After the Storm

The weekend of June 10th we had a huge rain storm - 3" of rain fell that day in two separate storms. The evening storm turned the sky to an angry, boiling mass of clouds that dropped hail only three km further east from our yard.



It is amazing to see the power of mother nature and to think that rain can take so many different faces - a soft, gentle shower or a hard, pounding rain that causes soil to move and plants to break. Such was the storm last Sunday.

The last of the tulip petals were victims to the rain's ravages. They seemed to appear one day, brighten the front path for a short time and then poof - a sudden summer storm brings their time in the garden to an end.

The Dwarf Koren Lilac, profuse with blooms this year, puts forth a wonderful perfumed scent made all the more heady by the rain.

It is a joy to catch it's scent even when you are no where near it.

But the rain also nourishes the parched soil and hopefully will bring forth those hosta's that seem to hide beneath the ground until well into June making us think that they somehow perished over the winter. Their tiny heads have finally poked through the ground making one wonder how they will be able to grow big enough over the summer to fill their alloted space.

The sages have grown huge over the past month and the storm serves notice that notes need to be made to stake them.

Can I prune now, I wonder?

The irises planted along the front of the garden have all bloomed and survived the pounding they took from the rain to stand guard over the sprouting vegetables.

The rain pounded so hard that the little statue needs to have his feet washed!!!

So too, the faces of the poor poppies which popped out of the safety of their jackets only to be pounded down to the ground by the rain.

The Lady's Mantle glistens with the rain caught in the cupped leaves - my how this plant has grown since it was transplanted last year from Mom's garden. Looks like there is a mystery hitchhiker within it's leaves as well!

The storm nourishes the plants and even though it has been a cold spring, it seems they have taken to the garden since being planted only last spring.

They are filling in, growing tall and blooming.

The garden - planted the last weekend in May has popped and soon will be giving us it's tasty produce. It seems to have weathered the storm albeit with dirty faces.

So the storm passed - stories of floods to the west and south and damaging hail to the east made us thankful that the driving rain only filled the creek beds and caused some new erosion channels in our sloping yard.

Yes, Mother Nature is a powerful force at times but it is the beauty and the scent that she also brings that can make us forget and forgive her anger.