Day 24 - What life throws at you

The cowboy couldn't save the garden ... no riding off into the sunset today.

I had planned on writing a post about how amazing our yard looks now. This is the time of year when everything is growing, and before we get tired of watering the lawn. Also it is a little early for the weeds. So in general our yard looks like we give a crap.

I have two things I love about our yard this time of year. First, next to our house are two bushes - one with white pom-pom looking flowers, and one with very fragrant purple buds. I love coming home in the afternoons and smelling those flowers - the smell permeates the air near the house and it reminds me of happy things and spring time. (Do I sound like a spaced-out hippy yet?) The second thing I love is our irises, one of my favorite flowers. They come in so many different colors, and the petals are just so beautiful. We have a row of about 40 purple iris flowers in the back yard (thanks to a friend who planted them back there 2 years ago). They were just starting to bloom this week and I was super excited.

Exhibit A: The offending hail, still hanging around 7 hours after the storm.

Well ... it hailed last night. Many of the plants in our yard were pretty badly damaged. Luckily I think the garden plants will make a come-back, since it's still early in the year. But I was kind of sad to lose the flowers on the bushes and the irises. I should have written this post two days ago, and then these pictures would be much nicer!!

Spinach, which we have been eating for the past month, now trashed.
Oh, Irises, what could have been ...

On a slightly related note, we had dinner tonight with some good friends. We have lived in Ft Collins for almost 7 years and these friends have been a part of our lives for almost as long. Over the years, we've been with each other through lay offs, stresses with work, health issues, births, family problems, and other life events. It seems there is always something that could get us down, but it's thanks to friends like these that life stays as good as it is. We touched briefly on the hard things in life now, but spent most of the evening cracking up over silly stories or teasing each other. So I'm sad about the flowers getting trashed, but grateful for the reminder that life moves in cycles, with both ups and downs, and can still be beautiful even amid chaos. If nothing else, life is very interesting right now!