Light Show Extraordinaire

Living on the 8th floor of a building built on a hill we get a fantastic view of the weather as it moves through our area.  I shot this video as a thunderstorm whipped through.  There is a park below our building, you can see the trees at the bottom of the frame, during the storm at least six went down and probably a dozen branches blow off trees and ended up half a block away.  Needless to say it was the most powerful storm I have ever seen.  This is a short clip pulled from a much longer movie.  You can see how the lightning was striking all around us.  And probably struck our building as well.  We are the tallest building in the neighborhood.

Peonies

My father loved peonies (pee-o'-nies, as he pronounced it). The peony bushes in our garden were started with cuttings my parents brought to us from Missouri.

The original plants were in the yard of the house where I grew up, so they are at least 60 years old. And how long the plants had been in that yard is anyone's guess. Let's just suffice by saying they are old.

There weren't as many blooms this year as we've had in prior years, but the flowers are wonderful--and they are enormous! Sue floated one of the flowers in a bowl. Filled the whole bowl. Truly beautiful.

Cline Family - June 6, 2008