NEW FOLLOWERS AND BAD WEATHER

First of all I want to thank all of the nice folks that have become followers of my blog.  You have no idea what it means to me.  I have felt so alone for most of my life and to me you feel like family.  Some time between now and Christmas I am going to host a giveaway just for my blog followers.  Right now I am trying to decide what the prize will be. As they say on TV- Stay tuned.
Now, as regards my pictures today.  I took these from my deck around 7AM CDT.  Our local weather people say we could have some more bad weather today.  My prediction is - we will.  The air outside is very unsettled.  The clouds are flying in all directions,  the wind blows from one direction then from a totally different direction.  There is a sound in the trees that is always there when there is a chance of tornadoes.  If you have never been thru one, trust me, consider yourself lucky.  You DO NOT WANT TO GO THERE.  Tornadoes are so unpredictable and level everything in sight. and yet the house next door may have no damage.  There is no way to minimize damage, just head for cover and PRAY.   Sunday nite and early Monday morning we had lots of thunder and lightning mostly for us at a distance.  North of us about a 100 miles they had tonadoes.  I know that sounds like a long ways, but when you are talking about tornadoes in the South, it isn't.  I can remember a number of times when it seemed like the whole state was being hit by 'supercell' storms that produced numerous wind storms from the northern border to the Gulf.  They would just pop up and sometimes go for a mile or two, and somethimes for 50 miles or more.  Been there, done that, have the shirt, the hat and the memories. The bad part about Sunday nite is I didn't pay enough attention to the weather.  My husband is from the west coast and they don't have tornadoes like we do.  He really does not have an understanding of how unpredictable they can be.  He doesn't understand the reason the TV stations go to 'wall to wall' coverage with the weather maps and spotter reports.  It has been realitively quiet in our area since he has been in Alabama and I am scared he has a false since of security.  I have slipped into that with him.  When I was alone, I would keep the radio and Tv going.  I remember one nite I had dozed off and woke up with a noise like someone dumping gravel the size of baseballs on the roof.  I came out of that bed like a shot. I knew what it was.  HAIL , BIG HAIL STONES.  They really were the size of baseballs.  It went on for several minutes and then it was quiet.  Deathly quiet.  It was the largest hail I had seen since back in 70's.  I was scared to look out the door.  I called my Aunt Mary (she lives 50 miles northeast of me) and told her what had happened.  It was 3:30 AM and told her I was going out side to look around at the damage. She waited on the phone for me to go out.  I really expected to see the windows out in the van and God only knew what else.  I had a crack in the windshield and dent on the hood and that was all  on the van.  Thank you Lord.  There were lots of tree limbs down.  It turned out that I was on the edge of that cloud.  Three miles from there was buildings and 100's of cars and trucks damaged.  I had pictures that I took of the hail on my deck but have not been able to retrieve them from my old CPU yet.  I will NEVER forget that sound. What was so important about that is hail and tornadoes occur together about 95% of the time.  I live in a doublewide trailer with no where to go in case of a tornado.
All we can do today is stay tuned to the weather and Pray. 
On a lighter note I want you all to note my begonia above.  That is the tallest begonia I have ever seen.  It is 22 inches tall (not counting the pot).  I really hope my mother can see it from Heaven.  She was the green thumb in my family.  I only put one application of 'Miracle Grow' on it early in the season and look what it did.  I generally have a brown thumb.  I am good at toting and fetching the dirt, manure, plants, pots and other stuff to grow plants but not all that good at keeping them alive.  This one has hung on inspite of the dry weather, heat and me. 
Thank you Lord for this day and please keep us safe.
Mary