It’s Yom Kippur, a fast day, so of course I will not be talking or even thinking about food!  Or making all those hackneyed observations about food obsession and compulsion while the world starves.  Oy.  At least for now!

But I can still post flowers!  Flowers for thought.

Sorry, someone has to say it, Jewish in-joke, JK I mean YK!  Haha.  So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Seriously, it’s erev Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish year.  And that’s about all I have to say on that.

For us it’s mostly just another day in TN, where Jews are probably a foreign Commie liberal conspiracy or whatever.

And now, back to the weather.  It’s still pretty soggy out there, but it looks like what’s left of the storm is moving northeast of us and then a hard right out to sea.  Sadly, the devastation and recovery in the Carolinas are just the beginning.

Here are some wet flowers.  Autumn is coming.  I think it lasts all winter, down here.

The remnants of this storm up here took the form of days of rain and a soggy, rejuvenated garden.  We are the lucky ones.

The devastation not that far from here will take months of recovery and rebuilding.  That’s assuming our @$$-in-chief deems these particular citizens more worthy of help than others, or it serves his purposes at the moment.

But enough of me.  Here are some happy flowers, and will you look at that, some cat insinuating herself into the picture.

Our “tropical depression” is underway, so of course I’m outside (for therapy).  The flowers look happy enough.  And not-my-kitty, who does not live here, looks way too at home on my office bed.

Just waiting for the depression to hit…tropical, that is.  You could feel it in the air, early this morning.  Once again, I’m glad to be so far inland, but concerned for the devastation along the coast.  How long will people keep denying the effects of climate change?

The black cat and I were hanging out, taking pictures (mostly of him).  He’s super friendly, but he appears to “belong” to the people across the driveway.  He likes to survey his vast estate from our deck.  Meanwhile, the cat who does not live here is chowing down, out of the rain.  Hm, where did all those cat amenities come from?  It’s as if we were expecting a herd of cats.

Wind is picking up, and clouds are swirling around the sky.  It’s still a beautiful sunny day here, while just to the southeast, cities are under water.  I feel for them, knowing how hard it is for people to lose everything and just start over again somewhere strange, in a country where national “leaders” only serve themselves, not their citizens.  It’s all you can do just to tread water and find higher ground for yourself, trying like hell not to get swept off along with all the ethical values.  That’s my homily for today.

And now back to your daily flower installment.  BTW, this is NOT our kitty, making herself at home, eating our cat food, getting all comfy on our furniture, etc.

We’re minus one erev member today, as my son is out of state at a conference.  I confess I was getting spoiled by his weekly presence, but I’m happy he’s able to travel more freely for work.  I’ll take what I can get!

Meanwhile, the show must go on.  The flower and critter show, that is.  I witnessed our resident garden spider enthusiastically wrapping up some prey in white silk packages for later consumption.  Nearby this hairy caterpillar was enjoying the cowpeas.  Evidently those are a big attraction.  Glad I could oblige.

This is a huge female yellow garden spider with its trademark zigzag, camped out on the cowpeas.  These photos don’t do it justice.  Also happening…E’s famous excellent challah and peanut butter cookies, and yet more colorful blooms.

While Hurricane Florence is threatening extreme damage to the southern coastal areas, then considering turning her sights toward us, for now it’s a calm, sunny day here.

Though we Americans have had plenty of warning of our increasing effect on climate change, many of us will be the victims of indifference and greed.  Not everyone is in a position to just up and move farther and farther inland as nature encroaches.  And our charlatan-in-chief leads the way in ensuring we all pay the price for his denial and incompetence.

Sorry, I feel strongly about fools playing god with our very survival.

For the supposedly driest month of the year in TN, it’s been pretty wet!  And seriously hot.  Some days I can’t even keep gardening.  I empathize with those who work outdoors for a living as I did, because conditions are clearly becoming more extreme.  Or maybe I’m just a spoiled old Yank!

Speaking of which, here are some spoiled kitties acting cute for attention, and flowers being pretty after rain.  They don’t give a f#@k what humans do with their world, as long as they get fed and watered!  I envy them.  The cowpeas are getting huge and starting to turn purple.

Waiting in suspense to see what kind of cataclysm Hurricane Florence will be, this is one time I’m glad we’re so landlocked.  Nowhere coastal is safe anymore.

Nobody can tell us such historically catastrophic, more frequent storms are not caused by climate change.  But our nutcase-in-chief continues to live in his delusional world where all is “terrific”.

Meanwhile, before the deluge, here are some fiery flowers of late summer.