Sun again

We've had 3 weeks of cloudy, humid, rainy weather. In Arizona, that's really a good thing, but frankly, I'm a desert rat and a few days at a time is plenty. Normal for us is clear in the morning, heat building up to 100-110 degrees, growing humidity to the point of insanity, then comes the cloudburst. Pelting rain, either for a few minutes to an hour, that's typical Arizona monsoon weather. This one is more like a winter storm, it's been cloudy, no sun for days, and drizzling, depressing rain every day for 2 weeks. Isn't that New England summers? Anyhow, we need the moisture, so I feel a little guilty for complaining, but I'm really done with that crap! Today was more typical- nice cool morning, heat, now the clouds are piling up over Mingus Mountain, waiting to attack.

I took pictures of the sunflowers, they are a little battered from all the rain, but still pretty. The bees were all over them, and I tried to take a picture of a big black bumble bee, but it was too fuzzy to print, darn it. The rain has been great for the green beans and cucumbers especially, they are growing like crazy. The poor tomatoes have had a worse time. We didn't get them into cages, so I put straw under them, but with so much rain and warm muggy weather, some of them are moldy. They are ripening up nicely though, I want to make more salsa tomorrow. The peppers are doing great, we picked our first bells yesterday. Pretty late, but they taste really good.

I'm still reading the biography on Benjamen Franklin, what a fascinating guy! I tend to read the best of his colloquialisms when I'm laying down, and too lazy to get up and write them down, so I haven't shared them yet. All in all a good week!

Monsoon madness

The old adage "careful what you wish for" comes into play today. The rain clouds crawled down Mingus mountain today, pushing inexorably toward us. Behind them was a solid black sheet, the mountains were invisible behind the mayhem heading our way. Suddenly the winds burst upon the yard; trash cans blew apart, spewing their recycling contents across the driveway. The rain pushed hard from the south, hitting the windows in our bedroom with such force that it was raining inside! The windows are old- from the 1970's, but still, the rain blew in from the top of the windows, as well as the sides and the middle, where the two windows meet.

As I looked out the onto the back porch, there was nearly a solid sheet of water blowing wildly; things were blowing up into the air, but also the rain was pushing into the porch under the eaves as if there was no roof at all. So- our prayers have been answered, we are receiving lots of rain from the summer monsoons. It's not surprising that some of them come with great force and little regard for my comfy home and yard. At least the rains are coming, and with any luck this terrible drought is finally easing!