Carol, No tornadoes, and the Tornado Watch was cancelled for us, but moved to counties further east, after the last line of storms rolled through. We had full-fledged thunderstorms, complete with a few minutes of heavy rain and hail, but not enough hail to damage anything. The lakes of standing rainwater on our property merged and starting moving, so now you could say "a river runs through it". Tim and I were looking out a second-story window and watching the river of rainwater just flow through the property behind the barn. That water was headed for the big pond and for the overflow pond that is on lower ground in the woods behind it. When that overflow pond gets full, it then overflows into a normally dry seasonal creek that carries the water to our big creek. From the big creek, it flows down to the Red River. It didn't even rain an inch total today, but the ground was super-saturated from all the rain in January, so none of today's rain could soak in. All 5 ponds have all the water they can hold, except the largest pond and I bet it is pretty full, but I didn't go look at it before dark because the deer feeding area is near that pond and the deer were out there eating. Jay, I wish you were getting the rain we're getting here. It is too much, really, for our slowly-draining soil and we have standing water and mud everywhere, but I am not, not, not complaining. I'd rather have flooding than drought. I probably won't be able to step foot into my water-logged main veggie garden for a month because it is so wet, and water from our neighbor's land that sits higher than the garden will seep underground into the garden for 4-6 weeks, based on previous experience in other months with 4 or more inches of rainfall. To get around the very wet garden beds, I planted onions in the raised beds in the Peter Rabbit Garden, which is on our highest ground, and may put the potatoes and peas there as well. Colder weather is expected here for the next week, so instead of being abnormally warm, we're going to be back to normal. Normal is fine, and maybe the night-time lows in the 20s and 30s will stop the plum trees, which are on the verge of blooming any day now. I'm planting earlier, as the weather allows, and will continue to do so. I'm feeling optimistic about the spring, at least, since we're having ample rainfall. I won't try to guess what summer will be like, but it can only be better than last summer, as I cannot imagine how it could be any worse. When I looked at the U. S. Drought Monitor yesterday morning, and Love County showed up as "normal", I wasn't surprised because I felt like last week's rain was enough to finally get us out of the drought. However, I know that a dry month or two could put us right back into drought again. I hope La Nina just hurries up and departs. Wouldn't it be lovely to have a perfectly normal weather year? Well, whatever passes for normal in this part of the country. It seems like we always lurch from "too dry" to "too wet" and then back again. I've been potting up tomato seedlings today and they just look and smell so good that it makes me very eager for warm-season planting time to roll around. If the rain continues to fall here in the coming weeks as heavily as it has fallen since the new year started, I'll have trouble planting in the main garden, except for the half of it that is raised beds. Dawn

PWM1 -- in case Grainlady doesn't see... On PC/Windows, hold down the Alt key and type in 0176 to get °. On the old GW, we had to use ampersand codes, which were easier because the popular ones had word names. 0233 is é and 0241 is ñ. There are charts online. Lindaohnowga, I totally hear you. I'll adapt to Winter, though, and wear warm clothes. Today, I'm wearing pants and long sleeves. :) Rhizo, you're right! I'd cry. The year the kitchen was remodeled, I had no heat because of the dust, and we had so many delays because of the tile, it just got colder and colder. I wore my long hooded teddy bear fur coat in the house over my layers, and retired to bed as early as possible with the wooly hat and fingerless gloves, and layers and comforters and extra blankets. It was miserable. And I hated going out to warm places because coming home to 65° would make me cry. :( Tibbrix, I don't mind you laughing. :) Apparently it's true that if you live someplace really cold your blood gets thicker and that keeps you warmer. It's supposed to take three years to acclimate, and that's only if you allow yourself to be cold. I don't know what I'd do if I had the kind of extremes that Grainlady alluded to, other than move! I learned when I was living abroad that 39° C is fine. 40° is tolerable. 41° is too d*mn hot. And 42° C is just miserable (107.6° F). See! I do have an upper limit. :) Sun's out today. :)

raven - I'm sorry you lost your cats to kidney disease. My outside group are all getting old and are starting to have some of the elder cat problems. Also, I am currently taking care of a cat with hyperthroidism, an ulcerated eye and a skin allergy. He is in the beginning stages of renal failure. I am shocked by the litter box and the amount of urine he is putting out and the amount of water he is drinking. I'm also trying to get him to eat more canned food, but he really only wants the gravy out of it. He is eating dry food just fine. If anyone has any tips or things to keep an eye out for, I would appreciate it! Snidely - don't be too sure of your training abilities or those of your dog. My dog was 4 years old when that first incident occurred. I think that unknowingly we may have fed into the fear because we were also knocked right out of our chairs on several occasions. My poor 92 y/o neighbor was in tears the next day when we talked about it. The people responsible are setting off large firecrackers and also professional fireworks both from land and on the river. They will do only enough to not get caught or to pinpoint where exactly it is coming from. Now we have been several weeks and not heard anything. Either they got caught or the supplies are gone. If it happens again I will make it my mission to find them. The inconsiderate jerks even turn the lights off on the boat. Dangerous business considering all the stumps and cypress knees. adellabedella - people like the guy with the aquadam should get a tax credit. That's pretty cool but there are many people that could never afford that. So glad that guy was able to save his home.

Thanks you, Kate. I got out early, as I said...not the best photos but rain threatens and you always want to avoid it. Debra, you are so right...I am always changing around. I can't imagine getting rid of that many, but there are always some that need to go. Mantis, as usual, it appears that Spoken in Parables, Sweet Isabella, Marseilles Watercolor and Pink Gingham are the biggest rebloomers. I have never had any rebloom from Wall of Fire. Most of the Time Stealth Bomber and White Eyes Pink Dragon rebloom, but can't say yet. kay