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We haven’t had standing water in the back yard in years. It takes a few days for the greatly sodden dirt to soak up the excess water. Then it rains, REALLY RAINS, again.
It’s been raining. Quite a bit. According to the weather information in the newspaper, our total rainfall this month has been 6.73 inches. And we’re not done with the month, yet. The weather forecast for the rest of the month says there might be a thunderstorm on Tuesday. The normal rainfall for April is 2.04 inches. The excess seems like a good idea, given what June, July, and August are sometimes like.
These days, when it rains, it does pour. I hope the rainfall abates enough to keep the mosquito population from becoming a problem. Meanwhile, the grass is looking great!
On Palm Sunday weekend, there was a big rainfall, lots of wind, and dropping temperatures on Saturday evening. Our Worship in the Park plan seemed to be in jeopardy (when we have our worship service in a park across the street, along with the church that is catty-cornered from us, on the other side of the park). The sun really did come out and the temperature rose, somewhat. Songs were sung, prayers were prayed, choirs sang, pastors preached, children handed out palm branches, which were waved in the air as we celebrated. Peter had come, and David returned him to Fort Worth that afternoon.
The afternoon was warm, and I spent a hour or so picking up the small branches that had fallen from the pecan tree. Pecan tree limbs are, apparently, rather easily broken. But they often just break off and stay perched up on the uppermost branches, for what sometimes seem like years. Many of these got blown down. I spent an hour or so Sunday afternoon, picking them up and breaking them up. The large green bin was about half full. I put in enough of the pecan tree’s broken branches to almost fill the green bin to the top.
- Because all the limbs were old, dry, long-ago broken pieces, they were easy to break and add to this week’s green bin, for pickup on Monday.
- In addition to the old limbs, there were a few brand-new, just leafing-out pieces.
- When I look up into the boughs of the pecan tree, I see quite a lot of branches that don’t have any leaf growth on them. I guess I’ll be seeing them on the ground at some point.
- Lots of impatiens, all arranged in their plant bag, which has slits in the front, so that the roots stay IN, and get watered, and the buds and blooms stay OUT, to be enjoyed. Quite a few buds are biding their time about opening.
- Finally, the light pink buds begin to open.
- And then, TA-DAH, everything bursts into bloom!
- Last fall, I started digging up the old, pretty much worn out, daylily rhizomes. They seemed spent and used up, and, for the past few years, they’ve put out lots of leaves, but no flowers. I also found a few iris bulbs that looked healthy. This is the first one to bloom, and I was startled to see how unusual it is.
- The first bloom has wilted, but the next one is coming out and there are two more buds, too. Neither of the other two iris plants have shown much initiative toward blooming. There are leaves, but no buds. Yet.
The Lord will bring about justice and praise in every nation on earth, like flowers blooming in a garden.
Isaiah 61:11 (Contemporary English Version)