It's Raining in August!

 It has been a very hot summer with blow torch days and all life sending out little shoots of ourselves toward the water, shade and coolness. My datura glorify in it though and send back a dazzling response to the sun...or they used to. As of yesterday they have gone.
With the dryness the old black walnuts become brittle under the weight of their limbs. We were picking through gorgeous tomatoes Bruce had set out for the community the other night when Kelsi set off with a joyful Howdy in her car with a friend. Sixty seconds later I heard a small crack... I know my CRACK sounds and started hollering for Michael who was messing around with Selkie who was looking around for her ball. Then another small crack as they joined me in the open then Whoosh and Whack! and a big cloud of dust and two tons of black walnut was on the ground where Kelsi and her car had been. When I told the Riparia community about this the very next day the arborists were out here and unfortunately it's not looking pretty. Many of my drought hardy but pampered plantings are buried under slash and the datura are all broken off which means no seed for next year. They are a magic (and poisonous) plant and showed up on their own... maybe they'll be back someday.

 With the heat I've been in a lot in the late afternoon... mostly wasting time but I just wanted to say something about this hand sculpture that Orien and I had made for my mom. My mom always hated this Mothers Day gift because the truth was there in my big strong ravaged farmer hands... the complete lack of delicacy and femininity that she always hoped to deny. I, on the other hand (!) love this sculpture and always delve into it like there is a fortune to discover-- I love the light and shadow of it too.

 On Sunday we had a special Land Work Day and this photo only shows a few of us water-worker bees... Some started down by the swimming hole, like Zenon, Bob, Emily and Sheldon with the canoe and others of us-- Leslie, Joey, Billy, Mattie, Michael and I started further upstream but we took out huge amounts of garbage from the creek and got further along with considering how to make our section of creek more floatable for these hard summers.

 Then it started to rain last night. Usually I could dry three loads of laundry, if I had that many, in one day but now the limp line is a happy reminder that we have had sprinkles all night and all day. What a glory this "monsoonal moisture" is!
I know Bruce's tomatoes may split but I'm sorry... I'm too happy with the rain refreshment to have even one small complaint. Thank you Mother Nature!