Gray. Dark. Damp. Soggy. Dreary. Wet. Rainy.

All these words describe our current weather situation. It’s been this way for weeks. Maybe one day out of the week the sun will come out for a while just to prove it’s still there ... somewhere. I actually love rainy days, I really do, but this is bordering on ridiculous. It’s not warm. Temperatures are mostly in the 60’s with very high humidity, which on the east coast means downright damp. uck! The dogs lay around the house in a funk and so do I. Why bother cleaning when I can’t see the dirt? That’s my excuse anyway.

So far this month we’ve only had two days that our weather station didn’t register any rain. We’ve had over five inches of rain since the start of June. One inch of that came within 30 minutes during a thunderstorm on Monday. Just since midnight we’ve had over 1/2 inch. Enough already! Let summer begin! Sadly, when the calendar registers the start of summer on Sunday I don’t think the weather gods will take much note. We’re stuck in a rut.

And the pool? Please! Don’t let’s talk about it. All it’s good for right now is collecting water.

This much rain makes things grow. Or rot. Let’s look on the brighter side for now and take a look at some of the things that are managing to grow in this weather. Yesterday’s weather offered a clear window with a little bit of sun so I took my camera out to see what I could find before I mowed the grass.

These tiny, tiny purple flowers growing in the grass.

Clover against the white fence.

A silvery white moth hanging on a blade of grass.

An assortment of flowers.

And inevitably with this much moisture: mushrooms!

One left behind on top of a rock like a discarded, half-nibbled apple core.

An ugly one with a face. (Can you see the face? Kind of a like moaning ghost wearing a sombrero.)

A gelatinous cup with the sun shining through it.

More gelatinous style fungi. They have the texture of rubber.

A puffball. My book says these are edible, but any mushroom that goes poof! in a big ball of brown powder when you step on it after it dries I just can’t make myself eat.

I liked how the dew was still clinging to the stem of this one.

I do have a few tomatoes that have set but we need the sun!

Some of my flowers in pots around the pool that don’t have drainage are rotting away. Literally. I kid you not! I know I shouldn’t be complaining. At least I don’t need to water them by hand every day. Our well is certainly replenished. Everything is green. Oh wait ...  maybe it’s just mold.

I’ve been doing some of this:

more on the tea towels coming in another post ...

and this ...

an out of print book that I bought at a local church book sale.

I made this: (Blueberries and Cream Pie)

And Rick started some homemade limoncello to fortify us.

We’ll get through this damp patch, I know we will. Remind me later in the summer, will you, when I’m complaining about the hot & humid weather and having to run the air conditioning night and day? Today that seems like a pipe dream as I look out into the murky depths of the yard and watch the rain falling down.

Two thunderstorms with heavy rain rolled over us while we tried to sleep this morning. Why oh why does it wait until 3:00 a.m. to turn on the noisy water works? Just as I drifted back to sleep (or at least it seemed like it), the second one went over. It poured. It rumbled. It lit up the sky. It was still raining lightly when I got up. Then I went to look at the radar on the computer and saw a line of storms coming rapidly our way that were red and orange. Not good. I made sure Rick was up and taking his shower so he wouldn’t get stuck in the shower with lightning all around. I shut off the computer and waited. It was as dark as night. It did all of the above things again only with more thunder and lightning than the other two.

The first two storms put down 3/4 of an inch of rain. The third storm by itself put down 1/2 inch of rain in about 20 minutes. That’s a lot of rain folks! We’re going to have to let water out of the pool so the skimmers will work! I am getting used to thunderstorms in the morning hours, something you would never see in Colorado. It’s still raining out there with the occasional clap of thunder and flash of lightning, but it’s still really really dark. I can’t even see out the front windows because the screens are so wet. A very strange start to the day. Thank goodness I mowed the grass yesterday!

Here’s the map after it went over us.

Outside temperature: 79
Pool temperature: 70-ish
First swim of the year! At first we were just going to go in the pool just to see if we could entice Bella back in. I am still kicking myself for not pushing the right button to record when Bella jumped in and swam to Rick on Saturday. Darn it anyway! We were not successful in getting her back in with us. We bobbed around a while on our new cushy lounges while the sun went in and out of clouds. It couldn’t seem to make up its mind. I got out and Rick decided he was going to try to really get wet and swim. He was standing at what I call the “brink of no return” (where the shallow end of our pool starts dropping off gradually from 3 feet to 9 feet). He was stuck there. Trust me, it’s hard to make that decision to dunk yourself in that cold water! So, I asked him if it would help if I got in too. I walked in to meet him and my right foot went a little too far—right off the brink of no return. kerplunk. I was in the icy water. Oh well, might as well swim since I’m in! Rick was annoyed with me because he wanted to be the one who got wet first this year. Trust me, I didn’t plan it. He said the expression on my face was priceless. We swam five laps or so and that was enough. Actually it felt kind of refreshing once you got used to it.

The water so far this year is crystal clear. Last year we struggled so with algae. I hope we don’t have that problem this year. It was a real pain. We have these little bugs this time of year that we are always finding floating in the pool. They look just like a fly Rick used in Colorado for fly fishing: a wooly bugger. I was never sure about the spelling. Maybe it’s a wooly booger. They are always dry, never wet. Anyway, this is what they look like:

I have tons of foxglove that is on the verge of blooming. They must reseed themselves pretty readily because I used to only have two or three and now I have at least ten different plants coming up everywhere. I like them though so I let them go. The bees like them too.

