Rain in Summer

How beautiful is the rain!

After the dust and the heat,

In the broad and fiery street,

In the narrow lane,

How beautiful is the rain!

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Rain in Summer

We had a little rain late yesterday afternoon, nothing much but enough to cool it off. I was able to take my wheel outside and spin for an hour without being eaten alive. And it cooled it down so that I was able to sleep without the fan running.

At 5:30 this morning I was lying in bed and heard distant thunder and a couple of drops of rain and then the sky opened up and it poured. It continued for approximately 45 minutes so there is no chance of getting into the garden this morning and that is what the plan was for the day. Oh well like they say..“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry” Oh shucks, I guess I will just have to ply the yarn I finished last night!

I gather from watching the weather that a cold front (finally!) is coming through the area today and tomorrow and we are expected to get 2-5 inches of rain. My garden will be in heaven. After the rain yesterday I was able to take some pics of what it is doing so far. The garden huckleberries are just starting to ripen and boy are they loaded and still producing bloom. The blackberries are just starting to ripen. In two weeks they will be blackberry pie filling and juice as we have enough jam. The corn is just starting to tassel. I would love to find out how to take my corn relish recipe and can it. I will have to see if some on the net are close to mine. This is the first zucchini and knowing zucchini, it won't be the last. The potatoes are blooming, thanks to the kids handpicking the potato bugs the plants don't look half bad. The cabbage are heading up and will be used to make sauerkraut and haluski. The cuc's are small but numerous and will soon be ready to be made into bread & butter pickles. Peppers which I have never had much luck getting anything from before the frost, this year are doing quite well. The plants are big but I am getting peppers.And the spaghetti squash (look between th weeds which won't get pulled today)and buttercup are literally climbing up and over everything...such as 5 foot tall amaranth.Sis, be ready because by the time you get here, the proverbial sh*t will be hitting the fan so far as the garden is concerned! So dig out that 80's sweat band, you will be needing it!!!

As an update to the Doctor’s visit….My uncle had his cataract surgery on Monday and we went back for a check up yesterday and it was a success. He goes back for another check up in a week and has the left eye done on August 11. Yesterday on the way back to the Drs. Office he was saying how much further he could see and that his depth perception was coming back. Needless to say he is a happy man….He said all he needs now is a hair transplant, some little blue pills and he will be ready to go “cattin’ around”!

The children both have swimmers ear and are banned from the pool for a couple of days. They won’t mind the rain as it makes the pool less tempting! We are still waiting on the results of #2 sons Lyme test but they did start treating him as they said the rash basically was the diagnosis which is what Grace had already told me.

So far as the house, we are waiting on the inspector to call us back since Saturday and we are fighting with the contractor store. We priced drywall, locked in that price, paid for it and they said to call when we wanted it delivered. However, the employee that locked the price in is no longer there so they want to charge us today’s price which is double. So the store manager has copies of everything and we are expecting a call from him, but meanwhile the vacation time is slipping away. Oh don’t get me wrong I have found lots of things for him to do and he has escaped my list by going fishing a couple of times! Slippery as an eel he is! Wouldn't be so bad if he did more catching than fishing!!!!