SIBERIAN IRIS' AND THEN....

you will see what happened a little way down my post.  But first, I am going to share a few photos from the front patch of our garden.  It was a bit bare, and we needed some color.  

Our garden isn't as large as some but even so, we are no spring chickens and at this stage of our lives we are grateful for extra help.  There is a very nice gentleman who takes care of our garden for us.  Last year I asked him if he could plant a few flowers in a bare spot at the front of the house.  He names flowers that would grow best in a particular spot.  I let him know what colors I am interested in, naming those seen in catalogs.  The place we needed them is in part shade, and his knowledge about such things has always impressed us, and I appreciate his honesty.  If I pick something he will tell me if it works and if it doesn't.  I am happy to compromise as he has never failed us...

and has known us long enough now that he has a good idea what we like.  We trust him! 

I liked everything he planted but my favorite was the Siberian Iris.  I love their deep, rich red with darker shades.

So, as pleased as punch with the way they were blooming in their second year, I took photos.  But yesterday (6-16-23) this happened (excuse the utterance at the end of the video - I usually keep them out of my vocabulary).

The start of it...

and the middle of it.  It hailed for 20 minutes, the rain half an hour afterwards.

Those icy pellets bounced inside the family room with such force, I was picking them up half-way across the carpet, at least a dozen feet inside.  (Our son, when he visited on Father's Day, after showing him the videos said, "Why didn't you just shut the door Mom?" "I had to take my photos!" I replied, and he laughed because he knows his mother.  (He lives 14 miles away and had no hail.) 

This morning as I write (6-17-23) we have had several storm chasers knocking on our door, asking if we wanted them to take a look for damage.  Gregg has already taken a walk around the house to see if he could see anything amiss.  He also contacted our insurance company requesting an inspector.  One of our neighbors had a new roof put on a few days ago.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for them.  Our next-door neighbor had someone inspecting his roof just now, and there are similar scenes all over the neighborhood.

I picked up a few icy pellets after the storm.  They had been much larger and were already melting in my hand.  Hundreds of new leaves had been knocked down.

People are saying it is the worst hailstorm we have had in ten years.  At least they weren't golf-ball-size like that time.  Our whole roof and siding were damaged badly.

Back then we had continuous rain between the inspection and the repair.  Many damp ceiling patches appeared in the garage, but only one large patch inside our main bathroom, and we were grateful 

  

There are two large wooden air vents on each side of the house, and one was badly smashed.  I kept thinking we were going to have squirrels, raccoons and birds taking up residence in our attic.  Fortunately, that wasn't a problem.  A few months  later our insurance paid for a new roof and all the siding, including the side vents and the frames around the windows.  We were amazed no windows had been broken. 

In our neighborhood there were contractors fixing dozens of homes for over a year.   The cars that had been parked outside had dents.  Every square inch looked like someone had taken the round part of a hammer to them.  But again, that was several years ago and this lesser storm may have given us a break.

It seemed to me that the hail wasn't quite as large but it was forceful, and because of the damage caused before, we don't want to take any chances.  

Gregg was away from home after spending most of the day visiting an old navy buddy 70 miles away.  I called him to let him know what was going on, worried that he might be caught out on the freeway as it was around the time he would have started back.  He was fine and there had been nothing where he was.  He said the closer to our house the worse it looked, but others have been mentioning it in other neighborhoods.  It took us all by surprise.  

It was misty afterwards, and there was steam rising from the ground.  I was curious and found on this page a term called "Hail Fog".  If you scroll down you will not only see that title, but others that give you reasons how fog forms.  Gregg said it was like a layer of fog rising from the ground when he was coming back into the neighborhood.  He had never seen anything quite like that before.

I took photos before it got dark (the two above) and again the next morning when I checked the plants.  Most of the petals had gone but there was this one left...

and a few other stalwarts with stems standing tall and petals still hanging on.  Resilient!  

We have an inspector coming around soon.  We are expecting rain for the rest of the week.  Fingers crossed!