May 27, 2015 Back Home With Thunder Storms

A wren nesting in the bird house Nene gave us.

Lupine growing along the south ridge's
 lower loop of the road.

Monday 5/25. When I arrived home yesterday, after three nights and three days in Larry and Elsie's home, my home seemed awfully small when I walked in.  But that soon changed and it was good to be back.  We had rain and thunder Friday morning, but then all the rain went to the south and I could just barely hear some thunder the other days.  Of course, it was much louder Up Here for JB and the dogs.

It looked like all the grass shot up another six inches while I was gone, so I did a lot of pulling and cutting around the house.  JB mowed some more with the tractor, as he had been doing every day.  The east slope, south ridge and around the house are almost done.  However, this afternoon the tractor overheated and he wasn't able to get it going again.  It was good timing though as our neighbors from Seattle were here for the weekend and came up to visit.  Always a pleasure to see them.

They had been here for about an hour when rain started falling and thunder started booming, so they quickly left to put tarps over things at their camp.  JB had already put the tarp over the tractor, so we were good to go.  The rain lasted for more than an hour.  When the sun peeked out again, I took a post-hole digger down to them for a project they are working on.

It was a chilly day with a high of only 52.

We began watching season six of Burn Notice last night, and watched more this evening.

Tuesday 5/26. This morning was 48 and partly cloudy. I sat out on the porch with my tea watching the humming bird wars.  We have a wren nesting in the bird house that Nene gave us.  It will be the first tenant.  It might also be the same wren who started to nest in our other bird house as I haven't seen any activity lately over there.

I was hoping for a dry, quiet day, but that was not to be.  Big, dark clouds began to appear on the western horizon before noon, so I was out pulling and cutting grass as quickly as possible.  

It is funny that I can envision a snow-covered Rose Camp at any time during the year, but during the Winter I completely forget how lush our Spring can be.  And this year is as lush as I have seen it.  The lupine has started blooming with a vengeance in the past week and there is purple everywhere.  Actually there is a whole range of colors in which it blooms, from a rosy pink to a deep blue-purple with various shades of lilac and lavender in between.

JB was not able to start the tractor and we were afraid it was going to have to go into the shop.  However he soon realized that he had forgotten to disengage the mower.  As soon as he did that, it started right up.  Too late to do any mowing by the look of the clouds, but it was a big relief to us and our bank account.

There have been wild turkeys down from the west ridge for the past several days and they have been driving the dogs crazy.  And the dogs' barking has been driving JB crazy.  They must have moved on because today was very quiet in that sense.

Rain began falling at about 2:15 pm today, same as yesterday.  But today it was just a short shower with some distant thunder.  I could still smell the pungent aroma of the bitter brush in bloom on our afternoon walk with the dogs.  And we are surrounded by lupine on the south ridge's lower loop road.  I love it! 

We are cutting back on our big dinners.  Neither of us are hungry for that much food any more.  I really think it is just a part of aging.

We heard poor wills during Sunday night.  Haven't heard them for a while.  Tonight at 9:30 pm we heard two or three hooty owls (barn owls, I think) hooting to each other.  Poor wills and barn owls are fine, but it's the screech owl that really freaks me out.

Wednesday 5/27. It is 50 and clear this morning.  Hopefully this will be a dry and quiet day.

Thought for the day: Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson