Morning after Nicole made landfall

Good morning Folks, 

Thanks for all of your prayers. I was pretty calm, although I have to admit a couple of fear niggles did come up, but I prayed and left them with God. I slept good last night.  We had light rain and some wind all day yesterday until around 9:30 last night when we had about 30 minutes of 'heavy' rain with stronger winds. All in all we got around 2 inches of rain. Winds at that time were 27 mph. 

All night was rather quiet. I woke up around 3:15 checked the weather and saw that Nicole had made landfall north of me about 56 miles away. She hit as a Cat. one hurricane 75 mph winds, but quickly became a tropical storm. At this time she is now over central Florida with winds 60 mph. 

I went outside to take some pictures, the sun was shining then, but now it's cloudy skies again, looks like more rain might be possible.

I loved how the morning sunlight was hitting the pine trees.

This was a bit tricky for me to put up, but I did it. I could not find the plywood top and the front piece is crooked, but hey for me being on my ladder, praying and doing my best I was happy with the results. I did have to tie some rope across the top to tighten it up.

All of the plywood, and this old shutter was what we had on hand without going out and buying new wood. I think I'm going to have to buy new plywood though, and have someone cut me new coverings. I'll keep this shutter though as it's in great shape except for peeling paint which can be sanded. Mark made these around 2003. He cut the heart shapes so that we could see out. He could have just made circles or squares, but he surprised me with the heart shapes. Oh how I miss him!
 

These next pics are of the living room windows inside, and then one outside.

I'm so glad the storm has passed. It's been a somewhat stressful few days preparing, waiting and watching, but we survived. I'm so thankful to God for sparing my having to deal with destructive storms since Mark's been gone. I've had foliage clean up to deal with, but nothing major. They've all gone around me. Well, one a few years back I did go stay with my SIL and BIL north of me, because the storm was headed our way and it did hit. I was there 3-4 days and we were without power. It was good to get home and see nothing was damaged. Each storm is different. 

It looks like the cottage could stand another coat of pain. This paint job is from 2016 and the Florida sun has faded it out.

Ok, that's it from Plum Cottage for now. Just wanted to let you know all is well.

Enjoy the blessing of the gift of each new day.

Love, hugs and prayers,

FlowerLady

Nicole update and a song

Greetings from Plum Cottage, I've done my preparing for this storm, except for two window coverings. If the storm gets worse, deacons will be here to finish up what I couldn't. We've had some rain and wind already. The storm could make land fall from our area to north of us in Melbourne. A cat 1 hurricane has winds from 73-90 mph.

My dear SIL sent me this song a little while ago and it is very encouraging and faith building. Just what I need. She also is fearful and the song is helping her. Keep us both in prayer. We encourage each other.

 Ok, that's the latest. Enjoy each day you are blessed with and know that if you believe, Jesus is always with you, through every storm.

 Love, hugs and prayers,

FlowerLady

'Nicole'

Good morning Folks, just before 6 p.m. yesterday, I got an email from electric company saying they were preparing for possible power outages as subtropical storm Nicole could possibly become a hurricane with projected path being my area. Holy Moly! First I had heard about this storm. The adrenaline started pumping and I started thinking of things I needed to do and I started praying. I listened to 'Be Not Afraid', God is in control, and other fear destroying you tube videos. Those helped a lot and I went to bed feeling more peaceful. 

Nicole has shifted a bit to the north and I'll be watching the path during the day to see what I need to do about boarding up or not. I have plywood for windows, and doors, need to locate the wingnuts to fasten down plywood. 

It may not be too bad, but time will tell. A lot of rain is predicted. Do keep everyone in this path in prayer, as it covers a good portion of FL and moves northward. Wherever it lands it is predicted to be a Cat. 1 hurricane. At least that's what they are saying right now. Only two times in recorded history has a hurricane made landfall in Florida in November. Hurricane season ends the end of this month.

Glad I mowed yesterday. That's it for now. I've got to eat some breakfast then head outdoors to get somewhat prepared. I'll keep you posted. 

TIA for prayers,

FlowerLady 

 

 

 

Greetings Folks ~ Here we are into November. This year has zipped right along. We had a week of lovely cool weather, then it went back up into the 80's, so I'm still using the a.c. It's not as bad as it was a couple of months back.

I got out and mowed this morning, I got what I wanted to do done and the battery died. There was a nice breeze and I barely broke a sweat. I hand watered some potted plants afterwards. Rain is expected for a few days, and that would be nice. I do need to do some laundry if the weather is nice tomorrow. I use a 'solar dryer', a clothesline. I enjoy hanging out the wet laundry and then taking it down as it smells so wonderful and fresh.

