I was glad to see the sun be back to its yellow shining self this morning despite still seeing a little bit of haze linger in the air.

There was a storm late Saturday afternoon and I am now glad I shot this picture of the beautiful marigold in my 5-tier vertical planter last week because now, this flower is no more along. My vertical tower is not as green and luscious as it was before Saturday.

What happened?

The storm happened. 70 mile-per-hour wind moved my vertical tower from one end of the patio and sent it crashing into one of the tomato beds. When I saw it gliding across the patio, I wanted to run out and stop it even though I knew I wouldn’t be fast enough.

I spent yesterday rebuilding the tower. Except for the sunflower and sweet peppers, all the other plants were damaged. I had to cut back a lot of the tomato plants despite only pruning them the day before and got rid of probably half of the cucumber vines. I think they’ll be okay though and will return with a vengeance like they always do.

My entire body is sore this morning, most likely from overworking my muscles these last two days. I was pruning another one of the tomato beds until dark last night. It was like a thick wall of dense green foliage. I couldn’t figure how my mom managed to jam 2 flimsy tomato cages in there and why I didn’t think to take it out sooner because everything in those cages were growing in crisscross formation.

It was a mess – took me forever to untangle this mess and re-stake the plants to their upright positions. I didn’t get it done last night, will have to finish it tonight.

And the cycle repeats because the other beds need pruning again. Why am I even doing this for? I didn’t plant these cherry tomatoes, mom did and so, why am I the one who’s stuck taking care of these?