Battening down the hatches....

It appears that we on the eastern Seaboard and in Atlantic Canada are about to get what we euphemistically call "a spot of weather" in the form of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/major weathersnit Noel. It's hard to say just what we'll get because the storm keeps changing, which is what hurricanes do, of course.

The last time Nova Scotia got clobbered, we got clobbered royally, with Hurricane Juan in late Sept 2003; I should clarify, because only some parts of the province were belted. The Valley, where I live, was not in the path, and I missed out on it completely because I was at sea with CCGS Hudson, bopping around a place called The Stone Fence looking at deepwater coral. We had some rude waves, but nothing serious--in fact, it was quite lovely, we were quite safe, and work continued.

Dear friends of mine lost their dairy barn when one of the silos came down on it during Juan, and many others had a lot of damage; and a few lives were lost too. Maybe that makes us extra cautious now. (I just heard from the dairy farming friends, and the silos are full and all is secure--plus they're not in the main path this time.)

It looks like Cape Breton's famous winds, Les Suetes, could be going to have a little blow of up to 140 kph, which those who live on the Cheticamp shore are accustomed to dealing with on a regular basis. It'll be something like what we experienced while we were in the Labrador. (And Newfoundland and Labrador are in the path of this oncoming weather adventure too, but they don't hang their laundry out til the wind hits 100 kilometres or so--so they say!
Thankfully, the moon is past full and the tides are down from their high marks of a few days back. Let's hope that Noel veers off somewhere else, breaks up, or is just a regular Atlantic weather tantrum--those of us who live on these shores are tough, but I hope all will be safe. Some of the lobstermen here are landing their gear, just to be on the safe side.

Interestingly, it's flat calm now, quiet and still. This afternoon I was out taking photos of seedheads, for the next post, in which we'll play a little game of "what plant is this?" Stay tuned, or rather, come back later when I finally get that post finished and up!