The Aftermath, OR Hanna's Belated Gift!

In my last posting, I bid a farewell to Hanna, the storm that dumped rain, but not too much else. As it turns out, she left us some belated "gifts" for us to remember her by. What a THOUGHTFUL little tropical storm visitor.
It seems that Sunday afternoon, as I was cleaning off my screened porch, Annie B,(the youngest daughter of the Y'all family), called me to the front of the house. She had been dong some homework in our study, and was distracted by birds right outside, who were raising an absolute rukkus! I stepped out on the front porch, and looked up into the branches of the enormous oak tree that spreads it's branches so beautifully across out front yard. Right above me, I saw (and heard!) a tufted titmouse, chickadees, a couple of mockingbirds and a blue jay, all hopping around the tree's lower branches, issuing some kind of an urgent message. Remembering a lesson taught to me as a very young child, by a sweet neighbor lady who was an avid bird watcher, I recalled that our feathered friends rarely group together with those who are not their "kind" preferring to socialize with birds of their exact species. Only in time of trouble, do they join together. At that moment, I noticed the bravest of the bunch, a mockingbird, diving at something about two feet off the porch. Looking down, I was astounded to see a snake, about 4 feet long, slithering within plain sight, right through the blooming white impatiens, just inches from my bottom porch step! Annie B. watched the legless creature, as I ran to get the Hubby, who was in full lawn-mowing mode in the back yard. Our hero, arrived with axe in hand and saved the "damsels in distress" by quickly dividing the slithering invader with a couple of rapid blows, and then hauling the remains out of sight! The really amazing thing was, that the birds were immediately silent, as if to say, "And now we will give you peace, since you destroyed our predator!"I am not in favor of destroying many of God's creatures, but snake is just not a welcome inhabitant of the Y'all garden! I am certain that this creature arrive in the neighborhood, via our creek, that was several feet above it's banks, due to Hanna's heavy downpours!
Later, we returned home from a youth group picnic, to find the entire right side of our house had been "relandscaped" by a huge fallen limb, about 30 feet long, from one of the five large trees in our front yard! The limb had fallen on the roof before landing on our front landscaping, right on top of our newest boxwoods. Yet another portion of the year old gutters was badly dented, and partially pulled from the facia trim of the house. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and, other than a mess, there, was minor damage. The limb must have had so much weight on it, with all of the rain, that it could no longer support the weight of the heavy leaves, sending it down, according to my neighbors, with a crashing blow and thud! Yet another calling card left by Hanna!