almost blackberry-time...

We are having an incredibly pleasant first week of July, with days in the upper 80s and nights in the 60s. However, it has started to  warm up again. Back to normal by next week.


Yesterday Tommy mowed around

the clumps of berries that have arisen in the field south of the tank. Since he mowed into the clumps till he got to where there were thick berries, the surrounding ground is pretty rough. Most people will find it pretty convenient picking though, even if the third-mile round trip and a few minutes picking took ME 53 minutes.

 There are lots of green and pink berries, and a few ripe ones. I found one spot where there were several branches more advanced than the rest. I got about two dozen, just about an ounce. YUMMMMM...

Christmas Day in the morning...

The three ships would have to be pretty close to be seen this morning. It's 8 am and DARK, thunderstorms since 2am and continuing. And RAIN, hallelujah.

Yesterday evening they had taken the snow out of the forecast. but it's back in now; just have to wait and see.

At any rate, the more rain the better. Then after it goes down to maybe 19° tonight, I will just stay in, thank you.

So Merry Christmas! Now I have to get up and go make apple streusel.

cold wind

It's now 3:30 am and the temp has dropped 35° since 9:30. Can't really call it a norther since the wind is from juts north of west, whipping along at 26mph. About the closest I have heard to Laura Ingalls' description of the continuous howl of the  blizzard in The Long Winter. On the wind map, the black hole of low pressure is rapidly approaching Chicago.

weather...

So last week we went from near 80° on Sunday to 18° on Tuesday morning. Gradually it warmed up until yesterday and today were absolutely balmy again. Today at DFW, according to the weather service:

... Record high temperature set at Dallas Fort Worth today...

A record high temperature of 78 degrees was set at Dallas Fort Worth
today. This breaks the old record of 73 set in 2008 and 1978.

So here is the next front. 73° now at 9:30 pm, forecast 34° in the morning, and 21° Friday morning.

I hung out a load of sheets this afternoon, after ascertaining that rain was not in the forecast. Oops. About an hour ago I heard what I first assumed to be leaves being blown down as the wind changed. Then as it got louder, I changed my mind.

Earlier in the fall this happened, and I thought about teetering out to the deck on my uncertain ankle, and just let the clothes get an extra rinse. But this time I figured I could handle it, and I did get them in all right. My hair was kind of drippy, and the last sheet was pretty soppy. Of course it stopped almost as soon as I got in. Just a very narrow band. The drought continues.

About 9pm the wind got really loud for a bit, but it has scaled back now. The hint.fm/wind map looks like all the air in the south central plains is getting sucked down a hole between Topeka and Tulsa.

Winter comes back for at least a quick visit. And the forecast for Christmas is low fifties, and another couple freezing nights. More winter than last year, anyway.

bee banquet and a bit of rain

Monday was the CCHBA Christmas banquet. Mucho good food as usual. Kay and I shared a table with about half of the Pettibon family -- 11 kids. My good gracious!!

Turned out that my close-up from the inspection of the new hive on May 20 produced not only the October calendar picture, of bees on an almost-completely-capped frame, but also #3 in the photo contest. And even some money, Tom Siep says, but he forgot the awards, so I'll find out what in January.

OCTOBER CALENDAR PHOTO

I used my new frame grip to lift and hold the frames with just the left hand, so I could snap a close-up with the right. (No glove, but that worked OK, the bees weren't buzzy - hard not to get sticky on the camera though.) The back-lit appearance is genuine -- I was facing south from behind the hive, so the sun was behind the frame, lighting up the honey.


There is another spatter of rain that I hear as I write, at ten pm. We have had light rain for much of the day. First rain in weeks.

Tomorrow, or maybe later because Stephen forgot and double-scheduled himself, he and I will get out to the Ridge. I think he will start by sanding the closet floor and painting the closet, so I can get the Elfa shelves and the clothes into the closet and then see how much material I can fit into the craft room. Aiming to have him do about 6-8 days work, and get myself moved back in January! Much longer, and I will grow root here. It's been seven months.

a good norther at last

Hallelujah!!  We had some cool weather and rain a week or two ago, and hoped the hot weather  was over. But this last week was 102°-105 every day. Something about the interaction of weather factors means that it is sometimes hottest just before a front arrives, which was certainly true yesterday.

