Waking up to a surprise!

And not a good one!

 Our beautiful, 40 ft. magnolia was on the ground! Apparently there was a storm on Tuesday night.

 We slept through it. We can't believe that we didn't hear this huge tree come down either.

 The tree completely engulfed our side yard. I know that many of the hydrangeas and crepe myrtles are smashed.

 Somewhere buried under there is our patio umbrella, table and 6 chairs. We don't know yet what might have survived.

We are very fortunate that it did not crash through the sunroom---which is all windows. As it is, the tree is about 6 ft. away.

We've gotten someone to come clean up the mess. It's going to take two days.They are starting today. We're hoping they get it done before Saturday as we've planned a family pool party and barbecue. We just found out today that Sandy and family are coming in town on Friday night. That's a nice distraction for me as I mourn the loss of that beautiful tree! I know that sounds silly, but darn it!

I'm hoping it won't seem like there's a big hole there. On the outside of the fence is another, much larger tree, so we'll still have shade. Maybe we won't even notice it's gone. I doubt it.