Rain, rain go away

That Wednesday thunderstorm was a doozy. I drove back to work after supper for an online faculty meeting, and further up West St. trees had brought down power lines and had ripped connections from homes The ancient maples at the far end of the Crossover Road, which had been pretty well damaged during the 2007 windstorm, looked like cannon had been shot at them.

Friday was gray and cloudy, and it got cloudier and grayer and more threatening as the day went on. I was going to ride Raven in the late afternoon but I had an unshakeable certainty that as soon as I had the saddle on her the skies would open. So I did the laundry instead. And it didn’t begin to rain until 7pm. Another riding opportunity lost.

But THURSDAY was splendid, and so was today! So I got out the camera. Ernie graced my efforts with his presence. (As always, click to see bigger pix.)

The flowers by the bedroom deck are glorious

Globe thistles attract bees by the dozen

 

Here's a daylily I purchased last year from George and Gail Africa's Vermont Flower Farm in Plainfield, VT

Here's part of  the bed behind the bedroom window

I have veggies!!  I have beets, but they're roasting in the oven now.  So we have a harvest of Swiss Chard:

And the tomatoes are coming along:

And here's the King of the Garden himself:

Evening skies

At 5pm we had a monster thunderstorm.  Some lightning, loud thunder, a heavy, pounding  delugewith enough wind to make it rain sideways for a few exciting minutes. I had to park the car within 3 feet of the front door to get inside without getting soaked. By 6:30 the storm was over. The sun came out, and around 8pm the sun began to set. 

And the fog began to descend.

Ernie had a difficult week

There was the heat wave. If he went outdoors and came onto the porch, he couldn’t get into the cooler house. If he stayed in the cooler house, he couldn’t go outdoors. He was unhappy all week.  We all know how bad the heat wave was.  I don't need to blog about it ...

Adding injury to insult, Ernie had another run-in with the Churchill’s barn cat on Thursday at  3am, which I broke up by throwing a pot of cold water on the swirling cat mass. I got the other cat, since Ernie was pretty dry when I got him in. Then I had to doctor the scratches Ernie had received – plenty of them, but no bites. Ernie does not like being doctored.

This morning I came onto the porch from my Sunday visit at Thelma’s and the air on the porch reeked.  Ernie reeked.  Ernie, bath time.

I drew water 3” deep in the bathtub, put Ernie in, poured warm water over him, and (ta-daa) He Stood Still. Somehow he knew this must be a good thing. I shampooed him, rinsed him a lot (with a big pitcher) and He Stood Still. I wrapped him in a towel to dry him off and He Sat Quietly In My Lap. Of course he had to try to lick himself dry. Seeing dozens of hairballs in the future, I brushed him to dry him out and he actually thought that was good too.  He was happy to finish drying on the porch, with a fan blowing gently on him.