Ike, You Were a Wild One....

I worked out in the yard for a couple of hours this morning. This is the time of year when things are starting to bloom but there is still alot of dead grass and brown leaves hanging on. The spa gets ignored in the winter and the algae takes over. I'm so tempted to turn it into a koi pond....what do you think?

I decided to take a pre-spring photo and thought I would post it along with a photo of our backyard last spring and right after Ike.

(This is your friendly reminder to click on the photo to see the details....)

April, 2008...things are blooming.

September, 08....right after Ike passed through.

Today.

Some "before" and "after" thoughts......

Before........a wooden deck that I just knew snakes lived under. The deck was here when we bought the house and we often talked about removing it. Ike took care of that for us.

After........a flagstone and crushed granite patio area where the old deck was...and surprisingly no snakes!

Before....a beautiful aged fence with creeping jenny covering the back corner that I didn't really appreciate.

After....a stark new fence....no creeping jenny....yet....I think I loved the aged patina of the old fence....I just didn't know it. While the new fence is clean, it has no personality.

Before.... I just assumed a hurricane would never get this far north.

After.... I now have a healthy fear and respect for hurricanes. Hopefully, that was the big one for the next 25 years.