Friday, August 6, 2010

The Tropic Of Virginia






The day started out in innocence as so many of them do. The plan was simple, GG would drop me off by Key Bridge in Rosslyn on her way to the flower shop. I would walk over the bridge, through Georgetown for a haircut ( and a blonding, right?) at my friend Blaise's shop.

Skies were overcast which meant I could truly enjoy my stroll. I stopped and stuck my camera through the bridge railings to snap a picture of the boat house and another of some piles of boats belonging to Georgetown University rowing teams.



A quick stop for coffees, a few minutes admiring Blaise's window boxes brimming with petunias, potato vine and coleus and an hour of chatter and product later I was out on the streets. I window shopped, ran into old friends, hung out at the book store and waited for GG to pick me up after 1:00.

Drove home in the merciless sun, had a fast lunch of tomatoes and peppers from the garden with toast and cheese and were off to see a matinee of The Kids Are All Right. No better way to spend a HOT afternoon. As we drove the rains came, then the winds, by the time we were in the parking lot the trees were bending to the left, touching the ground in a yoga like position I can't hope to achieve. And the car was moving, swaying, about to take off into the sky. We drove into the parking garage, I could not even see where it was, we were in a whiteout.



15 minutes later ,the winds had died down and we raced across the street to find the theater black,actually all store fronts were black, we had lost power.

Back in rain, back in car, back home to cowering dog and pissed off cat, and no power. The limelight hydrangeas standing so tall and proud on Tuesday were broken and battered. The vegetable garden looked just as bad as the day before but now I can blame it on storm.

By 8:30 gave up on power, went to local karaoke bar, ate bar food and listened to some really appalling singers. Returned home at midnight, took dog for long walk, the power had returned and we slept in air conditioned comfort.

Staycations can be fun!

If a bit alarming.

7 comments:

  1. Oh Jane, sounds like you had quite stormy day! So sorry about the devastation in your garden. Luckily we haven't had that much summer storms in Holland yet. We had a heavy one last month, but since it is a bit cooler the storms have gone. Hopefully the weather will be better the coming days! I enjoyed your photos of the boathouse. It looks great! Did you ever go canoeing there?

    Happy weekend!

    Lieve groet, Madelief

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  2. hi jane,

    oh the drama! man i can't wait for you to see the movie so we can discuss the ending.

    i appreciate the comment you left me yesterday. see what happens when you leave me alone! that'll teach you. i've got quite a few feathers up over there.

    sorry about the garden but they are resiliant as you well know. have a great weekend.

    now get back over, be brave and watch the trailer. buck up girl, you can do it.

    ~janet

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  3. So sorry about the garden, but you may get a September revival after all this rain. We missed the worst of it last night, but tornado warnings were all over. Guess it's August! want to see that movie, but life is intervening.

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  4. Good thing we do not have much of it here. whew! I hope to see your window box garden or some container gardens at home. Do you mind posting some of the pictures here? :) Thanks a bunch

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  5. I thought I was missing summer rain, but maybe not. I'm very sad about your limelight hydrangeas. They were so pretty.

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  6. so funny... it turned black as night, but never rained in baltimore.

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