Finally, RAIN!

It was unusually dark when the radio woke me up this morning. A car on the road went by and left a slight shushing sound -- a low volume of moisture on the road. There were no drops beating on the metal roof. The rain, as I peered out the studio window -- which is about where I am when my eyes focus -- was more of a heavy mist, sifting over the hayfield. Ah -- a gentle rain -- much better than a heavy beating, wind-assisted draught-breaker that runs off into gutters and gullies, making things worse instead of better.

When we drove into town to get groceries, we encountered heavier rain on the mountain, but it was still not awful, not a toad-strangler rain.

We had thirty days when the temps in the city were above 90 with about three days over 100. Here in the boonies, we hit 86 degrees consistently -- that's hot for here. The gardens have taken the weather hard -- but somewhere in my wandering outside, I heard little sighs of relief from the seedling trees and the herbs close to the house.

We're going to recover!