Most hail I have ever seen fall at one time

The storm clouds were impressive last Sunday. My wife an I watched them roll over the city from the back porch of a condo in the north end of London. The biggest and baddest clouds seemed to be passing over south London, our home. (I took a quick picture as soon as we arrived home.)

When we returned home we discovered the ground around our home deep in hail stones. It was simply amazing. In some places the hail was five inches deep.

Many of our plants were destroyed. Our hostas took an especially hard beating. The next day my granddaughter thought the hostas had been attacked by caterpillars - very voracious caterpillars.

I picked up a few samples of the hail and took a quick picture. As you can see, some of the hail was larger in diametre than an American dime. I'm sure some of the hail, not much but some, was as large as a quarter.

Like I said, this was the worst hail storm that I have personally ever experienced.

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It has been a wet spring.

It has been a wet spring but a bit dry photographically. Heart has been acting up, or more accurately my ICD has been acting up. Three shocks in the past month goes a long way to killing my enthusiasm for getting out and shooting daily pictures.

But I see so many good photos on Google+ that I felt downright inspired. I strolled all the way to my front lawn and found this oh-so-wet hosta.

The London area is well known for its fine farmland and successful agriculture. Everyone is praying that the rain dials back the clouds and storms, letting the sun shine through. Summer is just days away and its time to get down to some serious growing.

The asparagus liked the rain but it is almost done. The strawberry patches are just about ready for picking. The berries should be bigger than usual but not as sweet. They will be puffed with water and their flavour diluted. My granddaughter won't care. She'll still love getting out into the pick-your-own fields and filling quart basket after quart basket with the red berries.

Fleetwood Cruize Weekend: come and gone

John heads off in his completely restored Morgan roadster.

Steve Plunkett has again hosted his Fleetwood Cruize event. Plunkett has a large estate in the far west end of London and holds what may be the largest outdoor car show in North America and possibly the world and its held in what may be thought of as his backyard.

The owner of the Morgan spent years restoring his roadster.

The money raised goes to charity and he raises a lot. Plunkett is one cool dude.

The show is just five or ten minutes from my west London home and in past years I have shown my Morgan Plus 4. Not this year.

My heart has been acting up and my ICD has been busy pacing it and shocking it into line. My Morgan is parked for the time being and may be sold.

But my neighbours still got to enjoy the sight of a Morgan, actually two, gracing our suburban streets. Some members of the Morgan Sports Car Club of Canada stopped by to say hello while in the neighbourhood.

Tell me again, Mr. Urban Planner, why shouldn't I like driving?