HAIL!?

I have a little back patio. I have mentioned in the past how much I love that particular spot. It is the center of much activity, work and play. It is peaceful, cool, private, useful, safe for the children, really just right in almost every way. As you can see below it houses my laundry/cleaning center. Maybe part of my special feelings toward my back patio has to do with the fact that laundry really is my favorite chore and nothing pleases me more than having the right space, tools and organization to get a job done, and my patio fits the bill perfectly.
...at least it did until the tarp that shades it broke...again! Without protection from the fierce sun, wind and rain my back patio is effectivly "broken".
My dear husband spent all his spare minutes during Holy Week and the week that followed building a little roof as a much more stable and permanant solution! I am SO happy, and SO proud of him! It really turned out beautifully!

When if was finally completed he said, "now we just need it to rain real hard so we know if it is sound or not". I smiled and said, "just wait a couple more months". Rainy season usually starts here about June.

However, last evening we got some real excitment!!! We had a blistering hot afternoon, followed by a cool cloud cover as evening approached, and then I realized it was going to rain! Well it didn't just rain. We had the biggest hail storm I personally have ever experienced! (I'm a west valley girl, so real hail is even one rung above snow on my excitment list!)

This was one of the bigger balls I got my hands on--about the size of a marble. If I would have been willing to get pelted I could have found even bigger ones to fotograph---but I wasn't!

The most amazing thing is that it just kept coming down harder and harder and it started to really pile up and it just wouldn't quit falling. The sound was so deafening on our roof we literally could not hear each other speak even in the same room.

My poor little raised bed didn't fare so well. I had cilantro going to seed, I was going to harvest the seed for later planting,...its all but gone.

When it finally calmed down a bit of course every one began to emerge and assess the street, everyone except me that is, I was in shorts and flipflops and had no desire to get my feet wet, so I let my husband man the camera and give me a full report. : ) As soon as they had seen what there was to see the next step was to get the hail off of the roofs so that the rain could drain. From my window I could see five guys up working on different roofs, and from my in-laws you could see about another ten. I tried to get pictures of them, but my little camera wouldn't focus that far away and as previously mentioned I wasn't willing to get wet--even for good pictures!

And, of course we can't have a storm without the power going out. When I lit the first candle Mic began to sing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was very cute and sweet.

To top off the excitment about bed time C realized that there was a fire truck right outside our gate. He went back out to see what was happening. We are at the top of our street and from here it declines, then ends in a sharp corner. Evidently as it rained after the hail all the ice stacked up at the bottom of the street. He said that there was about a foot and a half of standing hail at the bottom of the street!

This morning with the hail melted you could really see how our trees did...unfortunatly thats not just leaves on the ground...

Its also hundreds of baby avocados! : ( SOOOOOOO sad! But unbelievabaly even though the ground is covered with them I did manage to see that there are still a few in the tree too, so it wasn't a total loss.

...and my new roof on my back patio, stood up valiently to the true test!!! Congratulations Honey! I am so proud of your skills!