WI batten down the hatches....

Anyone else have tornado warnings?? the siren is going off.... you'd think a 30 sec alarm would be enough... nope, darn thing runs 2.5 minutes!! and it's about 200' form my trailer.

I hear thunder off in the distance....

pulling up radar now...

Terese

Big tornado in Minneapolis. ¼ mile wide, 3½ miles long. Right in a residential area.
1 man dead, 18 injured. Most all trees gone, all houses damaged, some destroyed.

Lots of rain here.

Holy Cow Bernie... that sucks.

ours was pretty uneventful... heavy rain some winds for about 15 min. not even a branch down in my yard.
I think in our area... it went north and south... but we were OK.

I'll say a prayer for those injured.

Hope all of you managed to get through the storms unscathed.

We got quarter to golf ball sized hail here and it trashed my hosta garden. I'm happy that my family and home are unscathed, but I can't help but cry over those hostas I've been waiting for since December. I'll assess the damage more tomorrow and see what I can do to make it look better as the garden recovers.

Oh K -- so sorry to hear that. hopefully it's not as bad as it seems.

Seems Joplin MO got decimated. at least 2 dozen killed.

Cilcked on this thread with our cold and damp Spring in mind. Only 36 degrees (not 32) last night thank goodness.

at 5am, the thermometer outside my front door was reading 38f
I'm not too far from you though.

Is it spring yet Minus the storms of course. Hope all is well, my friends................

Ce -- we were tossed right into Summer. it's 74 now, at 6am.
yesterday was almost 90. Blech.

That's what I kept worrying would happen--only a few nice spring days and then suddenly 80s and 90s.

I detest hot weather. I can handle 80s, but I much prefer 60s and 70s. You can always throw on a light jacket if it's cool, but you can only take off so much when it's hot. :P

Yep we were 91 yesterday. But what a day makes when it gets warm...... I woke up to these this morning.

and these.......

and these

Pretty irises, cece! I don't grow them and wish I did. I just don't have enough sunny space for them right now.

I did see aliums growing in the shade gardens at Olbrich Botanical Garden this past weekend. That inspired me. I didn't realize aliums took shade. But look at this lovely scene from the gardens.

And this one. (I need to get this hosta. It's montana 'Aureomarginata,' I believe.)

I have some Allium blooming as well. I don't think they get as tall as that one though............ WOW

Don't look at my weeds............ I've been busy with other things





That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. LOL

Heat helps. I have some trees that are just now waking up. I should make myself up a list of the order of "awaking" of each tree to avoid some anxious moments each Spring.

I tell myself that every year. Have yet to do that. Guess I survive on stress, hey?

We will send you a little cooler weather. Almost jacket weather tonight.
Terrible wind all day, 30 to 40 MPH & more.

Lovely Iris!

K -- yes that is Montana... it's so beautiful... both of mine are up to 2 eyes, *sigh* it may be a slow grower. I took a photo up at Foxfire before they closed... it was HUGE.

windy here too Bernie... nice and cool now but it was HOT again today.

Terese - I was at Hosta Fest in Walworth this past weekend and they were selling H. montana 'On Stage.' I could kick myself now for not buying one. That is one gorgeous hosta. But they were fairly expensive and would've blown my budget. I had to weigh whether I wanted more plants or one big thriller.

I think Pat [RU Pat] has a huge On Stage in that big hosta bed just off the patio. it is gorgeous!! mine is still ONE eye, and quite small. I'm sure I got mine from Foxfire -- i'd have to check, but at that time period, that is who i was getting all my plants from.

I certainly hope all of you from Madison to Milwaukee and towns inbetween and south came thru this last storm unscathed.

we were the northern edge, and had a bit of straight line winds and pea sized hail .. just a coupla hostas got damaged [hole or two in the leaves] , but over all, my yard did fine. I heard we lost a tree or two or three in the Park -- but considering we probably have thousands of trees... we did OK.

the radar looked NASTY as it headed east....

K -- i was thinking of you when i saw Whitewater....

pea size hail here too, for about 5 minutes then lots and lots of rain. The wind wasn't too bad, but the tornado sirens kept going off every 15 minutes for about an hour and half. That gets me on edge just hearing the sirens. All over now but the raining. Naturally, I had broke down and watered my containers and the whole back yard around 5 tonight.

I was out last night taking my mom to look at a car. (Which we did not end up buying, alas. Long story.) We hadn't had time to eat dinner before we left for West Allis (which is where the car was), so on the way home we stopped at Denny's in Waukesha. As we were eating, we heard the tornado warning sirens going off. The waitress said that her manager told her "They're just testing them."

I said, "Uh, no they're not. They test them during the day, and they avoid testing them when there's a threat of severe weather. I assure you the sirens are for real."

So, to prove it to her, I pulled up radar on my phone. There was a nasty bow echo (which means strong, straight line winds) as well as a hook echo (indicates rotation in the storm) on radar...heading east toward us. So, I decided we would leave then and try to stay south of worst of it. We went through a heavy downpour (zero visibility--freeway traffic came to a standstill) and there was some pea sized hail briefly, but we were otherwise unscathed.

I dropped my mom off in Oconomowoc and saw a lot of good sized tree branches down in the area. After I left her, I headed down one back road only to find it completely blocked by a huge downed tree. Called 911, reported it, turned around...and finally made my way home. It sure was a wild night!

Oh, and Terese...I'm actually in Watertown. Whitewater is about 25 minutes or so south of here. Judging by how things looked in Watertown when I got home last night, I'm guessing that the storm must've picked up intensity as it went east and wasn't as bad here.

My poor kids (they're 14 and 17, and they're pretty savvy about weather) were in our creepy old basement when my husband got home around 9. The weather radio went off with the storm warning and they decided to be safe rather than sorry.

ah... i always get those two confused.... whitewater, watertown... it's the same to me... being from IL.
but glad to hear you were OK. i saw that Bow echo on the radar... many of the ladies i was playing cards with last night, live that way... one in Franklin, one from Racine, a bunch from Milw.

thankfully -- our tornado sirens did not go off... but then, we were not in the real path of the storm... just got nipped.

I'll have to ask Sheri [sjweld] how she did... i know Reedsburg was in the path too.

hmmm Karen Denny's huh? Which one? The one by I94? You could come here and waited it out. I was more in an uproar about my dgd out with her Dad and getting stuck in a bad situation. He finally brought her home by10:30, my daughter was in an uproar. She came home from work at 10 and with Ariana not here yet.........I'm thinking storm, she's thinking is just being a, oops can't say that here or naughty chair I will get.

Got up about an hour and half ago. A couple brugs were laying on their sides, the dragonfly lights on the trellis are hanging very low. But everything looks happy to get all that water.

Yep, cece...the one off I-94 on Hwy T. At least the waitress was nice and said she'd help us move to a booth away from the windows if we wanted. :P

If you'd have taken T into Waukesha straight to Sunset, turned left and through about 4 stopngo lights you'd have been to my house. :)