But now it is sunny and 82° !!! at three o'clock in the afternoon. Seems unlikely te even get up to the forecast 88°. And it might get down into the upper fifties tonight.

catching up

Well, apologies to anyone who drops in here and wonders what has happened to me. Just busy, not much convenient internet access, houseguests, and a sprained wrist.

I came back from Massachusetts on March 1 to find spring had come, peaches and plums blooming three weeks early, green grass. The green grass soon became knee-high grass with abundant rain. Then late April and early May turned into summer, and the grass became hay. Many actual hay-fields have been cut already.

We did have a welcome return of spring weather in the last week,with rain (an inch and a half at the Ridge), and downright chilly nights. Warming up again now.

Kay and I split my beehive in early March. In early April I added a super to each hive. By late that month I was getting worried that they needed more space -- great masses of bees were hanging out all the time on the landing boards and sometimes up the fronts of the hives. What with the schedule of meetings with Crispin and Turid and engineers, lawyers, realtors, etc., and Jazzfest, I was unable to do anything about it. Also, the sprained wrist made building frames impossible. But I finally got some done and added a fourth story to the new hive last Thursday. Found several frames FULL of honey! I put two of them up into the new box to help draw the bees up there to work, I hope. I just this morning finished the frames for the original hive, and hope to get them on this afternoon.

That's a very quick recap of the brief spring. Here are Amy and Ellen and the 610 irises, and the backyard Ridge hayfield in the rain last week.

cold!

Brrrrrrr, it was cold last night - about 26° but felt much colder somehow. And tonight is supposed to be 22°.

I brought the cats in to 711 to stay while I'm in Lincoln, Mass (speaking of cold!), but I'm on my way back out to Argyle this afternoon to turn on the heat lamp for the chickie-ladies. They may have trouble sleeping in the light, but it beats frostbitten combs.

oh, happy day!

Over a week's worth of entries in one wodge:


Wednesday 12 October


I had almost given up hope for rain Saturday by 9:30 at night when a tap-tap-tap started on the roof. For an hour or so it was like when the popcorn is nearly finished -- there’s a pop, and then a long pause, and you think it’s all done. Then a pop-pop as a few more go. This rain was like this, I kept thinking it was stopping, then a few more drops. Then after an hour or so it settled into a steady drizzle that lasted almost all night.


That gave us about an inch. Didn’t do much for the tank, because there was almost no runoff, but increased it a bit. Then about 9am it started up again, somewhat harder, till early afternoon, and added another inch to the total. I took a fairly unremarkable picture of the front yard, and Buddy in the background, in the rain at noon.


Monday afternoon on the way to the bee meeting, Carolyn couldn’t get over how washed and sparkling everything was, and how lovely the day felt.


Back in the early spring, when I was getting the new hive stand ready for the split that didn’t happen, I grubbed several dozen extremely crowded bulbs out of the fencerow where they were going to be right under it. A patch of garlic, and about 80 of what I thought were the Schoolhouse Lilies or Oxblood Lilies, the red rain lilies of September. I evidently missed a few, because three Red Spider Lilies (Lycoris), to my surprise, squeezed themselves up out of the corner of the space to bloom. The bulbs that I dug up had been in a paper bag by the front door all summer. They were still plump and healthy, so I took seven bags of ten each to bee meeting, as well as the cut flowers.

Gave some to Carolyn and Kay, and Kurt raffled off the rest.



Yesterday, Tuesday, I didn’t even look at the forecast, so I was astonished to wake up about 3:30 this morning to more rain. For half an hour it was very gentle, though distant lightning was flickering. Then suddenly the lightning and thunder were on top of us, and the rain a downpour. Eventually I went back to sleep. This morning is sunny and cool, the broken clouds have all blown on off, and we got another 1-3/4 inches! Now the tank is quite noticeably bigger; ought to be good for another month of drought at least (not that I am hoping for any such thing).

The pond margin has come up to pretty much cover all of the flat cracked plain that I about lost my shoe in before.


At least one crawdad has survived and excavated a new chimney.






There are tiny little white flowers blooming on tho silt flats around the water.






The hillside of bare dirt and dead straw is covered with green dots of germinated seeds. Don’t know what KIND of seeds, but green, anyway.







Back before the rain, when the path to the pond was just dust, Alabaster could turn from a pretty white cat into a goblin in an instant. All it took was a quick wriggle in the dust on her back.












