The Post-Vacation Fall Out: Hail and COVID

Sometime during the last week of July a big storm blew through town.  Matt and I were in the midst of a megavacation in Washington.  From what I've heard, it was the full complement of rain, wind, and hail.  Honestly, I'm glad we weren't home.  There isn't anything to be done in the moment and I'd rather not watch the garden take a beating live.  The aftermath is plenty. 

An artichoke plant without much left in the way of leaves.  8/5/2022

I hadn't really appreciated the extent of the hail damage until this week.  We got home on July 31st and both tested positive for COVID* that very day.  We were gripped by such astonishing fatigue that we couldn't really bother much with the garden much upon our return.  As we regained our respective gustos though, the hail damage kept revealing itself.  Shredded leaves (especially the broad-leaved plants like grapes, artichokes, and hollyhocks).  Dented and bruised eggplants and sweet peppers.  Hot peppers torn in half.  Leaves and twigs from the trees everywhere.  Matt had to rake as if it was fall.  

One of the eggplants that took a beating.  It was still delicious though.  8/2/2022

So that was a double-bummer-crash-landing from the epicness that was our megavacation, but.....both could have been significantly worse.  So, that's something.  

Hiking with my sister and her partner in North Cascades National Park. 7/29/2022

Most importantly, we've both recovered from the COVID and are back in action.  And the plants growing (sheltered) in the greenhouse still look perfect.  That's something, too.  The corn didn't get knocked down to my pleasant surprise.

Garden panorama.  8/5/2022

And despite having their leaves torn to ribbons the artichoke fruits endured the storm remarkably well.  The plants are putting out new leaves even.  Resilience!  We ate artichoke #10, 11, and 12 this week.  Yum.  That's definitely something.  :)  

* Matt had COVID in Janurary, too.  As such his symptoms were milder than mine and resolved a bit faster.  We both had horrendous fatigue.  I would wake up and want to go right back to bed; I was so tired.  I also had a firey cough and chest/sinus congestion.  We're so thankful that we're vaccinated and the whole thing was as mild as it was.  That was plenty.