Arizona garden and storm aftermath

After Albuquerque, our next stop was our home in Arizona where it is already spring changing to summer.

I was happy to be amongst the flowers and green for awhile.  These Italian cypress trees would enjoy the dance of their life later in the week.

It was nice to have so much color after being in the wintery north.

The ranunculus were blooming but were about three weeks early.  Arizona has enjoyed a record amount 80 degree plus days during the first three months of 2014.

I understand that the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California were also blooming early this year.

That is where I purchased my original blubs.

By the time I left for Utah . . .

there were more pinks as the oranges and reds were starting to fade.

I so enjoyed the riot of color that was outside.

Little purple pansies touched with yellow gold.

I was so glad that I had taken this picture of the coleus in the down under pots.  They would soon be fighting for their lives and reduced by half.

Glen's favorite bouganvilla.

The hollyhocks and iris were up out front.

Begonia down unders.

Remember the record rain storm in California which was so welcome because of their drought?  Well by Saturday it had made its way to Arizona.  About 1 pm I heard winds outside like I had never heard before.  I actually stayed away from the windows for fear they might blow in.  When I finally looked outside, there was a tree in the pool.

On closer inspection I realized that there were actually two trees hanging over the back fence.

A huge branch off my neighbor's eucalytus tree had broken off and then hit the ash tree splitting it in half.

There was a lot more green than normal.

That ash tree probably saved the fence as it broke the fall of the eucalyptus branch.

I also discovered that the wind had blown out panels off the roof of the greenhouse.  Where they landed I do not know.

There was debris from everywhere, including plastered to my garage door.  Soon this spot would be full of tree branches.

Glen had already returned to Utah, so missed out on the clean up party.  Neighbors were soon on hand to help get the branches from the pool and the neighbor who lost those trees soon had a chain saw going.  By Monday he had also picked up all the branches we had dragged to my driveway.

Apparently we had experience a funnel cloud going through.  I actually got off easy.  There were damaged roofs and broken windows in the neighborhood.  It seemed the bar tile roofs had a harder time of it.  My neighbor to the south had a giant evergreen fall out by the roots from the yard of her  backyard neighbor.  It took out the fence and pool fence, completely filled her pool, and hit her house.  It was like that for awhile as her damage was one for home owners insurance and not friendly neighbors.  There were many trees down through this approximately 1/2 mile swath of damage.  As I drove out and about, I could see exactly where the funnel cloud had traveled.

When I was a little girl in Idaho, a twister rolled over our farm.  My father was in his hay truck out in the field and it lifted him and the truck up then set them back down but now in the opposite direction.  It also took the roof of the home of one of my friends.  I can't imagine what it must be like to live in Tornado Alley.

The upside to this little episode is that the ash tree was really trashy and now we won't need to get all of those seed pods out of the pool each year.  I can also see sunsets from my kitchen window.  The downside, lost shade.  Shade is a very valuable commodity during a sunny Arizona summer.