What a mess. It is so amazing how many huge old trees came down. They all seemed to snap right at the middle. This storm was so fast and furious. At one point, I heard trees snapping one after another. While running through the house shutting windows, I was debating on the safest place for my 9 year old daughter. In my panic, I was just about to put her under the couch because I really didn't think I had time to get down to the basement, when all got quiet-the storm had passed. I took a quick walk around the yard. A ton of leaves came down but thankfully, no trees. Our neighbors weren't as lucky. I counted 5 trees in 5 yards.

So, after some raking and lots of picking up sticks, I was able to get back to my planting. I got my parsley and basil planted, lots of impatiens, coleus and nicotiana. I planted my sweet 100 cherry tomatoes _ they do great in my small shady garden. At the bottom of my hill, I am making more attempts on my meandering path. I rounded up all my broken terracotta pottery, crushed it up some more and started a small walkway. The bottom of this hill had been a parking spot for my husband's '69 Chevy pickup. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago he was driving along and the frame snapped in two. He was offered another frame but was also told it would probably be cheaper and quicker to drive down south and find a new old pickup. Anyways, the pickup killed the lawn and made a beautiful spot for a new garden! It's also a great spot for the kids to hang and wait for the school bus in the morning. I decided to do an all white garden _ cleome at the back, cosmos and baby's breath in the middle, and tall cream marigolds in the front. I hung onto one not so broken down terracotta pot and filled it with white pansies for the finishing touch. I will add a small bench to sit on to enjoy more blue sky and warm sunshine days. Of course as I'm writing this, we are having torrential downpours.

It leaves me wondering what creative things will be done with all those really huge tree stumps the storms keep leaving behind....