The first excitement last night was dodging the raindrops to harvest enough “Tango” lettuce from the Front Garden to make up our dinner salad. The first garden salad of the year.  They are not very big, but I had to thin out those two French Breakfast radishes as well. A single spicy bite.

The second excitement was watching the sky – and the TV reporting on the tornado that tore through Springfield, less than 50 miles (as the crow flies) away.  As we watched a second tornado also touched down as it continued northeast from Springfield, in the direction of our daughters.  We only got a severe thunderstorm. Lots of thunder and lightning. We think one lightning strike was on our lightning rod – installed after lightning hit our barn and burned it down in 1990.  We didn’t get much rain or wind, but my husband, who knows about these things, said the mammatus clouds do indicate severe thunderstorms or even tornadoes.  Scientists have such a way with  words – the word ‘mammatus’ comes from the word ‘mammary.’

BTW – our daughters and their families came through with as little drama as we did.