Rainy Day (for real!)

Overnight the rain set in and by 10:00 AM we had almost 1.5".  This is good news, for so far, this spring has been quite dry.  The 20mph wind is out of the northeast and the temps are around 50, so taking pictures this morning with our old point 'n shoot camera wasn't too pleasant.  (Joel has his camera with him on the trip).

   I would have taken longer to format my pictures a bit better, maybe drop to my knees for better points of view, but the rain was picking up and the lawn is soggy, so this was a hurry-up photo session. The grass has greened up amazingly overnight, the difference a little rain makes!

The West Berm (aka Elephant Burial Mound) and wet fields beyond.

  The Ironwood is leafing out nicely as is the spirea in the foreground. 

Not the greatest picture of the Three Flowered maple we planted last weekend, but I'm definitely seeing signs of life.

Dwarf Alberta Spruce 'Rainbow's End' with new flush of growth.

Once again, not the greatest pictures (hoses everywhere) but the Quarry pond is definitely high here.  Too bad this is not the case for the rest of the year, but we are dependent on water table levels and it's been very dry the last few summers.  You can just make out the water lilies coming to the surface.  This was taken from the north quarry hill this morning.

Another view, a bit farther east.

I climbed the new east quarry hill to take this shot, but the rain was really starting to come down.  (I was actually surprised by how high the east hill is, I think it's higher than the north one.)  Every time I look at these pictures,  I see so much work to do.

If the pond was bigger, we'd have whitecaps!  This was taken from the grand staircase going into the quarry.  As I mentioned earlier, by midsummer, especially if we have another dry one, the 'pond' will probably be a puddle, which is an ongoing problem we have.  The only solution would be to line the pond, which would be expensive as the water vein would be under the liner and how to keep a liner in place when the water is underneath it?  A pond expert told us it can be done, but the cost was prohibitive.  Digging the pond deeper is not an option either as the ground is very sandy and it simply caves in.  We've debated even filling the pond in completely and leaving just a garden surrounded by stone walls, but thought better of it, now we just accept whatever we get in terms of rainfall and it is what it is--pond or puddle--we try to make the best of it.  I know of many real quarries that have the same high and low water conditions, so hey, we tried!

  I set the Garden Watch camera up again this morning in front of H. Liberty.  I don't know what the pictures will look like if rain gets on the lens, but time will tell.  The videos so far have been great though the growth hasn't changed much due to the cool weather.  It will be interesting to see how much the hosta will stretch now with the rainfall. 

Carl finished working on the Dixon (it runs!) and we decided to take a ride this afternoon.  We ended up in an antique store north of us and drove through the beautiful rock country of Waupaca county.  So many rocks, so little strength to lift and haul them.

Joel returned home from his trip tonight, too, along with Ann and her daughter.  They had a good time, but no lightning pictures.

Tomorrow should be sunny, just in time for laundry day.   Until then, Karen