Somewhere, Noah Is Building An Ark

I've let at least five inches of water out of my pool in the last 24 hours.  The creeks and possibly the river are going to flood for sure if this rain keeps up.

But, in happier news, at least the rain caused cancellation of our evening plans, so I was able to stay home and get some things done.

The fruits of my labors (literally)

It's strawberry season.  Himself loves my homemade strawberry jam, and every spring he asks me to make some for him to give to the people in his office at Christmas.  I have the system down by now--the canning process takes a while and makes a hell of a mess (red sticky goop everywhere), but he keeps the kids and dog out of the way so I can get it done.  The final product is delicious, and doesn't get much fresher: I'd bet the berries I used were picked today!  Love that orchards and farm stands are all around me here.

There was other good news this week as well:

I've had this peony bush for about five years now.  The first three years I got no flowers at all: either the deer ate all the buds, it wasn't in the right place in my yard, there was an unseasonably hot spell that burned all the buds...you name it, something went wrong every year.  Last year, I got one stinkin' flower.  Which looked much like this one, actually.  But this year, I must have done something right, because this is what the rest of the bush looks like right now:

 Buds and opening blossoms galore.  This makes me very happy.  Soon, the butterfly bushes that surround this peony bush will bloom as well, and there will be a soaring aerial ballet of monarchs and tiger swallowtails to enjoy too.

But in the meantime, we will be pairing off two by two and looking for that ark.