Rain, At Last

Is there anything more depressing than weeks -- months even -- without rain? The baking sun overhead? The parched earth and thirsty plants crying for moisture? I loathe drought and I LOVE rain. Today, it's raining again. My brain is like a wilting plant that revives when the drops start falling.
Enough flowery metaphor about the weather. Here's what we've been up to this morning.

 I'm picking fruit from our two fig trees. This one has been pruned heavily the past 3 years and is now in good shape.

 Our largest rosemary plant has been content in drought.

 I finished weeding my newer herb bed, which was in a horrible state, below. Basil in the foreground, then thyme, and spearmint at the far end. The middle section is seeded with dill and cilantro for the fall.

 This thyme, which is only 2 years old, is quite happy with drought too.

 Another happy plant in the dryness is this clump of Black-eyed Susans.

 Adam hacked down this huge evergreen tree that crowded one end of the front porch.

 Now it wants to stage a come-back. He will dig it out.

 Our only camellia bush suffered from Hurricane Florence:

 She has a few leaves, but we don't know if she'll survive still. We can wait.
Both of my chicks have grown up to be annoying roosters, I'm sad to say. I must choose one to keep, and one to give away to my friend who rehomes unwanted roosters.

 Roosters are a pain. If I didn't like baby chicks, I would not bother with even one rooster.
Finally, Adam torched up his burn pile this morning! Hooray!

 Ned circled the burn pile over and over, watching for critters (especially snakes) to come out so he could chase them. 

I came inside as Adam managed his burn pile, and started working. I'm rereading/editing my "Federal Hill" book, planning for its final chapters. It feels good to immerse myself again into the world of that book, but it's so much effort to do so. It's hard to explain, but making my mind delve back into another world that I've created and flesh out a complicated plot -- that's work. It's kind of exhausting. I needed a nap by 11:00. Now I'm back at it, after I finish this blog post. Meanwhile, the rain is pattering down outside my window.

Adam also came in to edit an interview for a podcast that's to be released soon. 

Fellow bloggers, yesterday I began an onerous and tedious task that I wonder if any of you have done. Back in 2012, from February and June, blogger stripped out all the photos from my blog posts. In their places were blank ovals. This occurred many years ago, and I've grumpily accepted that a chunk of my blog history was photo-less. The pictures were no longer on my phone, and not in Google Photos either. Yesterday I realized that they were stored, however, in my Google Photo Archives (one of the choice options in a blog post when uploading photos) -- IF I was willing to go hunt for them there. Old photos from years ago are stored there in batches of about 900 photos each. It is a hunt, but I succeeded, and I've gone back and re-loaded the correct photos into about half of the damaged posts. Phew! What a mess! It was satisfying, however to "relive" those months. Philip was in college; Anna was in her first year of college. Peter was finishing high school. It includes his graduation. Julia was in 7th grade. Adam and I were planning to move to Oriental, which we did in May. Lots of bee-keeping posts and fun recipes. I'm enjoying this stroll down memory lane.