This has been quite the year so far. I have never seen so much spring rain; it has been cool with daily rain for weeks (along with a few scary thunderstorms that triggered hail and tornado sirens…). After years of drought, this has been a little disconcerting this year.
Do you see the little yellow star on the rainfall map? Yeah, that’s me. There has been so much water I have had to rescue potted plants that were overflowing (with the poor plants drowning inside the flooded pot) and the plants and trees are more lush than I’ve ever seen before. I had a little pond in the back yard, and I never took the winterization covers off the outdoor faucets until today. Finally, finally this week the weather turned, and it became warm outdoors over the weekend. I finally turned off the furnace for the summer last night.
Poor Hannah, the miller moths are now gone, but the butterflies are right around the corner. Maybe there will be dragonflies! Summer is finally here. I headed out to the yard to get some pictures.
The older bunnies of the spring are now laughing at me from the (unusually lush) lawn, and there is a new fluffle of babies emerging from under the deck.
There are birds everywhere in the yard, but I had no luck snapping a shot. I did, however, capture a bee at the catmint.
Welcome to summer, everyone!
Yarn, Books & Roses 
So many things I like about this post ! – Mateo’s fur ruff (shows you a lot about a lion’s mane); the amazing columbine; the wee bunnies; and the BEE !! But most of all I like the fact that you’re still in a position to welcome summer, Marilyn. You go on hangin in there, ya hear ??!
I’m slowly combing that ruff out as Mateo’s winter coat releases. In another month is will be all gone and he will be a matte black cat against Hannah’s shiny black coat. He really is a tiny cat, but all that fur…
I was amazed that I got the bee shot. There were bumblebees earlier in the day but I couldn’t get one to cooperate.
Thanks so much for the positive vibes. I had to go on daytime oxygen twice this week and your encouragement goes a long way.
I hope I haven’t missed a post of yours in a long while – they are without exception interesting, but some make me anxious about you. Which is not meant to say ‘only write upbeat posts please’ – not at all. You must continue to express yourself in whatever way is the most .. satisfactory ? Yeah, I think that’s a good word ! 🙂
As you probably suspect, sometimes I’m just too sick to think, much less post. Once a couple of weeks have gone by, it is even harder to post. I’ve considered a couple of times just letting the blog go, but when I get myself pulled together again I get back at it. 🙂
Certainly my yard in Thornton is as lush as I’ve ever seen it. The lawn mowing crew comes by once a week but that’s barely enough to keep up with the growth. And I still haven’t turned on the sprinklers. Don’t mind that at all. My water bill this month was half what it was a year ago. I’m jealous of your columbine!
It really is amazing to drive around town and think that everything is lush and green, isn’t it. I have only watered the front yard twice this year, and the back yard not at all. I think that the columbine is a special one designed to commemorate the Columbine shooting. It really is a nice one and I’m glad that it came through the winter okay.
Love your garden. And I love the colors in the sweater – I wasn’t so sure about the gold but it’s perfect! Summer, along with the gnats, has arrived here also. There’s still snow on the mountain tops though.
That gold isn’t as bright as it looks in the pictures; it is close to the rose in value so it fits in well. Sorry about the gnats; we have mosquitoes here with all of the rain. There is still snow on the front range, too.
I’m sorry to hear about the over-the-top weather. It seems to be the norm in so many places now. Whatever used to be typical can be tossed out the window.
Your garden is lovely and you’ve captured some amazing photos. I love the pic of the kitties with their shiny coats and opposing fluff. The bunnies are adorable, the mushroom fascinating, and the flowers are lovely. Happy summer.
Happy summer. There should be more pics from the garden because all the plants are just busting with blooms!
I’m looking forward to it.
It was another rough day in the Denver area. The Red Rock concert, the tornadoes, the flooding. I hope you are doing ok. My friend’s daughter hunkered down in the basement as the tornado cleared her deck, took down her fence, and continued its path through her neighborhood. I can’t imagine how terrifying that would be.
It was just crazy here yesterday. We had two inches of rain overnight (I’m east of Red Rocks) and I mowed the lawn in the early afternoon anticipating more free water for the lawn in the coming storms. By the time I was finished I realized that the storms that were building to the west looked pretty big, so I checked radar just as the extreme hail was starting to come down west of Denver. My son got a phone alert for baseball sized hail, and I realized that we were maybe in the path of the storms. I hunkered down with the cats and watched the news; it luckily tracked to the south of me, but I’m so sorry for the scare it gave your friend’s daughter. I know a lot of trees were down and there was significant damage, but luckily no one was seriously hurt. This extreme weather is just exhausting, but I did get some knitting done!
Knitting must be therapeutic when that kind of chaos is happening outside your door. I’m glad you’re okay. Our weather is mild here most of the time, so these extreme weather events are jaw-dropping for me.
I moved here from San Diego. I wanted seasons, but this is ridiculous! Having been raised on earthquakes, I am now facing down tornadoes.
Both earthquakes and tornadoes are scary as you have little to no warning, and both can be equally destructive. Interestingly, my sister lived in San Diego, then Iowa, but she’s now back in San Jose. She used to shelter in her basement.
Our weather experience is, unusually, quite the opposite. Judging by your good pics your garden has clearly benefited from the rain.
We had two more inches last night, and then extreme weather with severe thunderstorm activity and even a tornado on the ground that luckily went south of me. I’m pretty sure that we are seeing climate disruption on a massive scale right now. We have never, ever had this much water in May, and now June is continuing with the downpours.
I’m sure you are right
I just saw last night that the ocean is crazy warm in the Atlantic off your west coast. That has to be messing with the weather.
Yes
Wow that’s some crazy weather. I like the occasional thunderstorm but twice a year is enough not daily.
Right!
Wow – everything is looking gorgeous! So glad you are getting some good rain finally and your plants and trees are getting some much-needed moisture!
You should see my roses!! They have gone crazy with this rain…
I bet! Please post some pics when you get a chance?