"April showers ..."

Our rainy weather continues. As any dog-person knows, that means laundry and mopping goes up exponentially. We certainly can't (or shouldn't) complain; after close to two years of near drought conditions, the moisture is critical to the state and the region. What has happened at my house, however, is that nothing but red clay and pasture weeds have survived the lack of water, which makes for a nice "mess" in the yard. At least the weeds keep the clay - wet or dry - somewhat in place!

Here's a peek at what red clay looks like. As we traveled to a tennis match yesterday, the ponds, lakes and rivers in the area are simply a wet/liquid version of this. As you can imagine, the pigment is strong and, once your clothes or carpets are stained, there is little chance of ever getting it out.

Our temperatures are heading lower again today as well. Lows in the low 30s are predicted for again tonight, so we will refrain from actually putting tomatoes, peppers, herbs and strawberries in the ground for a little while longer. The dogs would love to have tomatoes and strawberries available for their personal picnics, but I don't think that would be very prudent, do you?

I do hope that spring is arriving in your part of the world. I managed to sleep through another thunderstorm last night, complete with hail. At least no tornado warning this time! We are also arriving at the end of the spring tennis season; another two weeks and we will be done. That will free up quite a bit of time to return to working with Blue, Carson and Marley on recalls and general manners. My hope is the weather will also begin to cooperate and we can spend some quality time together in the days to come. We do have a resident mockingbird in the backyard to likes to dive bomb anyone who irritates her. There have been years when she would actually sit on the fence of the run to intimidate Carson and Blue. Thankfully, that hasn't been her m.o. this year!