Down, as in Batten and Hunker

That Henri guy was a pesky stinker.

We did All The Things to prepare for Hurricane Tropical Storm Henri. To, you might say, Batten Down

Here we were Before.

Obviously, we had a *lot to do.

But moving everything around gave us a chance to admire the gorgeousness of our little friends . . . 

August looks good around here.

We harvested the 'maters . . . 

(...That's my dress, not an apron. 

Thankfully there were no neighbors around...)

. . . we brought it all in . . . 

. . . and added it to the neighbors' donations and farmers' market finds . . .

. . . and even those deck palms came inside . . . 

. . . it was very festive and hilarious in the kitchen.

. . . I think they liked it too.

. . . and once we were Battened, we got ready to Hunker.

Henri arrived and it rained and the winds swirled and we ate all the Hurricane snacks and drank all the Hurricane beverages and all of a sudden it was over and we brought everything back out and it was a gorgeous summer afternoon . . . 

. . . so we even mopped our almost-never-naked kitchen dance floor in celebration.

And then all hell broke loose.

The radar lied; Henri didn't go quietly west. He hung out and sent his wind to us from the *other* direction and everything fell down. Well, not everything but you know what I mean.

But we picked it up and went on with our lives, because what else can you do?

We're lucky and happy to be safe and dry and electric with no damage, and we hope everybody else made it through okay.

Pesky, that Henri guy.