The younger red chicken has hurt her right leg and is limping very badly. Up around the middle of the leg there is a big clumpy scab. I can’t tell just what is wrong. I don’t see how it can possibly be a varmint bite. I wonder if she could have gotten herself caught behind a tie rod or something. She is eating scratch eagerly. Undecided what to do, if anything.





Tuesday 18 Oct

Chilly this morning, down near or below 50° - a cold front blew through energetically about nine last night, with wind and thunder and lots of lightning, and a fairly vigorous, if brief, rain. Less than a quarter of an inch, but a nice reinforcement. It comes to nearly four inches for October so far. It’s still pretty windy this morning. Still below 60° at noon. So odd to actually welcome the sunny spots on the floor for putting one’s feet into.

Now I am going to go into the library and FINALLY get these posts up.



Oh, and one more wildlife photo. This is the second scorpion that has shown up in the sink. This one was evidently killed by the hot water I was running to wash dishes before I got the sink cleared out and saw it. Some arthropods (roaches, for instance) are very sensitive to hot tap water.

A couple of weeks ago, when I was hastily rinsing out the dishes to give the cats "gushie-fud" before going off to Ikea with Mary, I felt a sharp pain in the side of my fingertip as I started scrubbing with the scratcher. Turned out to be an inch-long scorpion on it. I had a dish of soda right there, so I immediately plastered it with wet soda, shortly reinforced with aloe vera. It hurt for maybe ten minutes, not very badly, and then was virtually unnoticeable. Never made any mark to speak of. I'm sure a bigger one would be worse, but I was fairly relieved to discover that they are not nearly as dangerous as I had feared.

hope, hope, hope

Says the NWS meteorologist at 3 this morning

With the increasing moisture over the next several
days...rain chances will be good for areas west of Interstate 35
where the best lift will be located. The GFS and Canadian models
are in decent agreement with the placement of the
trough...although some discrepancies can be noted with the
strength of the system. The European model (ecmwf) remains mostly dry for North
Texas with the bulk of the precipitation staying to the west. Will lean
more with the wetter solutions as the atmosphere should be primed
and ready for precipitation as the lift enters North Texas. The best
chances fore precipitation will be Saturday night into Sunday west of
Interstate 35. Rain chances will end Monday as the upper trough
exits to the north.

Will post this weekend to report any drops...

Weathermen changed their minds

Or maybe the weather changed IT'S mind. Today's discussion says,

"Looking ahead to the the second half of next week...the nation
could be in for a significant pattern shift as upper level high
pressure builds to the east and a deep trough develops across the
west. If this solution verifies it could bring increasing rain
chances to North Texas before the end of next week. "

Sure hope they are right about that rain. One afternoon of drizzle isn't going to make it.

The last rain of any really significant quantity was three months ago, on June 21st about 3 am. It was a nice 2-inch rain. The only problem was that it was accompanied by the worst hail I have ever seen, practically covering the ground here in the dark outside the back kitchen door.

So much hail accumulated in a pile where it slid off the roof in the valley by the rain-barrel, that the pile of ice did not melt till the sun hit it at noon, even though the morning temps were in the nineties, Here it is around 9am, along with all the oak twigs it brought down. Vegetation was just flattened. My thyme never recovered, and gave up before the heat broke, even though it was watered.

The hailstones were large enough, and blown hard enough by the very strong west winds of the storm, that the gallery glass wall now has three holes in it, after surviving 60 years. And the screen on the west end of the upstairs porch was all pulled out of its staples.

The frostweeds were pretty severely impacted by the hail; those big leaves of theirs were fairly well shredded. There are not nearly as many around the premises as last year, but a few ragged ones have survived the drought so far and are about to bloom. I have seen fields of snow-on-the-prairie in bloom, on the way over to McKinney. Don't know how it manages it. A few other fall flowers are showing up in the wake of that little drizzle we had last week. But mostly the ground is pretty bare.

Sunday 25 September 2011


It’s coming ba-a-a-ack!

The high pressure ridge that made our lives a misery this summer is going to make a return, just when we thought it was safe to enjoy the weather. Not as bad as before, though, after all it IS late September. (Of course, it was 104°F on September 29 once, too.) Well, anyway, we had a two-week break of what the weatherman called “seasonal” temperatures. I called it downright cold, a few mornings ago when it was 52°. There wasn’t anything handy that was warm enough to wear!

