Bright New Things

I know that I've been promising pictures, but due to a series of strange and unfortunate events, I am left with a dead battery and no card reader. I am still clicking away in film, but that will have to wait till I can get stuff processed and scanned. So, sorry for the delay!

The promised rain hit two days ago, and Grandma is in code red for craziness. I don't know exactly what she is afraid of, but now I must bar and bolt the house as early as possible - Sevenish? And then go and wake her up and say "Grandma, everything is locked up." She says "Oh, ok," and goes back to sleep. All day long I deal with a constant barrage of worried questions: "Are the horses ok?" "Are the chickens ok?" "Did you check the trough?" and so on, about every 20 minutes or so. And the most annoying thing is that she thinks that we two "girls should not be up here, alone, in this weather. Oh, it's just terrible." Did I mention we have three very close neighbors? And are a 5 minute drive to town? Alone?? Really? Not to mention that fact that I come from a long line of extremely capable women...

Ok, rant over. Sorry to unload, I'm just feeling a little... grumpy.

But. The sky is a moody steel gray that accentuates the gorgeous emerald green of the hills around here. I'm hungry to hike up the hill to the Old Barn, a dilapidated structure inhabited by bats and mice, but I think Grandma might very well have a coronary if I was gone that long.

The rain has caused amazing growth in the garden. I didn't water one day because I was expecting rain, and I didn't water the next day because there WAS rain, so when I went out on the third day to find the tiny nasturtiums at 8 inches, the hollyhocks a foot high, and the tomatoes branching out wildly, I was shocked. The best part was discovering that the strawberry patch was not only full of blooms, as per usual, but had seemingly overnight become full of green berries! I even found one sweet little mostly red one. Two more days an' I'mma eat 'im! But this means I need to get the bird wire up today if we are gonna have any that ripen... Bob sees the strawberry patch as his own personal banquet.

Anyhow, it's almost time to take Grandma to the market - it's my first time driving in rain, so wish me luck!