During the month of October The Plains was displaying an imaginative collection of scarecrows throughout their small village. It was another excellent reason to stop and have a meal at one of their small restaurants and afterwards stroll around viewing the creations. There were more than I have pictured below but these are the ones we liked best.
This was outside the wool shop, love the knitted candy corn.
This was outside an art shop and was Mum's favorite I think.
I liked this display the best, outside a restaurant. Very clever and the expressions are marvelous.
Only a plastic mask but the face is hilarious.
These displays all made it through Hurricane Sandy so they must have been taken indoors or protected during the storm. We were so pleased to see them intact after those horrendous winds.
I also had to find time to put up my fall decorations so while Mum was sorting out some of her purchases one afternoon I got out the boxes.
After an hour or so I was done and feeling very festive and autumnal. I adore the mouses running along the hallway and up the kitchen walls and will likely leave those there for some time. Dear little Rosie thought they were real and spent a while charging at them until the novelty wore off as they never ran from her.
I had wanted Mum to witness a good old American storm but we weren't expecting a superstorm like Sandy. Because we'd not read any newspapers or watched hardly any TV, we were living in our own little world and only found out about the impending storm from the wool shop in The Plains.
We were a little skeptical until we watched the weather report on TV so we stocked up with water, wine and plenty of food and waited. Stuart was filled with gas in case I couldn't get any after the storm and as we sat watching TV I think Mum wasn't really accepting that this was going to be a humdinger. I'd even removed all the hanging ornaments from the dogwood tree, the patio furniture was stowed away in the shed and my plants were put on the ground close to the house. We had some wind but Mum reckoned the storm was going to pass us by.
The lights twinkled cheerfully as night crept in and as it got darker the winds got stronger. By late afternoon Mum was apprehensive and I was pretty sure that we were going to lose power soon. The lights flickered on and off and then at 8:30 went out for good. I lighted candles and lanterns and we sat on the sofa listening as the wind got stronger and stronger, howling around the house and roaring through the trees. We could hear branches and God knows what being thrown against the back of the house and I prayed the windows would hold, but I played it down and didn't let Mum know that I was actually quite anxious. A couple of times I put on a jacket and checked outside but after the second time the wind barreling through the branches was too alarming and I stayed indoors. We went to bed with the winds still thrashing around the house but both being good sleepers we soon drifted into deep sleep.
The morning didn't reveal much damage. Thankfully our trees had been spared and as I walked about it seemed only Stuart had been walloped, with a coat of soggy leaves.
We decided to go into town for breakfast but as we went down the hill we saw a tree was blocking the way with its branches caught in the power line, tugging it downwards.
We saw Kit, a neighbor, sawing up another tree crossing the road, and he explained that the one across the hill couldn't be touched, as per Dominion Power's instructions. We'd have to wait for the linesmen to come. I walked down to the bottom of the hill and flagged down an SUV who told me the road was completely blocked each way by more downed trees and flooding. Looked like we were going to be trapped for a while. Matt and Tom, the other neighbors came down to help Kit so Mum and I wandered back up the hill frustrated at not being able to leave the house. Later in the day I decided to heat up some leftover stew on the fire and chopped up a few potatoes to cook then mash. As we settled down to begin watching the fire cook our meal, I got a call from Maggi who let us know that the men had cleared the tree regardless of Dominion's warning, and we were free to leave! We jumped in the car and drove down the road at the bottom of the hill but we found the road blocked by a tree but also by wonderful linemens trucks as they were fixing the power cables. We turned around and after about 20 minutes of traveling bumpy and muddy dirt tracks we got to Marshall where we enjoyed the best omelette ever. I was also amazed to find Mike, a guy who I'd worked in a diner with a few years ago, was working at the diner and his family had actually owned it for more than 10 years. We had a chat with lots of hugs and a promise from me to drop in one evening. We left with very full tummies and drove back to Meadow House. As we climbed the hill we spotted orange lights twinkling through the french doors. The power was back on! It really had turned out to be a fabulous evening!
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