Monsoon season

This is one of my favorite times of year... we suffer in June with high temps, then we get the relief of Monsoon season. Almost every day thru mid-September, we get a nice rain to water the plants and cool things off a bit. In the morning, we have the most deliciously fragrant air! And of course, everything grows at top speed now... hubby has been putting off riding the tractor-mower for too long, and we are now surrounded by vegetation that comes up above my waist. The cats love it, because they can skulk about and hunt critters, and... truth be told... I love the way it looks! But soon he will be cutting it back. We have cloud cover this morning, and I took these pictures to capture the mood. Also, I managed to re-connect our rain barrel to the downspout of the rain gutter out front just in time for the storm yesterday. I now have a 55-gallon barrel full of rain water, and need to come up with a plan to disconnect and re-connect the original downspout TODAY! We had so much rain yesterday, it left the patio room surrounded by a moat. Need to get more cinder rock!



This shot is looking toward the east from our back deck.

This is looking west toward the San Francisco peaks from the front yard.

The infamous rain barrel, re-installed, full and ready for the next dry spell.
Well, as I promised myself last weekend, I spent the day yesterday cleaning house... it was such a disaster, and I feel much better now that I have finished most of the work. A little dusting, one more room to vacuum, and sweeping and mopping the patio room, and I will be caught up. Meanwhile, I pulled a bunch of undyed clothing from the bins yesterday, and hope to get a bunch dyed this weekend. Two dresses are for a friend, the rest will go on the website and etsy shop. I also made progress on Thursday night on a challenge piece I am doing for our Quilters' Guild... not due until late August, but I would like to be done with it so I can move on to other things.
So many projects... too little time!