High Tides and First Strong Norther
Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well and staying healthy as flu season quickly approaches. I plan on stopping in during my next mainland trip to get my yearly flu shot. I honestly don’t know if these shots fight off the flu entirely, as I know there are different strains, but I’ll continue to take them each year as a preventive, especially since I’m spending time with mom in the nursing home every week.
Well, as I sit here inside the kitchen on the morning of the 11th, I can see and hear the first true norther of the Fall season blowing outside. I can also certainly feel the temps starting to drop as a much needed drizzly rain falls from the windy sky. The winds are forecast to be 25-35 mph, and not drop below 20 mph until tomorrow, and right now I can hear my big island chimes, made partly from island seashells, singing a beautiful tune outside. I love those things.
As with any hard blowing norther out here, the tide always rises several feet during the first few hours, before it starts to recede and gets lower. And with the unusually extreme high tides we have been having, this norther really pushed it up very high. For the past several weeks the tides have stayed high, at times covering my pier, which normally only happens during a storm. I had read that the coast has been experiencing King Tides, occurring when the sun, moon and earth all align together at the same time. Just Mother Nature reminding us that she is in charge.
This begins the time of the year that fewer people are coming out to the island ( Yay! ), mainly because of weather, deer hunting and holidays. The cooler island winter months have always been some of my favorite times, especially for beach combing. Some of the more unusual seashells and beach finds tend to wash ashore during these months, and no one else is around to scavenge and find them. Of course the weather is much nastier, and with a hard blowing norther, the sand from the dunes is blowing across the beach and feels like bb’s hitting you, but it’s still all good. . . and there is no other place I’d rather be.
My mom, Leona, will be 80 years young on Oct 19, and we are looking forward to celebrating her birthday in Seadrift with lots of food and a birthday cake. I am so blessed and thankful to still have my mom and dad with me, and I cherish every moment that I can spend with them. Happy Birthday, Mom!! I love you.
Well that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a wonderful day.
