Raised bed

One of a mere handful of berries this season

We have had strawberries in the front garden pretty much since we moved in. They have been crowded out, though, by other plants. We decided to put them and perhaps some other food plants in a raised bed. I built the frame over the weekend, and added the dirt yesterday. We put it down near the big vegetable garden near the apple trees and play set. I am going to fill in some dirt around the outside of the base, and amend the (store-bought{gasp}) top soil. More later...

The new bed...

Weather coverage

Photo from Alabama, from Huffington Post

I was getting a little perturbed this morning by the coverage of recent weather. The storm that blew through Joplin, MO was called the "single deadliest storm in US history." I wondered, "whatever happened to the events in Alabama and other southern states in late April?" I also tried to keep in mind that coverage in the early days after such an event can sometimes tend toward the hyperbolic. On the surface it smacked of racism and disregard of the poor or of the South. I was wrong.

Alabama experienced a series of tornadoes. There were 312 reported, with 226 of those taking place in a single 24-hour period. The storm in Joplin was a single twister. The death toll in the Southern storms was 337 in 7 states. (That's second only to a weather disaster in 1925 when 747 people died.) There are reports of more than 100 deaths from the storm in Joplin.

Reporting of news sometimes worries me. Coverage of abducted white children getting more airtime than those of black kids; news from the 'burbs taking precedence over events downtown.

But in this case, I think I have to climb down off my high horse. And I'll be praying hard for those affected, and those involved in rescue and restoration.

Photo from Joplin, MO, from MSNBC.com

Stormy weather

We knew it was coming. But at 5PM it was sunny. By 6PM it was black with cloud cover. Then suddenly the wind, then hail. We were in Richmond 14 years and experienced hail once; so far we're in Black Mountain 4 years and have had hail three times. It poured for about 15 minutes then switched to rain. The whole time with the wind. It was pretty incredible. At one point I asked Libby if what we were hearing was indeed a train moving through the area, or something more ominous; it was indeed a train. Ultimately the power went out and stayed out for about 6 hours. A tree snapped down the block. Because it affected only a small number of people we were slower getting power back. The family got to enjoy a very quiet evening at home while I had a rehearsal at church. According to Briggs it was the best-night-ever!