zuzu said:Barb posted in Cubits a couple of hours ago, Toni.

yea, saw that she posted but hadn't seen anything from here from like 3 her time until 5 her time... wanted to make sure she's OK & she is. Thank goodness for small favors. This year has been ODD for weather. Never seen anything quite so violent this early on.

on the way into work, tried to get some pictures of the mountains as they got a lot of pretty new snow. Only got one decent shot, and that's of Long's Peak (the one on the Colorado Quarter).

Snow! I am having trouble imagining such weather; here it has been in the high 80s for over a week.

We had a storm move in at sunset today. Most of town got so much rain that the weather service issued flood warnings. My house...no rain. Not a drop.

Great picture!

Not a rose, but a tree peony. It's redder than the photo shows on my monitor. i think this one is Luoyang Hong.
The bloom is 8". First bloom, 2nd or 3rd year for this plant in my yard.

Wow! That's a gorgeous peony! Can't have 'em here. Oh, they'd grow here no problem. But it's the one plant DH forbids. Long, funny story.

It is tulip time around here!

Looking good Rita! My Darwins bloomed this week, too.

Second spring for those tulips shown. Not too bad a return.

The southside rose garden.



Some of the serviceberries have started blooming. I love their small pretty white flowers but that is not why they are here. They were planted as shrubs to provide summer fruit for the backyard songbirds to eat.

I tried an Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry in both bush & tree form 3 different times. All 3 times it croaked. I think where I planted it is not suitable for a tree. Every tree I put there has all died. I'm just going to be planting more roses in that spot instead.

That is too bad really as the songbirds are really, really attracted to Serviceberry fruit.

Our bees enjoy the Serviceberry blossoms, too.

Happy easter. Tulips are blooming here just in time for easter.

Have a few tulips & one of my columbines are gonna open soon! Yay! I also have an iris stalk (!).. that's only about 6 weeks too early!

But on Saturday I managed to get a couple of pictures of the mountain range while driving south or west.

Pikes Peak.


Mount Evans

Here's a story for ya.
One of my larger Austin roses succumbed to Rose Rosette Disease so I took my sharpshooter (trench shovel) and started digging it out. The roots were hanging on for dear life, so I hacked at it and cut a few smaller roots, but it was still hanging on. I took one big swing with all my might, and hit a monster trunk. You know how it feels when you hit something unmovable? My neck, shoulders, back and hands just went electric, and i saw a shower of stars. I put down the shovel and just laid down on the grass, thinking I would have to go get the chainsaw. When I got up, the stars were still there, but they were turning into dark spots. Since my hands were numb, I got my husband to finish digging out the trunk. Well...this was last Wednesday. Thursday I took a design client to a greenhouse to shop all day...(another story in itself) and it was rainy and cloudy but I had to wear my dark sunglasses and hat because it seemed like the light was blinding. Friday I knew I had a vision problem. Great, a holiday weekend and nobody is open. Yesterday I finally got hold of my gp and my eye doc who both said get in here pronto. Long story, but I detached my vitreous, lost some acuity, and the retinas are now at high risk. The stars and dark spots will be there forever. They said I'll learn to ignore it. I spent the entire day in doc offices, and luckily we have a retinal specialist here in town with pretty sophisticated equipment and he had several med students in doing their rotations, so I got way too much attention. Anyway, I had no idea I could scramble my eyeballs digging out a rose. Here's the evil root:

OMG! Cindi! Take CARE of yourself! I don't care *what* kind of plant it is.. NO plant is worth your health!!

I didn't know what a detached vitreous was (I knew the word "vitreous" was, but didn't know what it meant as far as eye health.. I knew that the eye was filled with a vitreous liquid but that was about it), so I did a quick search & found this article.

http://glennstok.hubpages.com/...

OMG OMG OMG.. PLEASE! be careful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lordy ! That's horrible.
I hope they can do something for you.
Reading your story, I thought you were going to say you hit a gas line...the consequences for which could have been equally as bad.
I had no idea one could damage the eyes doing something like that. Very scary.

Thanks for the link. That's a good one so I sent it to my daughters. The regular MD did some diabetes tests yesterday too.
Doc said for most people this injury is just spontaneous. They said it's real common in women in their 70s and 80s and I told him well I just look young for my age.
I have no doubt I started the tearing by playing soccer. I coached rec leagues and high school varsity for about 15 years. Too many headers. It was worth it. I coached my daughters teams, got to know their friends and their parents, and kept in shape. All my injuries, down to the fussiest thorn in my thumb, were earned doing something i enjoyed. Someone on here has a tag line about sliding into home with a battered body, saying whee what a ride and I agree. My body, like my house, is "lived in".