Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It's been a wet and rainy summer, thus far.  I think the best weather we've had was in May over Memorial Day weekend - thank goodness we went camping that weekend.  There hasn't been enough sunshine put together in the last two and a half months to make a whole week, let alone a weekend.  I heard on the radio today that we're "flirting with the record for the most consecutive days with measurable precipitation" or something like that.  Rained again today.  If it rains tomorrow, we tie the record... if it rains on Saturday, it's a new record.  Ugh!  I'd rather have a record for the most consecutive sunny days.  =(

The upside to all the rain is that I haven't had to water my flowers practically since I planted them.  Although, the ones at the back of the front flower bed are dried up dead husks.  How can that be, you might ask?  Well, that bed sits right against the house and the back portion is sheltered from the weather by the eaves.  Since I haven't been watering, and they've been sheltered from the rain... you do the math... (but it starts with a D and ends with a D and has two vowels in between.)

Another anomaly I've noticed is that we're growing loads of mushrooms.  Tall ones, short ones, white ones, orange ones... and for the first time ever, I've even found them in my flower bed.  Which makes me wonder where the little mushroom seeds come from.  I mean, I didn't plant them; they didn't grow in the flower bed last year (or for any of the past five or so years); I don't think birds crap them out... so where do they come from?

And then there's the spiders... *shudder*...  We normally have a fair amount of spider webs that populate the deck in the summertime.  I let them live because they're eating other bugs that I may not want around (read: they'd better be eating those damn mosquitoes and any other bug that's trying to eat me or my plants!).  But there seem to be more spiders this summer.  Not sure if it's because of the rain too?  Or maybe because it's been cloudier and the spiders don't like sun?  No idea, but I get the heebie-jeebies every time I walk through a web or get close to one.

Those guys were lucky to keep on living - except that I didn't have a hard-soled shoe on me and I suddenly had a mental picture of them jumping on me.  So I stayed as far away as I possibly could to get the picture.  Thank goodness for the zoom feature on my camera!!

Saturday *SUMMER* Saunter & Sweat

After only a week or two of "spring", it looks like we're moving right into summer - yay!!  Today's weather was absolutely gorgeous.  Couldn't have asked for better - clear skies, mid-50s... a practically perfect day.  And I spent a large portion of the day enjoying being outdoors.

During the summer, I sign up for as many charity walks as I can.  I figure it gets me out and moving, and I'm helping to support some good causes.  Today's walk was in Kincaid Park, Amblin' for Alzheimer's.  I can tell it's a little cooler in that part of town, since the leaves aren't as far developed.  On my side of town, we're getting the "green sheen" - where if you squint or look out of the corner of your eye, you see the lime green of new leaves as a mist over the bare tree limbs.  In a couple weeks, it'll be the darker green of full-grown leaves.  Ahhhh, sweet anticipation...

When I was done walking, it was still *way* too nice to sit inside, so I figured I'd rake the yard.  Get some sun and at the same time get the leaves cleaned up.  I even bared my scaly, hairy, brighter-than-the-sun legs, in hopes that I get a little color.  I plan on attending to the hairy and scaly bits (lotion and a razor will work wonders) since that's fixable, but my legs haven't been other than blindingly white for years.  (Well, in Florida a couple years ago, I think I got them a lovely shade of lobster red, but once that was gone it was back to shiny-white.)  I don't know that there's any hope for changing that, but ever the optimist, every year I expose them (and other people - amazingly there aren't more wrecks noted at that same time).

I should've been thinking about prepping for raking earlier.  I like using the fan-type leaf rake.  When I got down to the yard, I found four - yes, four... and why is it that a household of two with only one yard needs four (potentially five) rakes, you might ask?  I'm asking too, and don't have an answer yet.  Anyhow.  Four of the 16-tine metal rakes, and not one leaf rake.  I remember it was plastic and a tine or two was broken - must have gotten rid of it last fall and neglected to get a replacement.

Let me tell you, raking with the leaf rake is much more enjoyable - if any raking can be considered enjoyable after the first five minutes. I can definitely tell I don't do manual labor for my living.  One rake, two blisters, three dead mosquitoes (no bites that I'm aware of - slapped myself silly before they could take a sip), and an hour-and-a-half later, it's done.  (Except for the bagging - I'm waiting for Greg to help me with that... I'll let him grab up the moose poop that's buried in the leaves while I hold the garbage bag open.)  =)

Another sign that summer is here.  With weather like today, I'm starting to think about my flower pots.  It's a little early yet - probably won't do any planting until after Memorial Day weekend, but this year I'll probably buy them beforehand so I have a bigger selection. I hope this summer is a nice one!!  =)

Summer Color

I planted my flowers a bit late this year - end of June, rather than the beginning. As usual, I'm checking them daily to see how they're growing and I'm rather impatient. I want to see them in full bloom, with lots of flowers & buds. They're coming along, but I have to keep remembering that they're not as far along as I'd like because I started later than normal...

Midnight Sun

This picture was taken on the 9th of June at 11:14pm - wahoo!!

The flip-side is that after Solstice, days start getting shorter. That time of year always gets here way too quickly for me!! Crazy, but the "official" start of summer is also the beginning of our shorter days and the herald of fall.