We have had so much rain over the last week and it's been so depressing. I was depressed to have chilly and rainy weather when we were down in Homer, and it followed us home. The positive thing about the rain is that it keeps the wildfires at bay. The negative is.... well everything, when you're tired of seeing it!

I have had some beautiful color in my days lately. My first dose of color came on Tuesday. Steve took my car in to have the oil changed on Tuesday afternoon, and when he came home I heard him moving around in the garage for a few minutes before he came into the house.

When the door opened into the house, I turned to greet Steve and he was holding a vase full of wildflowers! My darling husband actually pulled off the road on the way home and picked me a bouquet of flowers. There is nothing I love more than wildflowers. I love them even more than store bought flowers. And the fact that he saw them, thought of me, and stopped his truck to pick them made them even more special. Here are a few more photos of the flowers he brought home for me.

Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul into. Henry Ward Beecher (1813 - 1887)

Yesterday, I had my first bout of insomnia in weeks. At 3:45am, my eyes opened and I felt totally rested, despite the fact that I hadn't gone to bed until midnight. It's difficult to judge what time it is in the summer months. The continuous daylight looks the same whether it's 3:45am or 8:00pm. The sky never grows dark, and the 'darkest' part of the day is really just a merge of dusk and dawn.

I went down to the living room to see what kind of entertainment I could find on TV. Sedona obviously has a problem judging what time it is too; she wanted to be let out in the yard. When I opened the sliding glass door, I noticed two well-defined paths crossing the yard from one side to the other. I dubbed it the "Squirrel Super Highway". (The photo at left was taken at 3:45am)

As you know, we have a squirrel who lives in our yard. Until now, I wasn't sure if the squirrel was a he or a she. Now I'm almost convinced it's a she. During the late winter months, she stole the sunflower seeds from my bird feeder, and pushed her little feet through the suet cage to help herself to the bounty there. I've posted photos of her in this journal over the past few months. Steve and I are almost positive that she has a nest of babies.

Lately she has been stashing sunflower seeds and whatever other treasures she can find in our yard. She spends hours running back and forth across the yard. It's amusing to watch her and she drives both Sedona and Airborne nuts! I never knew that squirrels liked to keep to a specific route when they did their gathering, but it's obvious that she knows the shortest path between two points.

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I wasn't able to go back to bed yesterday, which made me tired, and I was further disappointed when the rain started to fall again and the clouds rolled in. I had plans to have lunch with my friend Abby, and the rain really put me into a funk. I'm so glad I spent time with a gal pal rather than sulk at home under cloudy skies. I picked up Abby for lunch and we spent nearly 2 hours eating/chatting. I guess she was craving female companionship as much as I was. Abby is surrounded by men in her family with a hubby and two adolescent sons. Her husband had the day off and took their sons fishing, so Abby had the entire day to herself.

After lunch, we visited Plant Kingdom and were totally surprised to find that most of the flowers/plants had been sold already. There wasn't a sunflower to be found in the entire nursery, which was a bummer, but there were also several 'sale' tables offering up plants that were already in bloom or mid-season. I came home with three $1.99 plants, which will survive as houseplants if I bring them in at the end of the summer. Abby also left with three flowering plants. (I do wish there would have been sunflowers though; I wanted to grow some this year.)

We drove to Georgeson Botanical Garden at the university. The flowers/veggies are in the ground, but there's not a lot of growth yet. Nevertheless there were many early season blooms to enjoy and photograph. What a wonderful surprise to find a nest with chicks in it. I'm not sure what kind of baby birds they were, but I managed to slip my lens between the branches and leaves and take a photo.

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		Abby	Father and Son

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I can't believe that Donna will be here in less than two days! I'm so excited about seeing her. Please keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and her flight is on time and everything goes smoothly.

Tomorrow, Steve will do the dreaded grocery shopping for our camping trip (I'm glad he's doing it, because I hate going to the store), while I get the house in order and get things ready for Donna's arrival. Today we had a mostly sunny and warm day. I really hope this kind of weather continues, so Donna's trip will be not only memorable for the adventures but memorable for good weather! No one likes to spend a vacation wearing rain gear.

I don't expect to update this journal at all while Donna is visiting. Even if we have WiFi at our campsites, I don't plan to spend any time on the computer. Of course, the next time you do hear from me there will be photos to share and adventures to write about.

Until next time...