Mixed Results

We've had storms and rain since Thursday and we're supposed to have more today. Yesterday, however we had a sunny morning and it was time to assess the effects of the weather. It was a mixed bag.

On Thursday I had just gone to bed and was reading. Rob was still downstairs watching television and the dogs were scattered around the bedroom. It had been raining for a while. Suddenly the lights dimmed very slowly and went out completely. I was about to get up and find a flashlight when they came back on and there was a tremendous crash of thunder that rattled the windows.



The dogs all jumped on the bed with me and Rob came into the room and commented on the strange way the lights had gone out as if the power had been slowly sucked out of the house. I was concerned that my clock needed to be reset because I had to get Noah to the vet in the morning. I set the clock and went to sleep. It was raining so hard that the sound kept waking me and Morgan spent the whole night between Rob and me, kicking me every time she moved.

When we got up in the morning I saw that my nightlight was out. I thought the bulb had blown, but all the lights in the bathroom were out, too. We checked the circuit breakers and they were all ok. Rob thought maybe the main outlet in the bathroom was bad so after dropping Noah off, he picked up a new one and installed it. The lights still didn't work.


Yesterday we had an electrician come . It seems we had a lightening hit on the box outside where the power comes into the house and it burned out a circuit. When we first moved here we had a whole house surge protector put on the box and it protected us from serious damage to appliances or a fire. I recommend them highly. The electrician was here approximately five minutes and left with two hundred of our precious dollars. He replaced a $2 item.



After he left, the dogs and I wandered around the yard to see what else the rain had left behind. These results were much better.


Last week the butterfly bush had no leaves and now it's several inches tall. It still has a lot of growing to do, but thanks to all the rain it has a good start.



The weigela has come to life. There are two plants side by side and they have the most wonderful flowers.

Last year there were one or two of these flowers dropped by the birds, but this year I have little clumps of them all around the yard. I don't know what they are, but they're welcome. They close up in the late afternoon, then reopen in the morning.




Before the rain started this Maple just had buds. Now it's completely leafed out.


I'm not a big fan of Hosta, but they do well in the rock garden where they live in shade all day. They also seem to be hardy enough to withstand the dogs running thru every now and then.


The poor little Clematis vine on the deck is doing pretty well this year.



Due to the pollen from the two big Oak trees in the yard I have the sniffles and itchy eyes and several of the dogs have some allergic problems. Two of the boys have red, watery eyes and four of the dogs have red itchy ears. Everybody with allergies is getting meds and ears are getting special attention, too.

I guess we're ready for the next round of storms starting this afternoon.