May Day memories, flowers, and a storm!

Technically, this is May Day and the Saturday after. I took the flower photos, Jon took the storm ones. He's out and about this Sunday with his camera, so I reckon he'll have more photos when he returns. I am also confused as to why some of my pictures are 'not there'. Completely frustrating!! Blogger says the issue has been resolved, we will see! 

I also took the one of Mom and Obi in July 17. I am searching for pictures of the pup to make an Obi Wan Kenobi Weenie post, but the things remain elusive. Obi loved to help mom in the yard. Probably  because he would bark at the water and then she'd spray him. He passed over the rainbow bridge this last week to join Mum on the other side where he'll forever have things to bark at,  never ending shared snacks, and walks. 

 Bright Forget-me-notes and graceful California poppies add brightness to the yard.

The lilacs are budding out, although only the white ones are blooming right now. 

The Mother's Day Peony (Fern Peony) is not as pretty as I'd hoped. The ends of the petals on most of the flower heads are blackened!!! Maybe it was water that didn't dry off properly. 

 On Saturday, the day started out lovely and deteriorated fast!!! There was a forecast for thunderstorms, the gorgeous cloud formations were a bonus to the thunder and barely visible lightening. The rain was intense as was the wind. Before the rain, Jon captured a dust storm that seemed to rival some Tony showed us from Iraq! We wondered if it actually hit Weston, like it appeared to.

Storm clouds with rain.

Dirt being blown up into a wall of dust.

Thankfully, the guys are pretty busy with work and projects. There is beauty and fortune on every hand!

A Whomping Birch?

It has been a bit breezy the last few days. Not bad, but enough to stir the leaves. Plus a bit more! I was downstairs last night about 745 pm and heard a whomp. Mom yelled at me to see what it was. I ran upstairs, looked out the door, and was greeted with this! Now I know a bit of how Ron and Harry felt when the Ford hit the Willow in that infamous incident in the second Potter book. YIKES!!!!! 

I am very fortunate I had driven the car earlier and parked it about 2 to 3 feet from where I normally park. It most definitely would have gotten brushed by branches! I texted our neighbor's and they drove over to check things out. They'll bring over tools later in the week. I'm just really glad their youngest mowed for us before the tree fell! 

The funniest thing. These trees below are the ones we keep an eye on. They list and bend and are dead from beetle kill. But, they stand season after season. The one that fell, it had some issues, but I never would have expected it to be rotten inside! 

 There was some beautiful lichen on it. I loved the shades in the different leaves.

 It really was rather close to the car and the house. We were fortunate. I remember once at Christmas when the guys brought home a GIANT Christmas tree. Jon said, 'it looked smaller in the woods.' I sort of have to agree. I have taken photos of this tree several times and had no idea it was as big as it was!

 Mom's little 4H mountain ash seems to be ok. I'll have to make sure the neighbors don't smush it while they are cleaning up the birch!

 I'm thankful our friend, Jim, took down most of the dubious looking trees last fall. I can't imagine the debris if those had been left! 

A Beginning and an End

Babies everywhere are joining the world! We don't have any ducklings yet, but this mama allowed her baby to sun for a bit...but she was skittish and quickly dashed off with her young one. I am pretty sure it wasn't birthed today, but it is very tiny! 

 The end was this afternoon during the winds we've had. I was in the garage and had just stepped across the threshold to the gravel when I heard a noise. I looked up and saw a tree start to topple. Once I realised it wasn't going to hit anything important, I stood there with my mouth open, staring at the gentle fall of the giant. Sobering, sad, and yet powerful to watch. It wasn't pulled up by the roots, I checked it later, when I was sure it was not going to fall anymore.

 On the photo below, there are two stars. (Sounds sort of Dr. Seuss like!) The lower star is the base of the trunk. The upper star is as far as my camera phone would shoot! The tree keeps going-.

                   This next one was taken from near the back door. The bottom star is pretty far off the ground and you can see how much more tree there is in the trees!                                  

It wasn't kind to the springy young ones. 

 You can see how it is split in the trunk. I thought I heard that sort of a sound when it started to fall-kinda cool creepy.

 Unfortunately, this is why the giant was brought down. It was lovely on the outside, but completely worn out and full of punky wood on the inner rings.

Now, I need to get someone to come out and move it out from the 'snagged' position it is in! I'm really glad it is not near anything too important. I just don't want it to bring down anyone else with it! The young trees it is crushing may spring back..we'll have to wait and see!