On Thursday April 2nd, Philo & I saw Leonard Cohen live in downtown Austin, surrounded by some of the best musicians in the world playing together as the Unified Heart Touring Company (hear them play 'Hallelujah' on YouTube). We are both longtime fans, and it seemed miraculous when I got through to the website two minutes after the tickets went on sale. The show sold out within minutes and an added second show went even faster - we were very lucky! The Long Center is only a year old, a beautiful, comfortable, civilized venue and being there was wonderful, from strolling the courtyards with stunning views of downtown Austin after dark, to the interior spaces and the theater's lighting, accoustics and sightlines. Our seats were in the Mezzanine and this was a pretty expensive evening for us, but it was worth every penny. We couldn't linger in the emotional afterglow for very long - seeing Leonard Cohen would have been the biggest event of a normal April, but in this odd spring, he became the opening act. 
HAIL DAMAGE
The more experienced among you who saw our hail video from March 25th probably guessed right away that it caused significant damage to our house. We knew the skylight was shattered, but last week we found out we'd also need a new roof and many other repairs. If you drive around our area you'll see similar marks on our neighbors' shingles. The ads and flyers began arriving the morning after the storm...now signs for roofing companies are popping up like rainlilies on the lawns. Here's an odd fact of life for gardeners - the insurance might pay for a hail-destroyed ceramic pot...but not the plant growing in it.
The hail that tried to smash the 'Ramona' clematis was buffered by the leaves and branches of an overhanging Saucer Magnolia - tough on the magnolia, but good for 'Ramona'!HOWARD'S SOUVENIR
The tall metal obelisk in the garden came from Howard's nursery, once a favorite shopping place on Koenig Lane . This .. post mentioned the nursery closing, the obelisk, and a rescued one-gallon container of Weigelia 'Rumba'. Two rooted stems of the tiny shrub took hold and grew, made it through the heat and drought, and are now blooming beautifully in the Pink Entrance Garden.HARD WORK
We spent Thursday with Leonard, met with insurance folks on Friday, and on Saturday April 4th the Divas of the Dirt met at Buffy's house for her annual project. Part of that day was spent cleaning up broken, dead, smashed foliage and branches from the hailstorm. I'd spent 10 days doing that in my own yard so was in practice! Photos from Buffy's April project won't be posted for awhile, but photos of the project we did for Mindy's garden day on March 21st are now up on the Divas of the Dirt blog. That's Buffy in the photo above - working in Mindy's garden. I was at Buffy's from 8:30 AM to 7:15 PM - that takes us up to the night of Saturday April 4th. Two beloved, long-awaited out-of-state guests arrived on Sunday the 5th for a visit - a story for the next post.
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