Wild Weather

Strong storms went through Central Ohio last evening and wreaked havoc on their way.  Last's weeks weather was really extreme. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday it was in the 80's and pleasant. Thursday and Friday it was 100 plus degrees. At 5 pm  Friday-the storm hit our area.  We were very lucky in that we did not have damage or lose power. The neighbors next door lost a significant portion of their silver maple which also hit their roof doing minor damage. We spent this morning helping them clean up. The neighbors on the other side of the street have no power. Other friends that I have heard from have reported varying degrees of damage and thankfully no personal injuries.  There were some people injured in accidents around the greater Columbus area as the storm hit during Friday evening rush hour preceding a holiday week. There were a lot of downed power lines too.  My rabbits fared well throughout the heat. Selene and her kits and Norman (20#) and Duke (12 yrs old)-the ones more susceptible to the heat got to come inside for two days from noon to 9 pm.  Norman got his towel and scrunched it up and laid under the toilet all day.  The rest of the rabbits got a great big 36 inch fan brought in, in addition to their usual two fans for extra cooling power.

Reinforcements!

 

Norman relaxing under the toilet

This is  news center 10 graphic of the storm- an odd phenomena called a derecho thunderstorm.

The image above from the Storm Prediction Center shows the line of storms that rocked Ohio and surrounding states on Friday. The storms produced widespread wind damage from Indiana all the way to the Mid-Atlantic coast. The picture above shows how the storms were able to travel 450 miles in just 6 hours! In some cases, the line of storms produced wind gusts exceeding 80 mph. We had several such gusts in central Ohio, but Ft. Wayne, Indiana, reported the strongest gust at 91 mph!
The line of thunderstorms, known as a derecho, began as a cluster of thunderstorms in the Chicago area late Friday morning and took on a signature "bow" shape by early afternoon. The "bow" shape you see on the radar imagery indicates powerful winds. Looking at the radar picture, it was no surprise we saw so much wind damage!

 

Our neighbor Judy surveying the damage.

 

Andrew getting the mess cleaned up!

Glass Artifacts

We've found a lot of interesting discarded glass on our creeking trips as of late. The rains we got earlier in the spring must have washed it loose and the lack of water now makes it easy to spot. Some of the bottles we have found date to 1920. In this photo you can see an antique Orange Crush bottle that was made in Columbus, OH.  I have a lot of fragments of colored glass/milk glass not seen in this photo that are pretty to look at.  It's fun to collect and helps clean up the creek at the same time. Back in the old days people didn't haul their trash away. They just threw it on a dump near their house. That's where this stuff is coming from. I found this blog on dump digging. Seems we aren't the only ones who enjoy finding treasures.

Extreme Cuteness

Lucie in a Rocket Dog tennis shoe!

Dazzling Dragonflies

Andrew went on a field outing with some colleagues to Oak Opening Nature Preserve in Lucas County, OH (north). Here are some photos he took while there. If you mouse over the photo and look in the bottom of your browser you can see the name of the photo which identifies the name of the individual dragonfly.

Selene & Co.

Kits are 16 days old today. They are black, chocolate, chocolate tort and black tort. (Mama has a summer hair but but she is also solid black)

Unbelievable Sky

Last evening we got some much needed rain.  The sky afterward was just amazing-shifting from orange to pink to purple and then to gray and finally dark.  These are our butterfly bushes-one pink and one purple in this cropped but otherwise non color enhanced photo.  It was a beautiful night.

Pip Updates!

Pip's got a new nest!  There are four kits in it.   She made the nest a couple weeks ago and then did nothing with it (the little sneak).  Andrew saw her feeding the babies the other night so we knew they had arrived.  This evening Pip's friend was in the rabbitry.  S/He let me get close enough to get some decent photos and then went on to have a close encounter with Pip of which I was also able to get photos. Not my best work due to lighting/rain etc. but you get the idea.

The little sneak herself

Another Pip

Look at Pip's posture as the other rabbit approaches...

Head on a swivel...

These are my people!!

New Wheels

I bought my Trek mountain bike brand new in 1995.  At the time I bought it mountain biking was all the rage and it was considered to be a top notch bicycle.  Over the years the amount of cycling I have been doing has decreased in proportion to the comfort level of my body on my bike. At the beginning of the summer I decided to start riding to work during the milder weather in order to get exercise, lose weight, and to save $ on gas.  Then Andrew and I decided to add some evening trail riding to our routine to increase my daily miles; he tuned up my bike and I got a new helmet.  After about a week of riding Andrew proclaimed that I needed a different style bike-that the mountain bike was no longer cutting it. This he based on my description of some of the riding challenges I was enduring and the number of massages he had to give me on sore muscles.  My in laws each have Townie Electra cruising cycles.  They are retro style upright bikes and I had ridden theirs and like it.  That's where we started and I ended up purchasing one.  I love it-it's the most comfortable bike I have even ridden.  We've been cycling about 15 miles and day and on work days I get another 4. We're having fun and enjoying the summer too.

New Arrivals

Lilac Haven's Selene and Lilac Haven's Ryan are the proud parents of four new babies born June 6. Selene just turned 3 and this is her first litter. She has done a nice job of taking care of her little ones.

Hello My Friend

Pip's been out and about again now that the extremely hot spell is over.  She was especially friendly and interactive yesterday.

The Sweet Sound of Rain

We haven't had rain for weeks. The ground was cracking and the flower gardens looked like July-all yellowish and wilting.  Today we got a full day of much needed steady rain fall. I actually wore jeans and a jacket outside.  The cloudy sky was a wonderful reprieve from the scorching sun.  And this I am complaining about in May already. Pipsqueak spent the entire day alternating between digging a new nest and dodging rain drops by hunkering down in the rabbitry. 

(lower left corner of photo)