landscaping update

So here I sit in the land of sickening irony... and governing it all is my friend Murphy.

I had this fabulous post all planned out, showing you my landscaping progress.  How I went from this...

to this..

I was going to show you my before pictures....

And talk about all the in-between pictures...

But then THIS happened.... 

Some storms came through North Carolina on Saturday...not big ones, really.  We've had much worse.  A "watch" popped up on my weather radio and I checked the radar.  A wall was moving towards us, but no warnings.  We were going about our business.  No thunder, no lightning.  Then "BAM!!".   So loud that my husband ran in and shouted, "I'm OK, I'm OK!!" because he knew I'd be freaked out.  He had been outside watching the trees and had to duck for cover.

Twenty minutes later, the warnings came out - for counties to the east.   At least they had warning.

The limb hit the corner of our roof and slid down the side of the house - knocking things off my son's wall, while he was in the room.  (Yeah - this mamma's still a little freaked about that one.)

The damage to the house appears fairly minimal, which we are very thankful for.  One of our neighbors had a chainsaw out yesterday cleaning up a limb in his yard.  Lots of old trees in this neighborhood.  Fortunately, his was only in the yard and did not his his house.

Of course, we're also super thankful that Matt and Trenton made it inside (they were both outside) and Tanner wasn't hurt given the tree just missed his bedroom window. (I was in the basement sewing, of course....LOL!)

My plants on the other hand, didn't fare as well.  This is what it looked like after Matt moved the limb.

I had planted three peonies.  One came out unscathed.  This one was hit, but probably will make it.  Just the outer stems snapped.

This little guy, though... not much hope.  All stems were snapped right at the base.  I left it planted; maybe the roots will shoot up new stems. 

Not really sure how the two below will turn out.  It's upsetting, too, because they were the ones showing the most growth.  I've cut the broken stems off now, and they are about half their original size.   *sigh*

Again, though, it could have been much worse, so I'm just frustrated more than upset.    We try to make our yards look better, but nature comes and knocks us back.  All four of us got out and cleaned up things yesterday (I have the best family EVER!) and it looks good again.  All the stray sticks and leaves are now in the burn pile.  :)

So, here's to some healthy rains and warm sun - maybe my plants will make a comeback afterall. And here's to a safe, in-the-basement, sewing room, where I can hang out and pretend that storms don't exist.  :)