More severe storms came through the southeast today, bringing yet more destructive tornadoes and deaths.  The climate is clearly becoming more volatile all the time.

We had a few scary moments ourselves this morning, as dangerous-looking dark clouds came barreling through along with t-storms and pounding rain, but thankfully it kept passing over (see what I did there).  I was in the middle of preparing the first seder, and had to stop and try not to panic.  Tornadoes are one of my worst fears.  But the threat seems to be averted, for now.  I was able to complete my seder preps and meal.  Did I mention my world-renowned superior charoset?

Being careful to separate even photos of chametz (not kosher for Passover food), which was symbolically purged and burned this morning, here is the last chametz from last night, a mushroom pizza by E.

In greener news, my tomato plants are going bananas.  I’ve had to pinch them back once already, and they literally grew back an inch in one day!  I have to prune them back again.

Let the games begin!  And we have a winner!  Of course it’s my award-winning superior charoset, as always.

We were fortunate to avoid the destructive tornadoes that tore up the southeast last night, though we did get severe t-storms and inches of rain.  Once more we were saved by our location.

Today it’s as if it never happened, except for all the puddles, and the white petals like snow all over everything.  The redbud and dogwood are in bloom, and it’s a warm spring day.  Erin did the first mowing of the season.

I’m busy preparing for our Pandemic Pesach, complete with it’s own authentic plague.  As usual it will be very minimalistic and simple, but still as festive as I can manage.

This is a clever and useful gift my son sent me for my birthday.  All you Hitchhiker’s Guide fans will get it.  I’m hoping I won’t need an emergency towel for the end of the world, but it’s always good to be prepared.  I am L42.

And here are more flowers for your enjoyment.

I’m still processing the fact that as of some time next month or so, my son will be moving far away, and so will my main reason for living in TN.  Also, my grandkids will no longer be accessible even a few times a year.  I guess they’ll just have to remember me in younger, happier times.

The year-long pandemic separation inadvertently helped prepare me for the loss, but at the same time robbed me of even more time we had left.  Since TN is in no hurry to provide us with the vaccine, I probably won’t even get to see my son off.  I know this time around, following is out of the question.

Of course I don’t blame him; he has his whole life ahead of him, and has every right to pursue it, as I once did.  He certainly doesn’t owe me anything.  I’m just sad, and resigned.

Oh to be a cat, untroubled by human misfortune, just luxuriating in the now.  Or an ephemeral flower, unaware of its transitory moment.  I’m surrounded by role models in nature, but it’s so hard to let go and just be thankful for what I’ve been privileged to experience.  Damn these pesky human hopes and regrets!

I try to keep looking up, but probably lowering one’s sights is a better way to survive.  Maybe that’s why I look for hope in tiny green ephemerals sprouting back to life from cold, hard ground.  Less of a letdown when you’re already down to earth.

Happy official spring.  We lived to see it, so that’s something.

While we wait for this backward state to catch up to the rest with vaccines, I have plenty of work to keep me distracted.  Now to get motivated…

The weeds and invasives certainly don’t need the calendar to activate them.  I’m hoping the natives will take a hint and follow suit.

We got almost 2 inches of rain in the last day or so, and some extreme wind at times, but other than that, it’s just chilly and damp today.  We were fortunate.  It doesn’t deter the flowers and critters from coming out.

As is all too frequent lately with climate change, a wave of deadly storms and numerous tornadoes just surged across the country again, particularly the deep south, causing extreme destruction.  And as is often the case, the worst of it missed our area, mostly dumping inches of rain.  I’m constantly thankful for this one good aspect of living in this location, for as long as it lasts.  It’s like we’re an island, or an eye, in a growing tempest.

Almost overnight, it’s a green and flowering world out here.  Tulips are the latest to start blooming.  I’m still searching in vain for any signs of all the native woodland spring ephemerals I’ve repeatedly seeded around the house.  The ground we inherited must have been poisoned indeed.  But I continue to hope and keep trying.

Pies are one thing there’s no shortage of around here.  (We really do like pie.)  Here’s a cherry cheesecake pie by E.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day (?), we chanced our first spring pilgrimage to Lowes.  Most people were masked and distancing.  I was able to find much of my gardening list, while E got lumber and supplies to begin work on the deck project.

I’m especially pleased to have found a hellebore (Lenten Rose).  It’s not a native, but it’s one of my favorite shade perennials.

The southeast is about to get some kind of major storm, and it’s just starting to rain again.  The spring bulb flowers are drinking it up the way I drank up my St. P. Day Guinness.  Did I mention my peas are all coming up?

There are some (unofficial) spring firsts here at the Almanac.  To me, every new sign of life or change is a big deal, however insignificant.

I dragged the hoses out for the first time this year, and watered the newly-sown veg garden.  So of course now it’s begun pouring again (my evil plan).

The violets (my birth flower) are in bloom everywhere, in various colors.  They make the perfect native ground cover for shade.

The first of one of my favorite daffodils bloomed.

So did the first tulip, not pictured.  Hyacinths and drifts of grape hyacinths are turning up everywhere I didn’t plant them, which is fine.

I don’t even mind the masses of weed flowers taking over the lawn, an improvement in my opinion.  In just the last day or so, everything is greening up intensely and blooming.

Yesterday I direct-sowed most of the rest of my cool weather veggies in the veg. garden: cabbage family, leafy greens, root veg., etc.  Meanwhile, the first round is just starting to come up: peas, spinach, and radishes.  So the main veg bed is now full, except for the final section, later in the season, reserved for the “three sisters” (corn/beans/squash).  I hope for better results this year.

My indoor seedlings continue to do well.  Here are some tomatoes.

These are some leafy greens (reds?) that overwintered and came back up.

And here is your minimum daily flower requirement.