The Discovery Zone

Was outside by noonish yesterday. Didn't make it back inside the house until it got dark and the severe storms started rolling in.

I am sunburned. Ow. Pooka is no longer purple, she's scarlet.

BUT ... I have reclaimed the flower bed along the back of the house. Think jungle. Think overgrown for at least three or four years. Think doing 2-3 feet and having to stop and take a break. Think that this is a task of herculean proportions.

My gloves, which were brand new, need to be replaced. At least three of the fingertips are completely gone after all that work.

Both azaleas are in the ground now. DG actually managed to find me blackberries in gallon tubs, so they're already semi-started and a lot better than just the canes we found. Four blackberries in the ground.

FOUND:

-- one very angry centipede
-- twelve pieces of broken red crayon
-- eight decent-sized pieces of shed snake skin
-- dozen or so small worms
-- five big fat earthworms
-- more #*$#& root grubs than I've ever seen in one place
-- egg sacs and egg cases to things I couldn't even identify
-- one poorly-buried phone cable (ahem, DG) that for some reason still works
-- big ole spider that scared Thing 1 absolutely witless

FOUND OUT:

-- despite "help," I got five times the work done when they went away
-- DG won't do garden work without scowling and glaring
-- if you give one child a job, the other will automatically scream "I wanted to do that!"
-- the job will never be completed anyway
-- getting all dirty and blistered and sunburned again feels GOOD

The bluebonnets are seriously wilting. Don't know if they'll make it now, but that wasn't our fault.

Last night, after Roy had come back with DG to do a porch cookout, storms rolled -- no, thundered -- into North Texas. "Super cell" they were calling it -- at least until it split into three storms of equal ferocity.

Pea sized to golfball sized hail with cell one. Heavy wind. Huge sheets of rain. Under that kind of pressure, only a few areas of the backyard really even attempted to flood. I feel sorry for the houses further down the hill though.

Second round brought a lot more hail, enough to turn the grass in the backyard white, and hard fast rain, even though the hail was smaller.

Third somewhat fizzled with mostly thunder and lighting and more rain.

Wisteria and azaleas made it through fine. Not a lot of hope for the bluebonnets now. My poor blackberries took some leaf damage, but the main plant seems fine.

We were lucky. Areas a bit to the south had severe high winds, lots of reports of funnel and wall clouds, and a half dozen or so unconfirmed reports of tornados spotted. Much roof damage, downed power lines, broken trees, car damage, the works. We dodged it. This time. It's spring in NorTex, man. Though really, you never get used to it.

Roy ended up spending the night because of the weather.

Around 10:30 this morning (and looking like a freckled strawberry), I was back outside to finish off the flower bed. Final weeding, mixing in of some good garden soil, breaking up dirt clods, etc.

Remembered the sunscreen this time. Hah!

Got three packages of zinnias seeded in the ground. Lilliputs, dahlia blend, and giant fantasies, yes, seeded in height order.

Sludged for a while on the porch with Roy till DG finally crawled back into the world of the living. Things went screaming through with water guns, and ...

... Roy offered Thing 2 a dollar if she'd squirt DG, who was still scowling and surly. I've trained my mercenary child well. She did it.

The snarling and growling and swearing didn't last long. Neither did the dry state of anyone's clothing. We've got staggered sizes of SuperSoakers, but Roy was the real fiend, as he turned the hose on. After a while, the three adults (snicker) were the only ones left in the backyard, and all of us completely drenched.

Tell ya, that water felt pretty damn good.

Another fireup of the grill for dinner, then DG took Roy home while I cleaned up after the mess. Got all three boxes unpacked and out of the kitchen (HAH! One intended goal for the weekend complete, take that!), well, except for the trash box that needs to go out now. Dishwasher unloaded and reloaded, box contents put away.

Even found time in there somewhere to do a couple more poses for a Poser package Burningham is going to be uploading to the market soon.

SO .....

... what did YOU do this weekend?