Says Cavanaugh of the FW weather office: “Western continental US upper ridge should expand back east over Texas Friday into next weekend ... This turn of events will likely shut down any rain chances by next weekend with above normal temperatures continuing.” Bah!

It’s depressing that we continue to get no rain - one nice slow 0.6” drizzle last week, and a few drops a couple of days ago, is not enough to pull anything through, and lots of the vegetation is either outright dead or on its last legs.

It does make good weather for the solar oven, though. I used it quite a lot this summer. It’s not surprising it can hit 250° on a sunny 106° day. Today was just about 90° though, and it did that well. Nice clear atmosphere. Yummy supper. Not quite the supper illustrated, which was some weeks ago, and included eggplant.

Tonight was farmers’ market squash, pepper, potatoes, and a piece of chicken, plus some oregano from my tiny herb patch (that has been watered enough to get a big patch of Johnson grass next to it -- better do some weeding before the herbs get overwhelmed).

cold and warm

Saturday 19 February
3:30 pm, 75°, breezy, mostly overcast

Let’s see. Saturday 29 January, three weeks ago, was about 77°. I went into the bees that day, and they were very un-aggressive and no trouble at all, unlike the day early in the month, when it was about ten degrees cooler, and they were all over me and one stung me through my sleeve.

Saturday 5 February was a lovely sunny day in the fifties. This was notable because the previous four days had not reached freezing (from below), and a couple of nights went down to about 10°. Snow and sleet which had been in place since Tuesday just vanished at last. The powder room cold water line froze and burst the copper tubing on Thursday. The birds at the Ridge just mobbed the feeder, which I moved to right up against the craft-loom window, hanging from the trellis, high. I had to get it out of Buddy’s reach, as I cleared out the garage for him for a refuge, and therefore he has been free of the house-yard.

Saturday 12 February was another nice warm day, after a second blast of sub-twenties weather from Wednesday to Friday. We had postponed Benthic Collection from the 4th to the 11th, then we canceled February collection altogether. All this week now has been above average temperature and mostly dry after the sleet and snow. Two or three days, including yesterday, got up in the 80s. I spent Wednesday morning out at LLELA at the trail-guide workshop. We met comfortably in the outside pavilion.

Others have noticed their bees bringing in orange pollen, and we decided it must be cedar. I had thought of this, but had looked at some cedars and seen no pollen. Was reminded at the CCHBA mtg. that the trees are dioecious. Today I went for a walk around the west forty and found several trees that are indeed covered with cones of pollen. I doesn’t really look as orange as what I have seen being brought in, but must be the answer. Today, I saw a few bees coming in with orange loads, but most had very contrasty and visible pale yellow pollen, from the winter honeysuckle, which is covered with working bees.
Last week, no, because even its flowers can’t take the kind of cold we had, and it was covered with sad little brown blobs. But the small buds have all come out now, and it is fragrant and buzzing. Bare of leaves, though, they froze also, and it will have to put on a new crop.

While exploring for pollen-bearing cedars, I went over to examine closely the one that is right on the big corner post at the se corner of Holmans’ 8 acres, just sw of the tank. It is indeed full of pollen cones, More notably, however, next to it in the fence-line to the north is a possum-haw. I didn’t think I had any. This one is orange-berried, not the real luscious red, but it’s a sizable shrub/little tree. Hurray! Possum-haw, Carolina buckthorn, female persimmons -- wonder what I’ll find next?

New to the land today are 5 pinyon pines (species unknown) and 6 bur oaks, plus a vitex. I got them at the soil conservation service sale yesterday, and Eddie plated them today. The larger (sorta) bur oak in the nw corner of the yard to replace the big hackberry, which seems to be senescent. One little oak near the center of the rock wall, behind the beehive. Two pinyons north of the yard between me and the big house. One oak down the hill by the irises and the toothache tree where I tried one before. A set of three pinyons south across the grass from the shop, and a set of three oaks down in the north pasture below the tank, the closest I have to a bottomland. Well, I could have put them in the drainage near the lane culvert. But if that’s going to get sold, I’d lose them.

I learned at LLELA about a “weed wrench” and I’m going to get one, or maybe two, privets for the pulling out of which. Maybe it will actually be possible to permanently clear some of the area by the drainage-stream, and put in redbuds, French mulberry, Eve’s necklace, buckbrush, etc. Wonder if it can usefully pull Japanese honeysuckle, or if the vine just breaks off and regrows.