This past Friday night I went to a ladies wreath making event at my church. We had a choice of fall or Christmas. I chose fall as I already have one for Christmas. We had 4 different wooden ball wreath bases to choose from, I chose one made with small balls.

 Our pastor's wife showed/told us how to make a bow, very easy and pretty.  We had different styles/colors of ribbon to choose from. After we made the bows, we attached them to the bottom of our wreaths. Then we picked out a main decorative piece and after attaching that we added fillers. 

Great fun! Every wreath was unique. 76 wreaths were made. Before wreath making we a wonderful, homemade salad, then pizza, several different kinds, I had sausage, and a scrumptious brownie.

Our church secretary gave the main encouraging talk, and her daughter gave a lovely testimony of how God had worked in her life to change her heart from hard to soft. It was beautiful and brought tears.

It was after this that we started on our wreaths. I got home close to 10 and was totally wiped out. I'm used to my little quiet life, being settled in by this time of night. But, it was wonderful being with so many sisters, young and older who believe in Jesus.

I am getting used to Windows 10 in new computer. I also ordered PSP 2023 as new computer would not accept the older version I'd had for probably 20 years. That is taking a little getting used to also. Learning new things is good for us!!

 A friend from my ladies Bible study group gave me 5 tubs of yarn. What a wonderful gift!! I've gone through it all, sorted out some that I wouldn't be using for my comfort blankets, and ended up with a tub to give to another friend who does a lot of crocheting, making fun things for others.

The three tubs I ended up with sat in the living room until this morning when I cleared out a space in my little wash house to stack them in. I have an empty tub left over.

 I bought some plants and they filled up this same space as seen above. The car smelled heavenly!! 

 I had to put other plants on the floor of front passenger seat, and the back seat floor also.

This is Marlberry. I had already bought other plants and loaded them in the car, but when I took the cart to space for them, I spied a huge plant right next to space with a wonderful scent. It just nabbed me and I asked an employee who happened to be out there if he knew what it was and he did. He told me the name and said they had just gotten a nice shipment of the 3 gallon size. I headed back into the nursery and over to the area where I remembered seeing the name. I picked out the best looking plant and left the nursery with a huge smile on my face and thankfulness in my heart.

This next plant is one both hubby and I loved. Had it for a few years but they died. This is Pink Muhly grass. So wonderful when the sunlight hits it.

Here's my cart at home full of plants, and then you can see the purple Lancepod flowers from the tree that I grew from seed many years ago.
 

For me, plants are healing for mind, body and spirit. I'm working on an area that is quieter than up front, and will show it once I've got it more or less set up. It's a work in progress at the moment.

The other day I went to another nursery to get some potting soil and a hibiscus jumped into my eyesight and nabbed my heart. Then I looked a few plants over and there was another one of a different color. I bought one of each.

I watched a video on these particular hibiscus, Hollywood, and the grower said they put more than one plant together to give a fuller look. I then remembered a recent video I had watched about getting more plants from nursery grown plants. This person said to take plant out of pot, and wash away the soil, exposing the roots and pull/cut the plants apart. That's what I did, except not a lot of the soil washed away, but wetting the soil made it easier to separate the two plants. So, I ended up with 4 hibiscus plants. YAY!!! The plants didn't even wilt!

This is the one that caught my eye first, Disco Diva. The colors are amazing. The flowers huge. They are very tropical.

This was taken later in the day.

 

I believe this is Run Away Beauty, it didn't have a tag, 

but I googled, of course. ;-)

 

 Below is the Double Delight rose I got from friends for my bday this year. She is such a beauty with a wonderful scent!!

 

 Two stained glass windows in the living room hit with morning sunlight the other day.

 

 I'll end this photo session with sunset pictures taken Halloween evening. The colors in God's creation are so awesome and beautiful!!

 

You can see the sliver of moon in this one.

 There is so much beauty to see in each day that we are blessed with. We just need to be tuned in and then be thankful to our Creator for His beautiful gifts to us. Small or large, they make our hearts sing with gladness.  They give sparks of life to our days.

This is the month of Thanksgiving. Let us thank God first for our lives, then thank Him for our loved ones, for friends, for the homes we have, our beds, hot and cold water, food to eat, pets, and so much more. Make a list. Be thankful.

Love, hugs and prayers,

FlowerLady