rain — Page 18

Memo to Rain: Please Leave

June 13, 2013 at 8:38 am by Claudia

thurs-sky

I’m leading with this shot of the beautiful, fluffy cloud-filled sky I took yesterday because today we are getting heavy rain.

Again.

All day.

All night.

thurs-creek

(the creek across the street from our cottage)

I’m sick of it. Our overloaded creeks and rivers are sick of it. My peonies, who have been rudely snipped, taken from their home and brought inside because of the rain are sick of it. My catalpa that keeps losing flowers because of the heavy downpours is sick of it. Scout, who has to have her paws wiped every time she comes in from the rain, is sick of it. And mostly, the ceiling in our bedroom, where there is a leak, is sick of it.

Okay. I got that out. Now if I can just scream a few times, I’ll feel better. But Don’s still sleeping, so that’s a no-no.

We mowed yesterday in anticipation of the coming rain.

thurs-agirl&herdad

Here’s Scout greeting her dad after watching him mow through the openings in the porch railing.

Most of the time she likes the porch. But when she is there alone and we are on the other side of the railing doing something or other, well, that’s another story. She barks.

thurs-bark

Outraged barks. I mean, why would we even consider doing something without including her?

thurs-cutie

She’s thinking: maybe I should use my abundant charm…

daylily

My first batch of daylilies has opened. This particular plant always blooms first. Lots of blooms for a day or two, then nothing else the rest of the summer.

Thurs-daylilies

Our little kissing boy and girl seem to be hiding behind the plants, hoping they can’t be seen.

Thurs-rose

thurs-newdawnbud

Is that a New Dawn rose bud I see? Only one of the buds has opened and I decided not to include it in a post. Why? Because it opened during another in a series of torrential downpours. It wasn’t as pretty as it was meant to be.

Rain, rain, go away. Don’t come again another day.

So, it’s dark and gloomy and here we be. I suppose I can get through two acts of Much Ado today. Might as well take advantage of being stuck inside.

What’s the weather like where you live? And if it’s sunny and beautiful, please be kind.

Happy Thursday.

signature2

What was I Thinking?

July 30, 2012 at 8:22 am by Claudia

It’s been awfully stormy around here lately. We’ve had quite a bit of rain and, unfortunately, lots of humidity. I noticed yesterday that the large brown patches of grass that I’ve been seeing everywhere have disappeared. It’s good for the garden, the grass and our well. But I know many of you are facing endless days of of hot, dry weather and my heart goes out to you with the wish that rain will come to you soon.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know I love birds. I watch them, worry about them, give them water to drink and generally delight in their presence.

Recently, I had just finished mowing the lawn, which means I was pretty tired, and was in the process of putting the mower back into the shed. I often clear out the grass that has collected under the mower before I put it away. This time there was a lot of wet grass underneath that I pulled out in chunks.

The shed has two windows and two window boxes. After I had put the mower away, I noticed a lot of dry grass in the corner of one of the window boxes. Since I had grass on my brain, I grabbed the pile of grass and put it on the ground, wondering where it had come from.

A week or so later: same scenario, same discovery. I again pulled it out of the window box, wondering if the grass had fallen there somehow. (I know. You’re thinking: Uh, Claudia…just how would that happen?) It wasn’t until later that day that I realized it might be a nest. It was so loosely thrown together, with no real defined shape, that I thought it was simply a clump of grass.

I retrieved it from the ground, looked closely at it and saw a little scooped-out area. Oh. Definitely a bird nest. But no eggs. It clearly had been recently constructed.

I put it back. Here’s a photo of it, but believe me, when I first discovered it, I didn’t see anything other than grass.

I felt like an idiot.

For some reason, I googled ‘nests of mourning doves” and read that they are very loosely constructed. Oh no. What if my beloved mourning doves were trying to build a nest and I had messed with it?

The nest has been back in the window box for a week now. No activity. Do you think I should take it out of the box and hope they try again? Or do you think they’ve given up on me and have built another one elsewhere? I also read that they will abandon a nest rather quickly if they feel threatened in any way.

What was I thinking?

A Storm Right Out of Shakespeare

July 27, 2012 at 6:57 am by Claudia

“Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!”

William Shakespeare, King Lear

That volatile line of thunderstorms that was all over the eastern part of the country hit us yesterday. The air was so humid all day long that I knew something was up. As the day progressed I started to hear warnings from the National Weather Service on the radio. And as we headed toward the dinner hour the sky ominously darkened, so much so that it seemed like the middle of the night. The wind was fierce, branches were flying, the sound of thunder never stopped and lightning lit up the sky. Very Shakespearean in its intensity. I usually love thunderstorms, but this one was scary, especially when I heard there was a tornado warning for our area.

I called Don. He didn’t answer. A few minutes later, he called me back and stayed on the phone with me as the storm got stronger and stronger.

We really don’t have a basement. We have a small basement that you can enter from outside and if it was only me, I’d go down there. But there is no way I could get Riley down there on my own. You have to duck when you walk down the stairs – trying to hold Riley in my arms and make my way down the stairs would be impossible, as would getting him back up the stairs.

An interior room with no windows? Nope. There are windows everywhere here at the cottage.

For an hour or so, it was pretty scary around here. The force of those winds reminded me very much of Hurricane Irene. Thankfully, this storm didn’t last nearly as long as the hurricane. After it had passed, I put on my slicker and went out to survey the damage. Lots of smallish branches down. One of my flower pots had fallen and broken. A few pots on the porch had tipped over. A large chunk of one of the deadish trees in the back forty had fallen – I’ll need Don’s help with that one. I cleaned up as much as I could and the rest I’ll tackle today.

Whew. We’re safe. The house is standing. The damage was minimal – just messy.

And how are you this Friday morning?

Don’t forget to visit my Connecticut Tourism post! You can enter a sweepstakes from BlogHer to win $1000 to help you plan your trip! It’s easy….just stop by and leave a comment.

Memo to Rain: Please Leave

What was I Thinking?

A Storm Right Out of Shakespeare

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives