[caption id="attachment_1081" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Five miles from here."]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1081" title="20110429_3" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_31-300x199.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>[/caption]

When the South was hit by storms the other day, most of the news -- the bad news anyway -- came from Alabama and points west of here.

Since I don't watch television, listen to radio news or subscribe to a newspaper that has news less than 48 hours old, I had no idea that any of the tornadoes has hit near here. But yesterday, when we were heading north to Atlanta for a couple of doctor's appointments, I caught sight of the view in the accompanying photograph.

It is -- or was -- a flimsy warehouse a little more than five miles from our home in Sun City Peachtree. It isn't easy to see in the photo, but there were at least five or six recreational vehicles from a lot next door that were also destroyed.

That's a little too close for comfort.

I'm certainly not complaining. As of this evening, the death toll across the South is reported at more than 300 people, and as least as far as I can see, there was no damage at all here in Sun City.

[caption id="attachment_1083" align="alignleft" width="199" caption="My little peach tree"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1083" title="20110429_1" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110429_1-199x300.jpg" alt="" width="199" height="300" /></a>[/caption]

So today, with the sun out and with only a few clouds in the sky, I dug a hole and planted my peach tree.

I don't know how big it will get -- technically it's only a dwarf peach tree -- but living in Georgia, there was no way in the world I would plant anything other than a peach tree as my first fruit tree.

So now I've got three tomato plants, one peach tree and two flower pots containing impatiens.

I'm going to have to depend on the kindness of neighbors when we go to Europe this summer. I'm pretty sure my tomato plants wouldn't thrive during three weeks without watering, although I have hopes for the tree.

Still, if the tornadoes come to call, I have a hunch my ltitle tree may not fare too well.