First estimate just came in on the house damage - $25K.

Violent thunderstorms, tornados, hail, flooding, bad economy. Sheesh, it's been all gloom and doom lately. I'd ask, "What's next, plague of locusts?", but apparently that's coming too! More accurately, cicadas, but same idea.

Anybody have good news? There's got to be good stuff happening, too.

Yep, I'm waiting for the cicadas over here but I thought they were here last year too. Maybe those are the ones whose clocks are off.

My good news is that the gal who mows our backyard gave me a bucket of Redbud seedlings yesterday. Not big stuff, but I'll take what good or fun news we can get. I'm hoping at least four or five of them do well. Love Redbuds!

I am sooooo glad you have insurance, Red. So glad!

on the redbuds! They bloom at a time when we are so very ready for spring. It's a nice start to the gardening season.

I went out and took some more photos today, although I haven't looked at them yet. The idea was to find good news, even on a small scale, so I used the macro setting on my camera and got really close up. The new leaves and flowers look beautiful, even if the rest of the plants don't. We'll just have to enjoy the good parts.

Pewter Lace fern

Delosperma

Conversation Piece azalea

Lonicera sempervirens

Appleblossum snapdragon

Rose 'The Fairy'


There is one benefit to having all the old rose foliage pummelled off - the new growth has no black spot. The rose actually looks like it does in the catalogs!

Doronicum 'Leonardo Compact' (purchased last week from the Lowe's clearance rack - I LOVE rescuing plants from there.)

Hydrangea

Very nice photos, Red. The close-ups are so beautiful, aren't they?

We had a little hail the other day. Nothing like yours but I held my breath until it was over. Just pea size and didn't last long at all. I haven't seen any damage but there are probably a few bruises here and there. So glad it didn't amount to much. Ugh!

The peppers are coming, hooray, hooray!

I'm very glad the hail wasn't too bad there. We had another scare the other night with "gusty winds and the potential for damaging hail" in the forecast, but dark skies and a little drizzle were all that came out of it, thankfully. I wasted a lot of time dragging plants into the garage and hauling them back out again the next day, but how could I not react to that kind of forecast after what happened before?

Your peppers look really good! I'm surprised there's been enough warm weather to get them producing already- you've done quite well with them. What variety are you growing?

These are Sweet Banana and Hot Banana. I hadn't even looked for any peppers on them because of the weather and so early in the season. One day I looked and there they were.

Do you have a veggie garden or veggies?

I've got herbs (mostly to look at, since cooking isn't my thing) and for veggie plants I have tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers, edamame, and one lone strawberry plant. Nothing is producing yet, but the beans have flowers now.

new thread - link