saturated

we're in a week of rain around here, as is the case in much of the appalachians and southeast.  we are saturated.  there has been flooding and landslides, mudslides.  some tragic.  the plants are answering with bursts of bright green new growth.  or they are looking a little tired and pummeled, as is the case with our cucumbers, but I think they'll come around.

transplanted peonies spring up.  five plants where I thought there were only two.  maybe they'll actually flower this year.  maybe not.

her fairy house, the rotten stump from an old apple tree, is being tended to daily.

the garden is coming along.  here, a glimpse at three of the seven beds, along with some peas tucked in here and there.  I snuck two rows of pinto beans in between the garlic and strawberry beds.  the beehive is in the background.  they come out in full force whenever we have a sunny, dry pocket of time.  happy to stretch their wings after a few days hunkered inside with steady rain.  some coming out for the first time, making their initial orientation flights while getting acquainted with the place that will be home for the duration of their brief lives.

the chickens were not happy about the recent addition of a gate going up to the deck.  they have responded by leaving large amounts of excrement on the steps for us.  how sweet.  I swear they didn't spend that much time up there before.  they just don't like the exclusion.  I get that, but see I don't poop in their coop when I go for a visit.

turns out the large swath of daylilies growing on either side of the almost century-old (we think) drainage ditch in our backyard makes an excellent hiding place.  it is often a nest, sometimes a forest, and sometimes a ship.

snakes like it in there in the summer.  I'll have to remind her of that soon, I guess.