I spent the day in Colorado Springs touring RMG gardens! Went down to visit Emagin and see her "yard in progress." The front yard is looking great with lots of yellow yarrow against her white house, and Russian sage and other things coming along to bloom pretty soon. And the back yard has had a LOT of things put in just this year, and by next summer will be absolutely overflowing with color. Most of the things she got at the Spring Swap are way bigger already than the things I gotÂthough she does have some good looking black soil.

Then we headed out to visit NrynesÂNancy near Monument. Large lot out in the country, and wonderful, established gardens. Oh, how I envy the space! Ok, but not all the work! And definitely not the gophers! And thank you, Nancy, for the art tour too!

By then the sky was BLACK, and by the time we were nearing EmaginÂs house again, the insane wind had turned into heavy rain with hail. When we got to her house, I ran thru the rain and hail to move my car up next to a big evergreen to try to block the hail, and when I got in, I discovered a whole lot of water had come in thru the cracked windows, and I was sitting on a "slightly" wet seat. Luckily the hail didnÂt get too big, and the evergreen blocked quite a bit of it. (By the time I got back to I25, Emagin, I realized my seat WAS still wet! It was too late to stop and put the towel back on the seat so I just kept going, and it wasnÂt TOO bad once it warmed up a little bit! But when I got home and reached in the door pocket to get my garage remote out, it was in water!) When the hail let up and I ran back into the house, I found out there were tornado warnings! Emagin doesnÂt have a basement, so we decided we were going to get cozy in the bathtub if we needed toÂwith the two big dogs of course! Luckily we didnÂt need to :-), but I hope all you folks in Woodland Park are ok.

When the rain stopped we headed over to Nancy in COÂs houseÂwhere most of the yard had been temporarily flattened by the rain and hail. One of the joys of gardening in the Rocky Mountain area! Nancy also has a huge lot, and itÂs filled with an incredible variety of plants. I hope to be able to see it again, but BEFORE the hail storm next timeÂand take a walk down to the stream too. I hope everything recovers well for youÂand I hope the hail got whatever it is thatÂs eating your zauschneria!

The traffic wasnÂt bad at all on the way home, Emagin, even thru the construction in COS. ItÂs 90 miles from your house to mine, and it only took me 1:15, so you know I was truckinÂ. When I got home it was 70 degreesÂand not a drop of rain!

Thank you all for the great hospitality,

and I hope to see all three of you at the Fall Swap,

Skybird