The day before the super storm three robins landed in our backyard looking stunned and more than a little outraged. The fluffed out their feathers and spun around. Then they just stood for a while, looking like stranded travelers in an airport. We rarely see robins here at this time of year, and these three were clearly not just out poking around for hemlock seeds. They seemed to be harbingers of something big coming. Our cat Jesse was so frantic from the strange feeling in the air that he ignored the robins and kept chasing leaves. The storm in the NC mountains was a hybrid of hurricane fallout and winter storm. We're so far from the coast that we never get the brunt of a hurricane. But this time we had very high winds, a bit of rain, and then last night-- snow, which is lingering on today.
