20lbs of Shit in a 10lb Sack

Today was a gorgeous day at the old homestead.  I raked half of the down slope, but nobody looking down on it from the porch seemed to think it looked better enough to merit raking the rest of it.  I was hot and sweaty, so I stopped and had a beer on the back porch.  Tino mowed the lawn some more.

Our guests departed for points east and we did some minor yard chores.  Now that the bushes have buds and tiny leaves on them, I can tell what they are.  We have a number of wild rose bushes, one of which needed to be staked and tied to keep it out of the driveway.  Alas, there are only a couple of spindly raspberries that don't look like they'd produce much.  I haven't found any blueberry bushes locally, and I have some hesitation about mail ordering plants.  The black raspberries I planted are still not putting off new shoots, and they many not fruit this year anyway.  The meadow flowers I built beds for and planted have germinated, so if they survive the deer, they should grow up and flower next month.

It got dark and we had a little cloudburst, so we went inside watched some Simpsons.  We were going to drive back with the top down (the rain had dried up by then), but once we got the car loaded there was lightning and thunder in the sky, so no wind in our hair.  It's a good thing too, because it did rain on us from The Plains to Gainesville.  We had 20lbs of shit in a 10lb sack (the sack being the Miata), so if we'd had to pull over to put the top up, we'd have had to rearrange the entire car.  In the rain, on the side of the road.  Eek.

We got back to Reston and the house was chilly.  We refrained from doing anything about it.  It also appeared not to have rained there.  I just checked NOAA and they say Dulles had thunder.  Nothing about actual rain.