Pepper, please let us know if you get ahold of Rusty.
May Weather. Will it ever be spring ?
65°/82° A mix of clouds and sun with a slight chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Warm. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Bernie, my dwarf iris, fruit trees and lilacs are done. The TB just started blooming as is the columbines and a few other perennials. It IS Spring!
Farmer's Market is going well for you! How many chickens do you have?
Elena, I'm sorry you are so worried. It isn't easy to ''just pray'' when you love someone. I hope things go well for her and will continue to keep her in my prayers. Prayer sent.
I'm looking at a few of my iris getting too big for their britches. It seems I just got them blooming after the last dig. Now I'll have to wait for a bloom if I divide :o)
Wow Pepper! That was close!
Oh Bernie, not a good way to die :o(
Our storm started at 5:01 and the power went out 15 minutes later.
Pepper, cool! I remember the article you posted on the Dr.
Oh my gosh! I hope Rusty is OK!
Sasha, I think we had your storm clouds pass over us. They mean just what you got! I'm glad you are OK!
Pepper, I think I'm lucky to live where I do. Most everything really bad passes over us and intensifies.
Tornado watches and warnings mostly to the North and East of us last night, but we got the second round of pounding rain up from the South. It was pretty dark and rain blew down the road and across roofs. We had a few sticks down and picked them up after the storm. The power went out for a couple of hours. Almost immediatly every one in town was out riding around. I just lay down at 7:00 pm and fell asleep for a while :o)
We got a half inch of rain on top of the 4/10'' so we're watered for a while.
Sasha, these clouds brought your bad weather.
A picture for Bernie. The field at the end of town.
And here it is.
Here's the news about in Joplin, MO:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/8530556/Storms-in-US-Midwest-massive-tornado-damage-in-Joplin-Missouri-and-Minneapolis.html
I just about a mile from the tornado!
I am okay and so as my dogs was so spooky to them!....Also no power for 12 hrs...
My next-door has barn shed blew into my home and yard... It was okay no damage... Just a little messy....
This message was edited May 23, 2011 11:54 AM
Rusty, I can't even imagine how terrible it was to know you were so close to it. I am so happy that you are OK!!!
VERY happy!!!
Yes, very glad to hear from you!!!
It was hot and humid today but the humidity finally broke some after 5pm tonight. But tomorrow is gonna be even worse and we will probably be under a moderate risk for severe storms and it may even be elevates to high risk. Gonna be an interesting day tomorrow. Will have to keep an eye on the skies.
(((RUSTY)))
First off to any of you w/ Family or Friends in Joplin my heart goes out to you.
Having seen the shots and video it looks like Xenia.... and that's not good.
Glad to hear that Rusty has posted!!!!
We had a rough storm rumble thru about 7PM tonight.
Well our power went out for about an hour but everything is fine here.
83,000 homes are still w/o power in the area.
NO severe damage! So all is good!
Looks like a close call but it was worse north of us and south of Joyce.
Talked w/ her during the storm and she is fine.
I'm so sorry for everyone who suffered through the storms. It's hard to believe I live in the same country. 98 today with 45 mph winds 13 % humidity. 10 months of drought. So very hard to help plants grow with not a drop of water but our city water is still producing. River's completely dried up. Water table dropped at least 100 feet. Trees are dying and blowing over and sinkholes are coming up.
I has no power last night for 50 minutes back on...
More tornado tonight and tomorrow...
flooding my yard!
62°/79° A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers this afternoon. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Pepper, I hope your storm fizzles out. Be safe!!
Ric, I've never had scenes touch me so much. It was all the cars on the streets, and the buildings just collapsed. It was very shocking. The tornado was a s wide as my town. That puts it in perspective.
Prissy Jo, boy, your water table really drops! You ARE lucky to still be drawing. We are down about 22'-24' for water, and even the little creeks hardly dry up. Do you have houseplants? Do you try to garden?
Rusty, we crossed. I hope your tomato plants don't drown and I sure hope the weather fizzzles out. Prayers sent to keep you safe and youe dogs calm. Hang in there :o)
Major storm early this morning. Electricity was out for a long time but back on now. We have lots of yard cleanup to do but nothing like from the two others earlier this year that ruined our area and our trees. I think I posted pictures here but am not sure. Those two storms were rough and lots of folks still haven't gotten cleaned up or their roofs done, etc. It is not a pretty sight around here because there was so much damage. We still have half of our wooden fence to rebuild and two huge tree roots that stick way up in the air and have big holes beside them. Hubby is trying to gradually whittle away at them and gradually burn them out too but that will probably take many more months to complete. I have convinced him to wait till fall to rebuild the fence. All of the wooden posts that were sunk in concrete haven't been removed from the ground yet and he will have to replace those in the fall too.
Oh, how thankful we were that we didn't have another of our huge trees on the ground this morning.
Everyone in Oklahoma be safe!!