As I finish writing this (after a nap), a big full moon shines in the window. So next month it will be full probably on the 20th of March, the day before the equinox. That will make the next full one I guess on Monday April 18, with Easter the following Sunday, the 24th. The vagaries of the ecclesiastical calendar! If the equinox should happen to be on a Friday, with a full moon on the Saturday, Easter could be a full month earlier, on March 23. There were women my age in the Thursday craft meeting, where this discussion came up, who had never learned how the date of Easter is set.

winter, but sunny

I had a nice fire last night as temps went down into the thirties. 8 smallish logs (most 3-4”, one 6” or more) lasted about 4 hours. Agate was happy in my lap for much of the time; Alabaster was off somewhere else. I missed Tut, curled up sleepily watchful on the futon couch.

This morning, clear and sunny, it was just under freezing at 7:30, so I didn’t bother to go look for frost-flower sculptures. The forecast was 27°, and I had the herb bed all covered up again. The rest of the week is just supposed to be in the low to middle thirties, so I will uncover it and water and let it get acclimated to winter.

With the sun shining it’s up to 40° by just after 9:00am.

10:30 - 50° - went on walk. First down to persimmons to nail down ID of second one. Got a twig off it and the one I found with fruit, and the leaf-scars and buds are identical. Need to bring binoculars to see if that is a last persimmon up high in the larger one.

Walked from tank down through path in woods and then back on the lane. Tried to go through the old broken white gate, but it has shifted so that its chain is too tight to open.

Something is happening at the gas-well site. Couldn’t make out if they had a folded-up crane, ar if maybe they have brought back a derrick that’s still on the truck. Later - looks like they are putting up a derrick again. Hmmmm.

Found several persimmon seeds in the lane sand near the house, where I have evidently driven over a seed-laden scat.

Bee notes: By 10:30 it was fifty; by noon a bit over sixty. Bees coming and going, bringing in a good bit of orange and dirty-white pollen. I assume this is from the eleagnus, still perfuming the air and buzzing with bees, and the remnant of scarlet sage in the corner of the yard under the hackberry, which seem to have been protected from outer-space cold so far and still have quite a few scattered blooms. A few days ago these pollens were in the minority as about five out of six loads seemed to be golden yellow, the last of the broomweed and maybe other comps. They are about all gone now.

Thanksgiving arctic front

So there I was at 5:30 this Thanksgiving morning, putting the (huge!) turkey in the oven, wearing thin shorts and a skimpy t-shirt, barefoot; the temperature outside the same 70° it had been all night. Then WHOOSH, the expected front came by, right on time. The oven kept the house warm for a bit, but then it was cooling fast. At 8:00, chilled, I got in bed to warm up for a bit, and woke up two hours later! Went and turned the furnace on then, and it has been working all day to keep the house up to the sixties. Of course it would help if I would get the ladder in from the Ridge so I could get up on the office roof and close that north louver vent. Maybe I'll ask if I can go out Joy's window.

The sun just set, and the temp is supposed to plummet to around 25°. Still a few potted plants on the terrace here and in the front yard at the Ridge. Guess I better get out there and rescue them, and feed the horse. I chopped back the almond verbena and lemon verbena last night, covered the herbs with a big pile of leaves and a tarp. Almond verbena is supposed to need some winter protection, but I don't know how much. Maybe I can get some cuttings to root from what I cut off.

thundershower!

Twenty-plus degree drop in temperature in the last 15 minutes, from around 106° or 107° down to about 85°, as a thunderstorm moved in. It was blowing mist through the back screen door or a south wind,now it is sprinklng me through the window over the antique bed on northwest gusts. I don't care, as long as it keeps raining.

It has been well over a hundred now every day for a week, and the forecast calls for more. Yesterday we got a very brief but hard rain, and now the second is so welcome. Too late, probably, for my elbow-bush that was still in its pot at the Ridge. I didn't get out there from Sunday to Wednesday, and it was crispy. Maybe there is some life in the roots; I will hope so. The herb bed was all droopy, but perked right up with water. If these two thunderstorms have hit there, it should be fine.

muggy ugh

Oh, ugh. Sunset, overcast, 85°, and 63% humidity. The AC is not on because it isn't hot enough,and the room fan is just circulating the fug. I think I'll go adjust the thermostat, and electric bill and global warming be hanged! Weather says that areas that had rain are in the 70s, but we didn't. Weather, weather every where, and not a drop to fall.

