The Garden from Scratch That Was Almost Scratched...Again.

I started this blog last night about the challenges of gardening in Tajikistan. I went on (and on...) about the difficulties of gardening here -- my own lack of knowledge, soil quality, birds eating my herbs down to bare naked stalks, aphids on the pomegranates, etc. Even I was bored.

Lucky for the two readers of this blog, it got scrapped. Why?

Let's talk rain.

This was taken mid-May. It's our street. The ground was so saturated that the tiniest bit of spittle made the ground swell. But after two straight hours of torrential downpours, we started lining up in pairs waiting for Noah.

Now let's talk hail. Same storm. During the two hours of straight rain, it hailed for at least 30 minutes.

Our gutters couldn't handle the hail.

My garden couldn't handle the hail.

But the Sparkly Girls could handle the hail.

So, when this started about two hours ago, I had mixed emotions. It started out innocently enough. Just a bit of rain. I was surprised that the skies actually opened up.

I welcomed the relief from the stretch of 108 degree days we've had lately and the fact that we haven't seen rain in at least 6 weeks. But I feared for my garden. My tomatoes are 5 feet tall, the pepper plants are full of baby bells, anchos, bananas, jalapenos and the basil is nearly ready for it's second harvest.

But then this happened. See that white stuff? Hail.

And this. The sound of hail.

And again, the gutters couldn't take it.

And our street couldn't take it.

But my garden could. This time.

And then, just as quickly as it came, it passed. And we had this.

And a 20 degree temperature drop. All's good in the world.