I love having my planters on the front stoop. I wait all winter long for the day to go out in search for the perfect color and specimen of coleus, grasses and sweet potato vines that will be greeting guests throughout the summer. I thought this year everything looked perfect! Better than ever in fact!
The Husker Penstamen in the front of the house were reaching their blooming potential, the various hostas and hydrangeas along the north side were getting ready to bloom. The blackberries and black raspberries were ready to be trained on the new post system that R and I recently put in.
And then it came.
Now in Nebraska, they may say "storm warning with high winds and a chance of hail" and you may miss the storm. But not on Friday June 27th. There was a wide wall of 100 mph winds headed straight for Omaha. And there was also a 100% chance of hail and flooding rains. There have been a lot of weather oddities this spring and summer, but this one takes the cake. Poor plants. Our poor roof!
I said the front stoop and walk looked like snow and tossed salad. We were without power for only a short time. 165,000 other people were not so lucky. Happy that both my husband and I were home safe when the tempest hit was good enough. Anything else can be replaced.
We had so much hail, there was still a small "drift along the front of our house even the next day!
I didn't take any pictures during the brunt of the storm, but our 15 foot tall willow tree was waving wildly about! I should have taken a picture of it at that time, but quite frankly I was a little fearful of leaving the safety of the basement to go in search of my camera! :-) This is our grafted Artic Blue Willow in winds that were only about 40 mph. And, yes, that is hail floating in the flood streaming through our back yard! YIKES!