A Beautiful Day

Today is a beautiful summer day, an occurrence that has been in short supply this year.  Last night after being missed by the first round, a second set of thunderstorms delivered 1.75" of rain to our gardens, without damaging wind or hail, and this is the first time in over 2 months that our garden plants, those that aren't brown already, are looking well watered.  The down pour also filled the lily pond.  Presently, at about 1 pm it is pleasantly warm, breezy, and the cicadas are providing quite a chorus.  Ms. Phactor is out for a walk around the gardens with her kitty who has been cooped up during the stifling heat.  The last significant rainfall was 3 weeks ago, and for a week this rain will do, and either the drought will continue or not; long range forecasts are not optimistic.  As produce beggers, friends with some better garden fortunes gave us a bag full of oriental eggplants, and up the street a gardener/farmer was selling big, beautiful tomatoes for 25 cents each.  Not sure the Phactor can grow them that cheaply.  While a great help to gardeners, this rain won't help most of the maize farmers, but maybe the soybeans will recover.  For at least the next few days the oppressive heat will abate, and some optimism returns although this type of weather in this region could become common place due to global warming.  If this is a taste of the future, it's a bad vintage.  Still nothing like enjoying the present, sitting on your veranda (yes, wireless signal is strong enough!) and posting a light weight blog.