Beauties and the Beast.

The river creeping through the park and making way toward my house. Thank goodness the sand bag levy is there to hold the Mississippi back.

This is my side yard looking toward the river. As you can see the sand bag levy is in my front yard and the beautiful blooming Magnolia trees are just a few feet behind.

    Well guess what? The old Mississippi is at it again. We just can't seem to catch a break. Lots and lots of rain up north, snow melt and more rain coming. I guess it has to go some where. We are lucky here in my little town. We built a sand bag levy a few weeks ago when the river came up with only a couple days notice. It went down just about as fast. Well, we thought we might just need to wait before  we took all those sand bags away. Well, here it comes again. According to the weather forecast, Core and every one else with an opinion, we are not through yet. This  rise is not two high. Only about 5 foot over flood stage. I am really calm with it, as the last one was a foot more and we made it OK. They are saying we are going to have storms the next two days, starting tonight. The towns up north of us had huge rain falls over last weekend. 10 to 12 inches in spots. That makes the Salt River and Mark Twain Lake over flow and guess where they dump? Right into the Mississippi above us. We have a wonderful Mayor, who is sharp and on top of it all. We also have a couple of city employees that work endless and seem to be able to do most anything. Last time we had the National Guard and Americorp. I have not heard if they are coming back yet. They are a blessing as well.
   In between all the down pouring rain, wind and river rising, my yard has become a paradise. One of my favorite things in the world are my two magnolia trees. They were planted in 06 when I first bought, My Old Historic House. They were babies. Only about 6 foot tall and I could reach around them. They have grown to almost 20 feet now. This is the second flood they have been through. When I first planted them in the summer, we had a huge ice storm that winter. They were bent double. I thought sure they were gone. They came out of it and bloomed for the first time the next spring. This past April we had a 10 inch snow and it was very heavy and wet. It came in a total of about 9 hours. Again my Magnolias were bend double. I went out with a broom and shock it off. An hour latter it was back. I have a few small limbs that broke, but otherwise, they are doing great and starting to bloom. In the 08 flood, there was water all around them. I spend endless hours with pumps and there blooms brought me much happiness. They are so beautiful and the smell is a gift from Heaven.

This is the view from my front porch. Sand and sand and more sand and then the river

You can see the levy is only a few feet from my front porch

   Roses are loving this cool damp weather and they have been blooming there heads off. What more is there to ask for. Look out the window, walk out the door and see so much beauty. Then turn your head and you see the,"Beast." sand bag walls, loads of gravel, black plastic and right behind it all is the creeping river. Slowly it has covered the park and is edging it's way toward the wall. Some will creep under and pumps are required to get it back out. I make numerous trips out in the night to check them. They especially get a work out wen we get these  2 and 3 inch rains in less than an hour. It doesn't seem like we can get a nice , soft and gentle rain any more, we have to have a storm and a flood. This old world is a strange one. One never knows what might hit you next. I guess the best advice comes from the English. "Keep calm and carry on".That has been my new theory through this, my 2 major flood in less than 5 years.
    I hope you enjoy my flowers as much I am. I wish you could come some time for a tour. It looks a little sad to see the sand bag wall in the front yard, but then, It really is a good BEAST, as it so far, as kept the river at bay. Please come anytime. I will leave a light on and Sissy will always meet you with a jump and a big kiss. Richard

Red roses on the arbor

What are these?

A dark peach colored rose.

" The Beast."