The Morning Frost

This morning I awoke to a sparkling silver blanket of frost. It cleverly disguised the mucky brown mess created by the bobcat that lies beneath. It got down to 25 degrees in Prattville last night. I thought at this point we might be done with all the really cold weather.

Yesterday I walked around our garden and began the rebuilding in my minds eye. I’m going to use this opportunity to correct past mistakes. As the garden centers start to load up more and more ideas will pop into my head. Last year I had a sense of urgency to get things done, for some reason this year I’m more relaxed about it.

Today the Electrician comes to re-wire the house and the aluminum siding guy is supposed to be here to do his work too. Hopefully all will go smoothly and there will be no discrepancies on what was included in the original estimates. I’m looking forward to a day filled with peace.

Liriope

Daffodil

Daylily

Daffodil and Ice

Rose Leaf

Frost on the Window

Update on the Storm

Hello everyone, I wanted to take a moment to give you guys an update. There have been so many words of encouragement from so many people. Phillip thanks again for your post on Dirt Therapy, your loyal readers have left wonderful, wonderful notes for us and with each one we’ve felt a little better. Things have really started to fall back into place. One of my biggest concerns was the original estimate of damage done by the insurance company. I wondered how in the world we were going to get everything done with the small amount of money that was given to us. This past Tuesday a second adjuster came by and took another look. Evidently she thought our first estimate was grossly under projected and saw fit to give us a huge supplement payment. We now have the money to fix all the damage that was done. Plus! We had heat yesterday for the fist time in nine days! It was wonderful! Sadly they did "Total" my convertible, the repairs were twice as much as the value of my little emerald baby so she will have to be retired at the tender age of thirteen years. It is going to be very hard to say goodbye to something I've pampered for so long just because of extensive cosmetic damages. Chrysler parts are outrageous and she took a severe beating from the flying debris. If I had adequate storage I would buy her back from the insurance company as salvage. Unfortunately, any convertible parked for a long period of time will start to dry rot almost instantly and before you know it all that is left is a crunchy mildewed mess.

Now to the garden, the most remarkable thing has happened. News of our troubles was posted on the Dave’s Garden Website by a gardening friend and there have been numerous offers of help from Master Gardeners meeting in Tupelo in April. All wanting to contribute to the rebuilding of our garden I’m terribly afraid I won’t be able to make it there because I’ve missed so much work, but just the offers of assistance were encouraging all on there on. In addition the most wonderful kind hearted lady by the name Martha even went so far as to mail us a gift card to the local garden supply chain. How can you possibly get more compassionate, kindhearted and caring than that? It literally brought me to tears. Martha if you are reading this I asked the angels for a special blessing for you and I’m certain I heard them say Amen. You are one in a million and a child of light in the truest sense. I’m starting to see this more as a new opportunity than a loss and Jamie and I owe it all to you guys and your support. Thank you with all our sincerity. Today, I even went and bought two new Eastern Redbuds to replace the ones broken by the storm. See, it’s already begun. The sad part is the house still isn’t even completely repaired yet. LOL Hey, a gardener has to keep his priorities strait you know. *wink*

Photos from the Storm and Garden

Here are photos from the storm and current pictures of the garden. I won’t comment much, I think the photos will speak for themselves. Despite my depression and deep sadness concerning the garden I am glad that our home is still standing and we are safe, our loss is so small compared to others. Phillip, thank you so much for the kind words you posted in your blog.

Our Home



The Garden



The House Across the Street



The Garden as it Looks Now






All That is Left of Our Hard Work

The Only Bloom in Our Garden and Our Littel Ray of Hope

I know we will persevere, I have no doubt about that and I know things will get better. It just seems like such a giant step backwards and we worked so hard last year you just couldn’t imagine. I do know this, everything happens for a reason, so I guess there is reason we must start over.

Some Very Sad News

Unfortunately this past Sunday afternoon our neighborhood was hit by an F3 tornado estimated to be ½ a mile wide. The majority of the homes here were destroyed. Our home suffered some extensive damage but not to the degree of that of our poor neighbors. As a result our garden has for the most part been destroyed. We spent two days cleaning and I was feeling a little better about it, but I am sad to report that the heavy equipment used to move out the trees today wiped out another large portion of it as well as turning the lawn into complete mush. At this point I’m feeling that we don’t have the money or the strength to continue with our garden dreams. Only time will tell… I’ll be posting some pictures very soon, and we will continue to salvage what we can. Meanwhile we are blessed to be safe and healthy.