7:30 - Trident Fishing Trip

I love this place. Especially the early mornings and late evenings.

One-tenth of an inch of rain during the night -

making a total of two and four-tenths inches over a three day period. The prairies will explode with life in a few days.

My yard now smells great in the early morning, especially after rain, fog or heavy dew, and this is a completely new thing. I noticed it starting last year and it is amplified this year. The plains in general have no native fragrant flowering plants, and except for the oilfield and farm and ranching generated odors (including roadkill), no native smells. For most of my life I never bothered to interfere with that natural state of things but a few years ago I started working on the pond landscaping, then on my yard since it was right there, and now more than just the visual is maturing. The most noticeable smell is pine, and to have been completely neglected for ten or fifteen years those trees put out a tremendously nice fragrance. Mixed with that are traces of the different herbs growing in the breezeway, plus, this morning some of the roses were out and I could also detect them. I have always had the best luck and generally inadvertently end up with the perfect situation.

My sister just called and said that she can see a duck playing (hunting?) in the pond. If I go over there all I will see will be a duck leaving the pond.

Clear for several hours

but now the storms are building again.

One and seven-tenths inches of rain since midnight

Even though I have been to places where it rains often, and have experienced seasons of prolonged, soaking rains, the most of my life has been here where rain is infrequent and unpredictable. When it starts I am thrilled but if it stays too long I feel invaded. During our wettest year in recorded history I even started to feel molded. The sky is already clearing and we will be in the upper 80's in a couple of hours. Almost just right.

Wildflowers on the Pond Fringe

Incredible morning, and the clouds are building for afternoon and evening storms

The koi are all over the pond - sort of the chihuahuas of the fish world. I don't find them as obnoxious as I used to. Maybe it's because I don't have the energy to stalk them and criticize any more.

Cashmere found a small, soft-shelled turtle yesterday. She doesn't think it is native, but what else could it be. It's hundreds of miles to the next ecological situation.