Tropical Storms.

We're enjoying the outflow of Cristobal down here in 32080. I'm not at all sure that outflow is any kind of meteorological phrase whatsoever, but there's a really lovely belt of storms lined up just inland all down the northern Florida Atlantic coast, and every now and then one of those things breaks free and swings out over the ocean. We've had three storms since we got here, and we got here at 3 pm. Y'all in NC enjoy Cristobal while he lasts, because the fancies want him in Maine or thereabouts by Tuesday. Heads up, yankees.

Two kinds of egrets, two kinds of herons, pelicans, sandpipers, kingfishers, and various other avian etcetera. This is only a partial and halfassed cocktail hour list. There is also the possibility of hatchling sea turtles: the county had somebody out raking the path from the dunes to the sea in case tonight's the night; they've got nests numbered and flagged all up and down the beach. What has to be raked: tire tracks from vehicular traffic. They drive somebody down the beach each evening to rake smooth the tire tracks from everybody who's driven the beach all day. Hey, new working understanding of metaphor.

It's beautiful here, gray, storms out over the ocean and back behind us over land. Tomorrow: the task of choosing which book to read first, where to site the chair. Looks like the wind's coming from the wrong direction in 27408. The difficulty with the tropics is that when they get into, say, Guilford County, they foul the weather for a while. Come on back up there, regular rain. We've got tomatoes that need tending.