DPH Guest

Yesterday, I was thankful for rain boots. A kayak could have been useful as well. Our street was a river the with the occasionally sidewalk running through it. The storm reminded me of how ridiculously fun rain showers were for me as a kid. I can’t remember having rainboots, because bare feet were way better.

When I lived next door to my Grandparents, I would rush from gutter-spout to gutter-spout carrying water buckets –on a manic mission to catch the rain for my Grandma. She would fill her watering cans with “my” rainwater and keep her houseplants happy. I can’t picture her ever letting a houseplant die. I am positive that this has never happened.

(Note: do not touch her African Violet’s leaves even though they look so soft and fuzzy…they are delicate and not for grimy hands. Also, do not touch the little cactus in the cactus garden that looks soft and fuzzy. It is a devious little plant that will give you painful invisible splinters and then you will miss out on Zoobilee Zoo and lemon-frosting Saltines.)

When I was a little older and living in a small town in Illinois, the rain would fill our street’s drainage ditches in all the front yards…I don’t think we had sewers?? The neighborhood kids would grab their hard plastic kiddie pools out of the garages and float them in the yard/lakes. We would float a couple kids at a time in each pool boat, and paddle around using big plastic wiffle ball bats as oars. Awesome. (There is a photo out there somewhere…I will post it here if it surfaces).

This is our neighborhood lake from yesterday. Not quite as fun as my childhood rain lakes.

Since I didn’t really want the camera to get soaked, my pictures from yesterday were limited. So I am borrowing. Last night I saw this lovely thing uploaded to my mother-in-law’s Facebook:

Is this some kind of cherry tree? I haven't seen any in Illinois.

This is being added to my list of trees that I want in my fake yard. Donna is my guest DPH photographer for the day.

She doesn’t really know I was going to post those photos, but I am 99% sure she won’t mind. Donna is a fabulous woman that you would all get along with splendidly. She has some great photography skills…and formidable campfire-baton-twirling skills. Here is her flickr page with a few shots from her “springtime” in Colorado. Mmmmm…that asparagus looks delicious.