Hurricane Sandy: Tree Before, No Tree After

Before Hurricane Sandy storm hit hard

Here is my street last Monday, as Hurricane Sandy had begun to blow its winds but still hadn’t damaged Highland Park, NJ. Note the tall maple tree on the left. Little did I know that this series would be the last time I would record that tree in an upright position. You can see photos of the maple tree on past blog posts.

You can see the skies are gray, and all is wet, but unless you listened to the news you would have no inkling this was the beginning of a devastating storm. And behind the car on the left you can see the full grace of the tree that would soon be no more.

I like taking photos of the foliage each fall. This one of the block before the storm will have to do. See, at this point we were hoping that the storm wouldn’t be a big deal after all. Well, you can’t be right all the time.

I wasn’t the only one outside at this point. You can see one of my neighbors crossing the street in the far left of this shot.

At the other end of my block, all looks peaceful, right? Currently, four days later, there are still down live wires in front of the house with the white fence. It is difficult to enter our block by car, because we have live wires at both ends. Hope they fix it soon. The PSE&G truck just sat there in front of the live wires today.

During the Storm

The night of the storm, Monday night from about 4 pm to 11 pm, was really, really scary. If you weren’t scared, then you were a master of denial, which can be quite helpful at times like these. I was watching this tree in my neighbor’s backyard (see the tree above in photo day after storm that is now broken off and leaning) sway back and forth, back and forth. I decided it was less scary to watch the swaying tree than to look at pictures of the devastated Jersey Shore on my computer. We still had power at that point, but we lost it a bit before 9 pm.

After Hurricane Sandy storm hit hard – the morning after – Hurricane Sandy Trees

I woke up the morning after the storm and went to explore. Uh, oh, the big tree a few doors down was no longer up. Luckily, it had hit only a lamppost and had injured no person nor any house.

Many were taking photos, including this young reporter who has just started her journalism career with her school newspaper. She is unsure whether she wants to focus on photography, drawing or writing for the newspaper. This photographing of the down tree is a good start.

Crews have finally begun to remove parts of the down tree – it is now cut into pieces, and one can pass through on one side of the road with a car.

We were lucky on our block about where the big tree fell. These homeowners were not so fortunate. This giant old tree hit wires and their house. I saw another house in Edison that had a corner of the house chopped off by a fallen tree.

Not to feel left out, North 8th had its own adventure with this giant tree. Looks like the tree barely missed the house (but I could be wrong about that).

Finally, here is why North Fifth still does not have power. The library, where many in our community would go when power goes down, is still closed. And my friends on North Fifth are cold, as are North Tenth, Dennison and a good part of the South side by South Adelaide. We had our power restored on Wednesday evening at about 6 pm – wow, was that a happy time for us.

Lessons Learned: Count Your Blessings

Thankful for my family. Thankful for no damage to our property. Thankful for fabulous, helpful, friendly neighbors. Thankful for smart phones existing and for car radios. And for heat in cars. And the fact that our stove burners worked even if our crockpots, rice cooker, warming tray, toaster, oven, dishwasher, washing machine, computers, lamps, coffee grinder and pencil sharpener did not (daughter asked, after we lost power: how will we sharpen pencils? I replied: we have some artsy pencil sharpeners upstairs that will work. We never did do any art work during the lack of power period).

The Jersey Shore communities are not so fortunate. More on this topic in a later post.

I plan to include this post in next week’s Nature Notes.

UPDATE: Part Two: Many Problems Post Hurricane Sandy (please read and share)

Sons of Israel in Asbury Park

The building now has two large crosses in the front: one has to look carefully to see signs that it was built as a synagogue. Details to notice are the stained glass windows.

What do you see in those windows? I see a Torah, menorah, ner tamid, a book, a dove, and possibly someone praying in a prayer shawl on the right.

Also, if you look carefully at the carvings in the front you will see the Hebrew date of 5709 and the corresponding Gregorian date of 1949, the year the building was built for Congregation Sons of Israel.

For more information on the history of Jewish Asbury Park, see Asbury Park: Pictorial History in Brief.

See also a photo in this book Asbury Park.

See more Our World Tuesday.

Kosher Cooking Carnival Tishrei

What’s for Dinner?

Chunky Tomato Soup with Rice by Frugal and Kosher is beloved by her son – I bet other kids and adults will enjoy this recipe as well.

Yosefa went Summer Foraging and showed Purslane Tips and Recipes includes purslane.

Jane presents Hariseh – the recipe. a recipe from a book she reviews called Simply Israel by T. Gila Levine.

Look at this Broccoli and Potato Daiya Cheese Bake – Vegan – did you say vegan?

This one looks delicious: Herb Lentil Salad

I like quinoa! And it seems that Batya likes quinoa, too.

Batya has some yummy suggestions for Easy, Healthy and Yummy Vegetables .

Rivki Silver participated in a Rosh Hashana blog party and made a super salad. Hannah Katsman of Cooking Manager was also part of the blog party – she presented one of my favorite of her recipes, the marinated beet salad.

And for dessert

Do you crave honey cake at this time of year? See Laura’s ginger honey cake.

If you want an easy dessert and you have two extra bananas, try my banana cake or is it banana bread.

How about some taiglach for dessert? Mrs. S. can teach you how to make taiglach.

Sharon talks about the grain made by the Jerusalem windmill in the 19th century. In the twenty-first century, there was ice cream, crepes, wine and fruit.

Hiking Food

As summer is over (if not yet officially), I wanted to end with Batya’s hike food: pittot, tomatoes, olives and salads on the side.

If you want to submit a post to a future KCC, use this blog carnival link.

Banana Bread or Banana Cake

Whether you call this banana bread or banana cake, it is a favorite dessert in our family. When I buy too many bananas and at least two brown ones are sitting on a shelf, it is time to make the banana cake.

Ingredients

• 2 (or 3) ripe bananas
• 1 cup sugar (I used white sugar, but you can try brown)
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/4 canola oil
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 2 cups flour
• 2 eggs
• optional: cinnamon and/or chocolate chips

Mix eggs, banana and sugar until creamy. Add oil, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix in the flour last. Add to a baking pan, and bake for 45 minutes to one hour at 350°.

It’s probably a good idea to store this cake in the refrigerator.

In two weeks I will be hosting the Kosher Cooking Carnival. Send in your posts with kosher recipes, kosher restaurant reviews or kosher menus by September 16.

Nature Notes: Butterflies and Mushroom

Mount Greylock in the Berkshires has a lot of goldenrod on top of the mountain. And many happy butterflies are enjoying themselves.

We also visited The Mount in the Berkshires, where Edith Wharton lived for a while with her husband (before she divorced him) and his dogs. There is a pet cemetery near the garden that has lots of tidy flowers, many of which are butterfly-friendly, like this butterfly bush. The Whartons allowed their dogs to sit at their fancy dining table along with distinguished guests (is that natural? as this is Nature Notes).

We saw this red mushroom besides the trail that we climbed to the top of Mount Greylock.

For more Nature Notes: