like scary close...

Tornado watch came AWFULLY (uncomfortably) close to us tonight...
It was very warm & humid earlier in the day and this evening, temperature
dropped about 20 degrees and thunderstorms and then Tornado watch for our county (Story).
Came to the next town over! 
We even heard the sirens, although apparently they are also to warn of very high winds.
Phew... Still...

new things

Things which I learned today:

• Iowa has the sixth largest amount of Carnegie-funded libraries (by state), with 108 

          I'm so used to thinking of Carnegie as a Pittsburgh man and the beautiful Oakland library
           I knew I had come across Carnegie libraries in random places, like in the Northwest
        I just didn't realize quite how far his span reached, nor did I know the original Ames library (now under renovation), is in fact funded by Carnegie

• A crow, sitting down, will take up the entire area (sq. footage) of our bird feeder - after many starlings and some lovely finches visited, today I was startled by a loud noise and saw a big crow taking up residence in the bird feeder.  He really went to town and just decided to settle in there for a while!

Orchid

Orchid continues to thrive, despite adverse conditions!

scenes from a strange May snowstorm

A starling braves the cold and wet conditions to stop at our snowy bird feeder:

holy cow

34 deg out and snowing.