We had very strong thunder and rain early in the morning - loud thunder woke me up at 6a. Later, I heard that there were major tornadoes in the midwest and south, killing 27!

The daytime was nice, but just before dark, the winds got quite strong. In the daytime, I prepared three spots for the three new hybrid tea roses - Double Delight to replace the dead Double Delight at the street end of the main rose bed, Elizabeth Taylor to replace Color Magic, which is dead and occupied "R2s", or the second position in the right-hand (as you face the house) roadside rose bed, in a row closer to the street, and Olympiad to go into the red bed at "L1h" where years ago I had Rose Rhapsody and which died in 2002. I had wanted to plant the roses today, but the winds would dessicate the new roses, so I left them to be planted till tomorrow. Also today, since the flowering almonds are pretty much through blooming, I thinned them a bit and cut them back by about a third.