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!

Snow on the Hills

Well, here we are at the end of March, 2010. That seems like an accomplishment, for some reason. As I look out into the back yard, Mingus Mountain is still sprinkled with snow, even though the temperature here has been in the 70's. By the way, that's exactly the way I like snow- in the view, up in the mountains!

I finally finished the book "John Adams" by David McCullough. It is long and detailed, but fascinating. The steadiness he showed, with passion, is incredible. It really is a peek into the lives of amazing, brave and brilliant minds, including Adams, his wife Abigail, son John Quincy, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Much better than my high school history class, that's for sure.

The weeds are getting knee high in the back- we bought a weed-eater yesterday to remedy the problem, but didn't get out there yet to tackle them. I put the chickens in the front yard every day, and they are doing what they can to eat the weeds and bugs there, but I can't put them in the back with the dogs! The eggs, by the way, are delicious! They are laying 4-5 daily, enough to sell a few to friends.

We got the roof fixed, thank heavens. We probably don't need to worry about leaks for a while, the rains have really slacked off, but at least it's done. Home ownership is great, but there's always so much to do...