Actually today it seemed fairly cool, in the afternoon. I believe it must have been raining up on Mingo Road, or Aubrey, or somewhere. I walked to Point Bank, and there were noticeable northeasterly cool breezes.

Walking that mile and a quarter was no problem. The second one, on the way BACK, did wear me out, especially that hill at the end. Stopping when you are only half way to tired is always the problem. Besides, I needed to go to Point Bank to put in a check for Crispin.

Yesterday Eddie and Stephen put in 4-1/2 hours clearing the sides of the lane at the Ridge -- the lower half is looking quite inviting. They were able to cut the dead tree at the kink in the road. Meanwhile, I excavated the herb bed from the Johnson grass that was threatening to overwhelm it.

I took some more pictures of the progress on the honey frames. Or make that non-progress. They don't look any more capped than last week, and they almost look as though the bees have been eating all the honey out of some spots. Sigh. Won't be a harvest at this rate. John tell me the rule of thumb is that you can harvest when they are three-quarters capped. I sent him this picture, and he said it was a beautiful frame of honey. Now all they have to do is FINISH it!

They continue to bring in lots of pollen. I got some video of that that I hope to get on Youtube or Fileden soon.

Ugh. Wrists are sweating all over the laptop. Off to set the AC lower.

hot ...

11 pm and AC going, hot and muggy outside. Remind me again why I wanted the rain to stop ...
Not near as hot as it might be. I walked probably 2-1/2 miles this afternoon between 6pm and 8pm, to the bank and City Hall (utility bill) and the Cupboard and home, and it was pretty much OK. Mid-nineties. But still 84° after 11pm.
Going to be sore tomorrow, probably.
Just put in my order for medium frames, small cell foundation, extra veil (for Tom or whoever) at Walter Kelley.

summer's b-a-a-ack

End of the rains, and days near 100°, nights upper seventies for the foreseeable future. The last rains were Friday and Saturday, as a stalled-out front at the Red River stirred up some instability to dump a few more thunderstorms out of the soaked atmosphere. Kieren was hammered as he came north from Dallas Friday afternoon, then we had a mild drizzle most of Friday night, and two heavy thunderstorms on Saturday. Sunday however was clear and sunny; the cooler cloudy days gone.

The Ridge rain gauge had 0.6" Friday afternoon, and then over Saturday it collected 2.3" more, for a total of something like nine inches over the two weeks. Sycamore Street's gauge Friday night was 1.8", but I brought it inside to read Friday night and didn't get it back out, so Saturday's storms were unmeasured. While there was more rain in town in several storms the last few days, overall there was less, maybe 6".

Yesterday Eddie and Steven worked around the house and yard at the Ridge. Both screen porches are now largely cleared of the enveloping jungle of creeper, hackberry, and mimosa, and the screen fixed.

I went through the hive (with video). The queen is continuing to lay; there is some uncapped brood and quite a bit of capped on several of the brood frames. But there doesn't seem to be much for all those bees to bring in, even with the rains. The newer super has just maybe three lightly-drawn-out frames, and there is no further progress in the upper super. I saw no pollen arriving, but maybe they gather some earlier in the day. I gave them a pint of syrup with a couple drops of lemon-grass oil to see what would happen.

As I was watching the bees in the late afternoon, I heard a mockingbird do a chuck-will's-widow call, very well too, it fooled me for a moment. He also rendered cardinal calls and song, carolina wren, house wren, and I don't know what else.

A tiny clicky noise made me look up. On a bare peach twig 3-4 feet over my head was a dragonfly. He perched there, then made little circuits, just a 4' circle or maybe figure-eight, and back to the perch, for a long time. I looked him up; he's a Widow Skimmer. This picture is very close to his appearance, though the species seems variable in wing pattern and body color.

more wet

Sure enough, the forecasters were right. A measly little drizzle this morning wasn't much, but about 4pm we got a substantial thunderstorm, the red spot over Denton on the radar. And it looks like there is another one over Dallas that might hit us in a while, too.






Agate and Tut were happy to come in out of the wet. Alabaster must have found a dry spot somewhere. Often she comes bounding up from under the deck, but not this time.

5 minutes later - I passed the back door and called again, and there she was; came in and headed for the food bowl, and then for her spot on the south windowsill. Tut wanted out; Agate remains asleep. A lockable cat door would be handy ...