An inflorescence of yucca meets rain and wind…

A week’s worth of hot sticky days ended in a several hours of lightening, thunder, wind and rain last night.

The weather alerts came often, preceded by the annoying attention signal.  This is a dangerous storm, take shelter indoors.  The wind gusts were sixty miles an hour, as promised.  Out back a limb of our struggling old elm come down.  It’s reduced to two branches reaching skyward.  And the kid’s watermelon rind hole.

The elm is at the bottom of a small ravine.  The end of its snapped limb can be seen at the top of the hill.  The hole in the trunk is at least sixty feet away; the kids stand along the deck rail and wing their rinds at the hole. A surprising number make it. The deer and the squirrels are happy.

The rain gauge is nearing three inches.  I’m sure it was three inches; the wind blew the rest straight over the top.

In the front, I've kept my eye on the yuccas, slowly coming into bloom.  I wanted photos of an inflorescence of yucca when several plants bloomed. 

That may happen yet, but in the meantime the big guy needs a crutch.  A round of applause; it took sixty mile gusts that brought down an old elm’s branch.  But, as the day went on, the yucca sagged lower and lower; we staked it up.

Emily and I repaired Laura’s flower basket corner.  The basket was so heavy with water and the ground so waterlogged, the basket holder sagged to the ground

 Every trip through the front door, Toby wants to know if we brought him leaves. There are oak leaves and twigletts scattered at the front door and back; Toby needs more, more, more.