Perspective

Recently the forecast for our area advised that conditions were ripe for violent thunderstorms, including the usual bad weather hat trick, damaging winds, dangerous hail and possibly, tornadoes.

Here in Central Texas we are used to our neighbors to the North getting pounded by bad weather.  More typically our area's major concerns surround rain - either way too much or way too little.  This forecast implied we might be in for a taste of what it means to live in the tip end of Tornado Alley for real.  That got my attention.

All of this followed a day when I'd read a short article speculating why there were so few violent storm systems being generated in tornado alley for this year. It was only a few days later that the season kicked into gear, with tornadic activity in Granbury, Texas shortly followed by the massive twister that flattened much of Moore, Oklahoma.

I decided to take the warnings seriously and went out into our planting beds with an eye towards relocating items that might be damaged by large hail, and/or putting away items that could, in high wind situations, become damaging projectile missiles.

The bottle tree was my first concern and as I denuded it of empties I realized several pieces were in jeopardy of being broken or launched.

 A strawberry planter needed to come in under cover, and all our lightweight plastic watering jugs usually stored atop the rain barrels needed to be safely corralled.

As I walked around I realized with a sinking sensation everything was at risk.  Three Meyer lemon trees were heavy with fruit.

 A tomato plant which has so far not produced any fruit was yet still blooming and MIGHT make tomatoes if I could remember to water and feed it sufficiently.

There were flowers everywhere and I wondered where the small feral cat we've been feeding would shelter if the projected severe weather developed in our area.

Most of the time I eye our garden spaces with the view of work yet to be done.  I scan quickly across blooms or fruit to focus on pests or weeds or watering.

On this particular morning I decided it was time to slow down and take a closer look at all the beauty and bounty and rightness that was essentially sheltering in place right under my nose.

As it turned out we did not get high winds, large hail, or a single drop of rain.  The storms all went well to the north of us, as is usual.  I'm working to hold on to my gratitude and the feeling of being surrounded by precious and fragile life in all its beauty. Weeds and pests and undone chores inclusive.

In other news...

I've been eying these day lilies for weeks, watching as the buds formed.  They kept getting bigger and more colored until I could barely stand the wait any longer.  At first I'd hoped they would be around for GBBD on the 15th.  Then I didn't care, I only wanted them to BLOOM, dang it!  I wanted to SEE!!

I'd been forced to transplant them last year from where they'd gotten crowded out by ground covers run amok.  They'd already suffered being transplanted from front to back, after the deer proved themselves untrustworthy around the buds.

All that moving around in combination with drought and heat meant no blooms last year.   That made two years running I had day lily plants with no lilies to show for it. Impatient as I am I was quite ready to support any kind of bloom display this go-round.  And I did not wait in vain.  Ta daaaa!  Day Lilies!

The Jewels of Opar are more reliable bloomers.  Even when transplanted way past my usual "no-move" deadline of May 15th, they simply buckled down, put out a new crown of leaves and shot bloom spikes up towards the sun.

I find the tiny blossoms that then form even tinier berries in an assortment of colors, hard to capture in photos.  I promise you, the jewel tones of the berries (their name source I'm guessing) against the chartreuse color of the leaves is a stunner.  And they tend to self propagate in an area when left alone long enough, which is a trait I find especially endearing.

Yes, I'm cheap too.  Cheap and impatient.  Are you keeping track of this?  I can't do all your work for you, you know.

Other favorites of mine are the flowers on the 4 o'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa, or Pride/Marvel of Peru).  I realize they are considered weeds by most folk hereabouts, but I'd rather think of them as very pliable filler flowers.

The 4 o'clocks leaf out early and bloom prolifically until it gets too hot and dry, at which point I feel free to chop the plant tops off for a potential second showing later in the season. They reseed themselves abundantly but are so easy to pull out I never fret about them spreading where I don't want them.  I mean, look closely at that bloom...is it not delightful with those curly filaments?  I have white ones and pink ones both but the pinks are somewhat hardier and more prolific bloomers.  Yep, that difference between the two accurately predicts I like the white ones better as they are mysteriously trickier to get established.

Last but not least, a shot of my daughter's cat making sweet kitty face love with her shoes after she was out working in the garden.  Well, that's confusing.  Let me try again.  My daughter was out working in the garden, not her cat.  At least, not her cat.....yet.

If I already had cats trained to work out in the garden I'd be telling you all about that for darn sure.  That is while I wasn't busy counting my piles of money made off the "Your Cat Can Garden, Too" Feline Gardener Training Sessions.

Who wouldn't want a cat who would thoughtfully weed in between bouts of chasing off squirrels?  Nobody wouldn't, that's who.

Considering the need I'll be filling, the income generated by cats trained to garden and deer trained to eat nut grass (another work in progress) is bound to be substantial.  Once that starts rolling in, there'll be little else to do in my fantasy future other than counting then back stroking, through piles of my well gotten gains.

At these earliest conditioning stages, the cat's response to exposure to the gardening process looks something like this.  

So far, so good.  Gosh, I love science.  Have a lovely rest of your week!