They are being bomboarded by tornadoes right now. Heading to joplin and part of the upper part will hit us later tonight.
For those who want to help tornado victims, they need work gloves, heavy duty trash bags, water and other stuff to help with clean up. People in Oklahoma will need everything right now.
53°/73° Thunderstorms likely. A few storms may be severe. Winds E at 15 to 25 mph. Rainfall may reach one inch.
Elena, we came home last night to find our power had been off for an hour and a half. It was off three hours the day before.
I'm glad your clean-up isn't drastic. After we had straight line winds, I never saw so much foam insulation nailed to houses. People took advantage of the insurance money to fix their houses instead of spending it on other things.
When they burned huge piles of trees that were freshly knocked over, I was told they used diesel fuel. Whatever it was, the green trees burned right down. In a day or two they were just a smoldering ash pile.
Pepper, I can't even imagine all the things they need, but it's a start.
It's raining :o) I saw lightning as soon as I sat up in bed at 4:00 am. By 4:15 we had a heavy rain and it' tapering off into a steady rain. I see a couple small puddles in the garden, but it's all soaking in. That's good.
We got the boys to the oldest's first ballgame last night, (6 and 7 year olds,) and they got to play just a little before the sirens went off. We grabbed them and the chairs and headed for their house. It was just a T-storm warning and not a tornado, but was a great chance to show the boys a different sky.
DD and my little ''pineapples'' :o)
Looks like the pineapples are almost ripe on the vine or rather plant. Pineapples don't have vines do they? Duh! LOL She has my prayers for a safe delivery for both mama and babies. How exciting!!!!!
No tornadoes here in Belgium, but the drought is getting quite insane here. It's allready the dryest spring since the beginning of the recordings in 1883 and we've got another huge forest fire here today :(
Ofcourse no rain in the predictions for weeks to come unless that lucky isolated shower will hit us tomorrow...
Yikes! That's awfully close to you! Is that near your home/work or do you work for the fire dept?
Well, it has been a very, very active day here today. From around 10am to 2:30pm or so there were active funnel clouds and/or tornadoes all around here. They started in Kansas and moved northeast. All of Kansas City and surrounding counties were under tornado warnings at one time. There is a low pressure system stationed in Kansas City that was causing all of this to happen.
There are no deaths but in Sedalia, MO there are about 16 minor injuries due to what could have been an EF1 tornado that touched the ground. There is no damage around me. I spent an hour in the basement under the stairs listening to local deejays relay weather reports. There were funnel clouds spotted southwest and southeast of me at one point then again northeast of me. My coworkers spent an hour in one of the coolers at work.
My family is all ok also. We were all scatted around due to work but everyone reported in with no damage to their buildings or anything. There might be hail damage but that's not known at this point.
The storms are now well north of me and are no longer rotating or severe. So that is great news for everyone north of me.
Current temps are in the 60s and it is raining again. It was sunny but the storm is wrapping around so we are getting more rain but no rotation. Will be under a tornado watch til 6pm.
kwanjin: it's only a picture from the Belgian press, didn't made this myself but didn't knew how to link it otherwise. It's in the northern part of Belgium, about 25 miles from here, but the smoke was reaching far into the Netherlands and was even visible on satellite.
So far there's no direct threat for homes and people but there's alot of wind expected so they'll have a hard time to keep the fires under control.
It's quite frustrating since we used to have a great climate here for gardening and nature with mild winters, rainy and cool summers. Now that I finally got a chance to enjoy gardening and the nature we suddenly have cold and snowy winters with dry summers and long droughts which completely ruin the natural beauty of my country. Not to mention what the impact will be on our economy as my rainy country isn't prepared for a desert climate at all :s
edit:
maybe I 'd better put the url in it so you can view more pictures of the fires in my country
http://www.nu.nl/buitenland/2524453/heidebrand-kalmthout-beheerst.html#slideshow-/slideshow/1885033/popup.html
This message was edited May 26, 2011 11:29 AM
51°/66°A shower or two around the area early, then partly cloudy during the afternoon. Winds NNE at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
Elena, laughing! She's tall, so she's a tree :o)
Prayers welcome! Carly was breech and turned, now Callun is breech and backwards. She has another ultrasound Friday and I'm praying he has turned.
Otherwise, I'm excited!
Cumulus, I sure feel for you, having no rain. Are you close to the fires or have to breath the smoke? Prayers go out for you.
Pepper, I'm so glad you have a basement and am so glad nothing happened to you or your family. It's going to be scary for a long time to come. DH has considered a concrete storm shelter. Trouble is, we have no good place to put one. We'll keep working on it, or else summeer will be here and he'll forget all about it.
Cumulus, I was wondering about the economy. I'm glad the smoke is going away from you, but sorry for the Netherlands.
Thanks for the link. Those are prety big fires. I sure feel for you and everyone trying to fight them. I hope they can get them out.
The overhead photo really shows up!
I wonder why your weather has changed so much. They talked about polarity of the earth flipping. Maybe it has. You have my sympathy.
