If the thought counts....

I thought about a May Day post, a "May the Fourth be with you" post, and a Cinco de Mayo post, but you got nada. And now, once again, I've got a ocean liner-sized boatload of photos to share, all of which I was telling you about (in my mind) while I took them; sending thought-posts would be so much easier! Instead, you are getting word salad with TONS of photo-croutons. 🤪

Part of my posting problem is my penchant for doing just one thing at a time (that's why I'm either knitting something or spinning something, rarely both). A blogpal who has mostly switched to Facebook nominated me there for a 10-day photo challenge which I accepted. That ended today; I did the challenge on Instagram and shared it to my FB page so if you would like to see my "LIFE IS GOOD. Ten days, ten photos of things that give me joy (without explanation)" posts you can click on the little blue Instagram button over on the right. Now onto all the other photos I've been taking....

'Lodged' pasture grass

Rain brings rainbows

We had our driest April in over 50 years and the third driest on record; less rain and more sun has contributed to burgeoning plant growth around here – including WEEDS. We've had some significant showers since May started, so I've been taking advantage of the moistened earth to yoink up as many weeds as possible. I'm not making a very visible dent for the bushels I've hauled off, except in one small area – which I admit I chose just to have ONE spot where my efforts are apparent. 🙄

The stairs down the south side of the house on Sunday, before.

On Sunday, after weeding the little bed on the left and sweeping the stairs.

This morning, after more debris fell and more weeding on the right.
Don't miss Chuckie posing by the rhodedendron!

Brian has done yeoman's work on the garden, weeding it all and then hauling in composted manure. Now it needs to be rototilled, but our ancient walk-behind is dead so we'll probably rent one. Rick thinks that Brian has too much compost in there to make rototilling possible; I guess we'll see.

This morning I checked our fruit trees. Besides the two baby figs on my wee fig tree, there are baby cherries readily visible, but I had to hunt for prunes and apples. I hope that's just because it's early; we hardly got any prunes last year and applesauce is a staple here.

And these are baby English walnuts!

Chuckie in a cherry tree

The rhodies have been glorious this year, and my irises promise to be as well. After the first iris I showed you, several of the brown/burgundy ones (most of what we have) have opened, and today the yellow & white and purple & white are joining the show.

Other vegetative beauty around the place.

The northwest corner of our house.

Male (pollen) cones on a long-needled evergreen on the west edge of our lot

One of the three new lavenders I planted last year

Poppy is doing well. All her baby teeth are gone and shiny white adult teeth now FILL her mouth. At yesterday's PT session, she did much better on the treadmill, even walking 'hands-off' part of the time; today I'm noticing more use and less limp in her bad leg. Hopefully she can have a play date with the 'neighbor boy' soon; she's got more energy than any of us can run off!

That lower left canine was her 'last baby tooth standing;' it's now gone.

Waiting her turn last week

Yesterday's grown-up girl!

I have two 'series' of cute Poppy photos to share in another post; here's a teaser from one:

Poppy has been desperate to play with the sheep, but most of them would just as soon flatten her as look at her. Bing, however, was willing to say "hi."

The sheep are all doing well, although more than half of them still need to be sheared. Vienna's fleece was #5 to be harvested; I checked Sarai yesterday but her fleece still isn't loose enough to be rooed. (The first five fleeces went to one buyer, who is not in a hurry for her last four.) As soon as I publish this, I'm going down to shear Bardot's huge fleece. The boys have been enjoying daily pasture time; today they are in the grassy strip between horse paddocks and arena to graze that down again (the girls mowed it thoroughly earlier).

Beginnings and endings:

someone fledged

evening color in the eastern sky

It's been an eventful week. Last Saturday was my parents' 50th anniversary. My sister and I had talked about some big family trip we could all take together this year to celebrate; instead we had to settle for sending flowers and setting up a Zoom gathering. The silver lining of that was seeing and hearing some family members I haven't seen in years. Then on May 4 (ironically), a former schoolmate of Brian's, a Star Wars trivia master and the younger son of the school's long-time volunteer bus driver passed away. He had battled cancer for several years and last we knew was cancer-free and doing well, so the news was a sucker-punch shock. The heartbreak of losing a loved one for any reason is amplified in this season of social distancing; I hope there can be a public memorial later. So many things aren't happening this year; these are nothing compared to grieving in isolation, but in addition to my parents' anniversary celebration plans and Brian's high school graduation, my 40th high school reunion, Rick's niece's graduate program graduation and subsequent performance gig in Europe, our annual women's retreat and Cowboy Campmeeting have all been cancelled. Let this be a reminder to us all to make memories when we can; nothing is guaranteed in this life, only in the next.

That's it for now from . . .