We haven’t had rain in our area in at least 8 weeks. So the other day, Tuesday I think it was, when we were on our way home from the gym I got pretty spaced out as we turned onto the road that takes us up the hill to our home. There were drops, drops of water–at least seven–it seemed, so that had to mean it was going to give us a sprinkle at least. We wound our way up and into the garage, and the first thing Hubby did was rush to the backyard deck to take the cushions from the swing to protect them from the rain.
“No,” I said, “don’t take the cushions in yet. If it takes wet swing cushions to tempt Mother Nature enough to give us some rain, then don’t sweat it. It’s a small price to pay.” (or something to that effect)
But no, nothing could persuade him to let those cushions from his absolute most favorite piece of outdoor furniture come even close to getting wet. It didn’t rain!
Yesterday, after a woman at the community council had regaled Hubby the previous evening with tales about the wildflowers in Little Cottonwood Canyon, he announced we should go and see them. With my usual negativity I mused that it might rain, as the day was overcast and looked threatening. He assured me that the rain would hold off until at least later afternoon. We’d have plenty of time to go and take a little hike and get back without worry.
I threw a few food items and drinks into a picnic basket (thank heavens for V-eight juice and cream cheese and crackers and hummus!) and off we went.
So far so good. No rain in sight.
Wow! Carol was right. We're on Catherine's Pass in the Little Cottonwood Canyons. People ski around here all winter, but summertime brings out the wildflower nuts . . . like me!
-
flowers of every hue . . . even my favorite blue ones!
They grow everywhere . . . even in the crevices of rock boulders.
I'm reminded of that Sunday school song, "this little light of mine"
I'm gonna let it shine!"
"Bloom where you are," I think, "what a great life philosophy!"
Do you suppose this tree chose to grow here? Pretty view anyway.
What a great natural bowl. For mother squirrel to serve Bibembap to her babies you think?
Hubby's always 30 or 40 feet ahead of me. "Hurry up! I'm hungry!" he says. "Stop taking pictures. You have enough."
"I will!" I promise. And then I come across this creek. "Yea! I have on my water sandals. My feet are hot. Hummm! He's so far ahead, he'll never know." So I do what a gal sometimes has to do. I cool my tootsies off in the stream. . . and take another picture!
"Look at those clouds! It worked. We've tempted either fate or Mother Nature! Let's eat and get out of here before it comes. (It always starts here in the higher altitudes first.)
Well, long story short. We made it home. It didn’t rain. But today it’s really overcast outside! No matter what we do, Mother Nature or the rain gods just haven’t been tempted enough! So today, we’re driving about an hour and a half to two hours north to see AIDA at the opera house in Logan. We may have to drive back in a thunderstorm. You think?!
My Wintersong 
We’ve had a bunch of rain this summer…but the last two days have been dry and sunny, despite reports of big storms.
I didn’t know squirrels like korean food…
Hi Alice, I’m glad to see that I’m not alone in playing musical patio furniture cushions all summer. I believe I’ve even developed special shoulder muscles from wrestling with these things every other day. At least we’ve been rewarded with lots of rain since April. Our small garden could house Tarzan and a few of his jungle friends. Grace
You can have our rain. Please, come take it away!
Sure wish I could take some of your rain, Colleen. A quick update, we’re back from the afternoon of opera. It still hasn’t rained, though the clouds look low and menacing. If Las Vegas is getting our rain, I’m going to be mad as heck!
Great to see you back, Grace! Yes, we are into patio cushion relays big time. I keep telling my husband, if that’s what it’ll take to get rain to come, let them get wet! I’ll sew new ones!
And Vim, my squirrels can eat anything they want to, as long as they’ll leave my strawberries and tomatoes alone in the back yard. (They don’t!)
Thanks to all of you for stopping in.
Thanks for all your comments.
Mom,maybe you should try this:
explanation here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/doggedknits/2640486610/
Dr. V! That is one clever girl, that Ashley at Dogged Knits. Besides, it looks pretty cool too! As soon as I get back from the gym, I’m going to look for some red glass Christmas balls. It’ll be fun watching that squirrel trying to sink his jaws into one! : )
Thank you for sharing. I have jogged a few blogs I found listed in Terris’ link. They are all wonderful.
I just adore your photo shots and it takes me to such a wonderful place without having to travel there. All I know is, I would never reach there, ever, in my entire life.
I love nature as well and those pictures really captured ME, honest. I am just 30 feet away from nature myself. My bedroom overlooks this nature. Somehow this patch was left untouched when they built bungalows for the University Of Malaya campus, ages ago. I see monkeys, squirrels, birds of various colors and species and of course the bees from where I am writing now.
The campus is right smack in the middle of urban dwelling but I am fortunate to share all these with the Mother Nature.
Rain? YES, abundance of them…they come not necessarily in the Monsoon season. Thus the plants in my garden needed watering only when a whole week is without a single drop of rain.
I would also like to invite you to my humble blog which is not so “like yours”…
Beautiful! You and your man have a lot of energy and that looks like a beautiful hike. We have had a lot more rainthan usual this year down here at the bottom of the state. It has been hot and humid with beautiful mounds of clouds rolling across the sky that have produced booming thunder storms.
I enjoyed your posting and beautiful pictures.
Welcome to newcomers RoyalTLady and Barbara Davis. I’m glad you enjoyed the flowers. RoyalT, your home setting sounds wonderful. And you are gutsy to smuggle those rose cuttings like that. The only thing I’ve been successful at is filching a few seeds from dried flower pods of some native plants. I think that had a successful outcome only once, and I barely remember the incident. But the lady who lived in this house before me must have been really adept (neighbors hint) at stealing wildflowers from the mountainside trails (which is not legal here), because I’ve been struggling to get rid of the resulting invasiveness of the ones who made the trip back home (valarian), their roots and stems grow so thick (several inches around) and wrap around the more cultivated plants and kill them. So I’m pretty careful now what I add to my garden.
As for my energy, Grandma Henke, I had to give up my hike and turn back (the altitude was getting to me) before I got to the thicket of plants everybody I passed going down promised me were “just ahead”, the ones that bloomed only every 100 years. Hubby went on ahead and he never saw them either. But you have to give us both, Hubby especially, an E for effort!
Thanks to everyone for your comments!