Wow, Cumulus. Those are some eerie pictures. Thank you for posting them. I'm with BP in sympathy for you. Things are changing all over and it's hard to adapt sometimes.
Cooler today than yesterday. 60º and overcast.
Thanks for all the sympathie going out to me/us :) I'm not very talkactive on the forums here, but I appreciate it very much.
At least we're safe from the fires here, but I'm really wondering where we'll be by the end of summer as there isn't even the slightest hint of rain in the predictions beside a couple of showers for the ones who are lucky to catch them (usually that's NOT Londerzeel where I live).
No rain, no goverment, no water in the barrel, but I try to remind myself that there are worser places on this plannet. And luckily the beer is cheaper than the water here, so there's still a last resort for my plant collection...
Cool and sunny this morning with temps near 50. Finally reached mid 60s for a high. Much nicer!! lol. No storms or rain in site today!!
44°/70° A mix of clouds and sun during the morning will give way to cloudy skies this afternoon. Winds NE at 10 to 20 mph.
Celia, love those little geraniums!
Cumulus, I have to smile. Beer is good for the lawn, so maybe, the garden too.
I don't know much about Belgium, but am interested. I see you are straight up from Brussels and not near the sea. Are you in zone 8 for planting?
Pepper, I'm glad your weather is changing! It's time to get down to business and dry out.
Bath time
billy: This used to be zone 8b here indeed, but last three winters were within the definition of a zone 6b here. Either there's something wrong with the USDA- zone maps, the climate or... me.
Looks like that red bird has had one bath too many. Tee hee
Cumulus, that IS quite a zone jump. It looks like the weather is following a different trend now, if they changed it. I sure wouldn't want to go colder. I do remember years back, that they did revise our zones and make a better mapping of it. My zone stayed at 5, but we are more an 5A than a 5B. It limits some of the zone 5 plants I can grow, so I ty to go to zone 4 at least for hardiness.
Elena, LOL!
Chilly with temps only reaching mid 60s. Was in 50s this morning. It's cold enough that we have the heat on in the house. lol. Sprinkles off and on thru out the day. Chance of rain again tomorrow. We need a break from the rain and cool weather. My tomatoes need to get bigger!!
57°/75° Rain showers developing around late morning. A few isolated thunderstorms developing this afternoon. A few storms may be severe. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.
We had a fairly decent day yesterday and played outside. Got a little rain after we got back from the park.
My tomatoes are too big and need to harden off!
The cat just banged the porch door to get in and tore off down the hall for .......the litter box! Can't go outside I guess, LOL!
Loved that cat desperation stuff. Funny what they get used to isn't it? We only have one or two tomato blooms so are far from having any to ripen or harden. We always feel good if we get ripe ones by the fourth of July.
Cool we had two raindrops here today, I have put one in a jewel box to keep it as souvenir :)
I wish I could send you some. We have a little we could spare. Not over wet here, but hot summer is coming.
Drizzly all day. Chilly too. Just miserable weather. lol
Hardy geranium finally blooming. This geranium plant is itty bitty but it's hanging in there!! The bloom is tiny too.
We have LOTS of rain to spare. Wish we could parcel it out to those who DO need it.
It was GORGEOUS here today for the Roundup.
Low 80's, Sunny and no Skeeters!
Here's our Class Portrait
59°/82° Partly to mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms. A few storms may be severe. Winds E at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
Elena, I discovered the beginnings of blooms on the cherry tomatoes :o)
Cumulus, I think I would have saved a adrop too, LOL!
Bernie, same here, we have enough.
Pepper, cool and breezy here all day.
I love the pink on the white. I have the wild pink and the Johnson's Blue. I need a white one :o)
Celia, if only we could.
Ric, gorgeous picture of everyone too!
It's supposed to warm up today. I wore shorts yesterday while the sun was out and needed a coat when the clouds covered it.
May is lovely, but let's get into June!
Baptisia
Almost hot today but a decent breeze made it bearable. High of around 87 and sunny.
Got to mow for the first time in years today. I haven't been allowed to mow because my dad hates my mowing style then when we got a new mower I wasn't allowed to touch it. lol. Today he finally relented and let me mow a flat section of the yard. The mower is a very touchy zero turn but I sorta got the hang of it. The basics are down, just gotta work on smoothing it out. Am hoping by the end of summer I can mow the whole yard. I still won't weed eat though. I'll cut off my foot if I try using it. lol. I'm very clumsy and flat out refuse to chance it.
My two baptisia plants. Twilite Prarieblues and the yellow version. The yellow one I may have to move since it's not getting big.
The Yellow ones are not quite as tough as the blue/purple ones for some reason.
'Bout the same weather here Pep.
Worked out in the yard till 12 then headed for Joyce's, then the Family Picnic.
Got home about 9PM.
Brutal Driving up...... no traffic coming home.
Gas is down to $3.75 from a high last week of $4.09...