I don’t know what this is. Something in the pea family, but exactly what I don’t know. It’s a pretty tall plant; about 3.5 feet.

The day lilies are getting ready to make their debut poolside soon. I love it when they’re blooming. So cheery and bright.

It wasn’t all sitting idle by the pool this weekend. We also trimmed the forsythia hedge into some semblance of order and the burning bushes in front of our windows have now been taken down a notch. If we let it go we would not be able to see out the windows. After living in Colorado for so long and coaxing things to grow, New Jersey sometimes feels like a jungle. I am always pulling baby trees up and the ferns are taking over the day lilies!

We had a nighttime visitor on Saturday. We had just gone to bed when Hailey and Alex started barking like crazy from the office downstairs. Rick went to investigate (Bella and I stayed in bed) and turned on the front outside light. He saw a big black shape over in the area where we feed the birds. Ho-hum, just a bear. Back to bed. He did think, however, to check to make sure we had closed the sliding doors in the sun room—we had not. Good thing he checked. But the next day while we were eating our breakfast of strawberries and fresh melon down by the pool I glanced up to see the door to the basement standing wide open. Uh oh. (It’s our habit to leave the door open when we are outside with the dogs in summer. They get hot and go in to the basement to keep cool and out of the sun.) Bravely I went in to check it out. No bear. whew. But how stupid to leave the door open all night! I’m sure the bear would enjoy cozying up in there without our knowledge! I think we need to do a full door check before going to bed from now on.

Bella says:
hey mom, you and dad can go in that big water bowl as much as you want but I think i’ll stay on the sides and look cute. don’t the new flowers make a lovely backdrop for my head?

Well, okay, it’s not technically summer yet but this weekend we made our preparations as best we could. It was a beautiful weekend weather-wise for doing things in the yard.

We put the screens and curtains up on the poolside cabana, brought out the umbrella and the deck lounges and chairs. (Pool not open yet, but hopefully this week!)

I planted some pots.

I did a lot of weeding of the back flower beds. In doing so I discovered two very different columbines. At least I think they are a variety of columbine since the leaf is the same. They are both in different flower beds and very far apart. Here is the double one.

And this one doesn’t open any more than this but has many layers. Anyone have any ideas? They were not there last year and I certainly didn’t plant them. ? Maybe I pulled them up last year in a fit of zealous weeding but they had dropped seeds the year before?

We planted marigolds in the front flower bed. We planted our kitchen herbs in the old dry sink which join the already planted and potted tomatoes on the deck. I am hoping for a great harvest of patio and cherry tomatoes this year.

Last year we didn’t plant tomatoes because we got such a late start with our trip back to Colorado in mid June. This year we decided to stay home for June since it’s such a lovely time of year here and the pool really suffered while we were gone. Plus, we missed some quality pool time, not to mention firefly season! So, this year we’ll do our cabin trip in September instead.

Water dog Bella had fun with her wading pool this weekend too. She is always sticking her feet and head in the water bucket, so we thought she’d enjoy having a bigger water feature.

...testing, testing ....

hey, this is fun ...

i think there’s a bone in here somewhere ...

I have no idea what’s going to happen once the pool is open. I know she’s going to end up in it at least once. Oh boy.

We went to the Warwick farmer’s market and bought fresh baby lettuces, scallions, radishes, bread, cheese, and a mini quiche for our Sunday lunch. Yum. I’m glad the market has started back up again. It’s a summer tradition for us and one that we love.

So, we had a busy weekend but it felt good to get things done. We ended the weekend with one of our favorite meals last night: grilled artichokes and lamb chops “scotta dita” (or burned fingers because they sell them on the streets of Italy and you just hold them by the bone and eat them quick while they are hot!) while listening to the cool vibe of Bossa ‘n Stones, (the Rolling Stones hits done with a bossa nova beat) which we discovered while eating in a restaurant in San Miguel.

I hope you all had a great kick-off weekend to the beginning of summer!

Tomorrow I’m taking you back to San Miguel again. I certainly hope you’re not getting bored with your armchair vacation ...

This morning Johnny had his first mowing session and he was raring to go. I think he enjoyed having his old mowing deck back on again after wearing his heavy winter garb—the snowblower. Kind of like trading boots for sandals. It seems a bit early for the first mow of the season, but it really did need to be done. With the prospect of rainy days ahead for the next couple of days before we leave, I was anxious to get it done.

The birds were singing (the wood thrush is back with its wonderful song!) and the air was cool and fresh. The smell of onions permeated the air as Johnny’s blades lopped their tops off. The trees looked so pretty in their “new green” leafiness. Round and round all the trees and obstacles, up and down all the slopes and inclines. I did notice a flower-like plant in several spots in the back yard and even more of them in the front. Unfortunately I ran over one before I realized it might not just be a weed. I took more care in the front and tried my best to mow around them. I’ll be watching for them to bloom to see what they are. They looked like something my neighbor Aileen had coming up in her yard—some kind of wood lily something-or-other.

Before I knew it the back yard was finished and then, just as easily, the front. Good boy Johnny!