Irene has been a good teacher.


And, for a minute, I want to address the commenting issue with Blogger.

 I could write an entire series on my trials and tribulations with Blogger.  Let's see, there was the couple of days no one could post, right in the middle of a blogging Blogathon requiring you to post each day.  There was the upgrade to Firefox where I had to switch to a different browser to post. There was the couple of days I couldn't upload photos.  Those - they only inconvenienced me.   But this time I am very embarrassed.  My readers were inconvenienced.  I had people who wanted to communicate with me, and they couldn't.

Commenting is the lifeblood of a blog.  It's the possibility of two-way communication with readers that makes blogging special. (and yes, it does make you feel good - well, usually.)  I'm not sure I solved the commenting problem but it seems a couple of comments have been able to get through.  And I was able to post on my blog after signing out.  If you tried to post yesterday, please see the apology I put in yesterday's commenting section.

The Storm Damage Contractors Arrive

When we got home tonight there was a mobile home parked in front of a neighbor's house, and a pickup truck parked across the street.  Both vehicles were very brightly painted announcing that they belonged to something called (without the asterisks or the double quotes) ""THI*Storm*Damage*Repair"".

On our doorknob was a brochure.  It said, in part "Over the next day and weeks you will notice [our trucks] working in your neighborhood.  Our company uses highly sophisticated storm tracking software which determined your neighborhood was among the hardest hit by the storms."

Oh really?  I hate to minimize what any of my neighbors may have suffered but I know areas way more heavily hit.  For example, eastern Broome County.  Villages in the Catskills.  And, oh yes, Vermont.  And Westchester County in NY (more on that below).  But I digress.

The brochure went on to offer a free no obligation inspection of our home since "...[their] employees performed a free no obligation inspection of your neighbors homes and found many had sustained damage from the storm.  The damage ranged from roof and shingle damage to window and siding damage."  And even further "We have determined that the complete cost of [their] services in your neighborhood will be, in most cases, fully covered by homeowners insurance".

Well, I would be very tempted to call my insurance agent and ask them if they have ever dealt with these people and if it was true that they would waive a deductible if these people performed the repairs.  The reason why I am really concerned about this is that I have an elderly relative (in her 90's) downstate, in Westchester County, who suffered a partial roof collapse.   If these people arrive in her neighborhood, will she or her son be tempted to use their services?

I did an Internet search and couldn't find anything much, which could be good. They have a A+ BBB rating but I have recently read that that isn't automatically an endorsement of a business.  On the other hand they are not local but rather from Pennsylvania. This area is hard hit economically.  In my humble opinion it is best, if you need repairs, to use local businesses using local employees. You can check them out by asking your neighbors.

So many things people in storm hit areas have to worry about.  Now, maybe, comes one more.  It's interesting that I did not see these people in my neighborhood after the Binghamton flood of 2006.  Portions of my neighborhood were flooded and evacuated.  Hmmmm...could it be because regular homeowners insurance doesn't normally cover flood damage?

If I am wrongfully suspicious - well, it is better to be suspicious, isn't it?   Due diligence.