in case you thought I was kidding about the hail damage

This is what the hostas looked like when we got back from Spain. Initially, I thought we must have had some kind of snail or other garden pest munching on the leaves -until I found out about the storm that blew through.


This is what they looked like after the 2nd hail storm. Yes, you're looking through a leaf.


As you can imagine, my rhubarb is in an equally sad state. The beans weren't quite out of the ground for the first storm; they faired well enough through the 2nd storm. Now you see why I said I'm glad I hadn't planted lettuce yet. The poor hostas & rhubarb, I'm cutting them back today just because they look like they're in pain (or rather, b/c they're so painful to look at?)

The storms this summer have been hard & heavy & pass pretty quickly. But for Colorado, it's been a ton of rain -at least as of lately. I suppose it's cyclical, as I remember when I moved here 13 years ago, the first 2 summers were fairly wet at the outset. Is it indicative of our snowfall this coming winter? If I recall correctly, those 1st few winters were heavy snowfall years. Then the drought -summer & winter. I suppose only time will tell if it is indeed cyclical.

The hail isn't large -so no autobody damage. But boy it came down like bullets on the broad leaves. And that last picture is about 4 inches deep outside the laundry room door, hence the laundry room flood. Area rug & every towel in the house soaked up the mess; the usual arid Colorado climate took care of the residual dampness over the next few days.