Rainbows and Gardenitis

Last night before dinner we experienced this beautiful gift of nature.

Can you see it?

A Rainbow landed right in our canyon. It was still raining when I took the picture but the sun was shinning too. That's all you need... some sun and rain together and the magic begins. We had rain, wind and some hail all day long so I took this rainbow as a sign that this was the end of the rain.. for a while. That's quite a biblical  supposition for me, but I like to throw those ideas into the mix occasionally. Keeps my readers wondering where I'm really coming from.
The Prospector said that he thought he might  go down to our neighbor's creek to see if there really was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He should be so lucky. Nothing is ever that easy..... and then, of course, the rainbow vanished.
The clouds were breaking up. The rain stopped.
Across the Mokelumne River the rain continued and one more vague rainbow appeared.

Then all the clouds move east to the Blue Mountains and into the Sierras.

What a beautiful evening it was.

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This morning I awoke to sunshine and the clearest, most beautiful day you can imagine. One of those "take your coffee outside and never come back in until dinner"  kind of days.

First we had to get a "poop" sample from Brownie. That's technical farm talk. This is a whole lot easier than it sounds. They do pellets. It's not messy, just logistically difficult.  We succeeded and the Prospector left for the valley to drop off the sample at the vet, go to an appointment to see the "back, leg and knee" doctor and a few more touch and go landings that we save up for our trips down there. 

The dogs and I went out into the garden. My mistake was picking up the loping shears and putting my gloves on.... thinking I was going to just trim a few areas back and pull a few weeds. HA!

I went down to the vegetable garden to dump the scraps in the composter and I have decided that the weeds are in love with all this rain. They were everywhere.... and huge.

I really could start a NETTLES processing plant. I have nettles everywhere. A friend on Vancouver Island, BC. told me how to cook Nettles and you can make tea with it too. But, again, I let it get beyond its prime and all this rain kind of makes it look like it is already cooked. The really nice big plants are wilted and brown. But, never fear... there are baby nettles everywhere. 

So I went to work..... weeding, pulling down the dead vines on the trellis and feeling like I was a Master Gardener on steroids.

This mess, above, became this clean garden bed below.

This only took about 45 mins. The soil was wet and soft. The weeds came up without much effort. Gloves and a long sleeve shirt are absolute necessities when working with Nettles. They aren't called Stinging Nettles for nothin'. If your skin comes in contact with the leaves, you won't believe how it hurts. You can read why HERE.

When I came back up to the front yard I saw the Vinca. I decided to go in and have some breakfast first. Good thing... because once I went outside again I didn't come in for quite a while. This is weed pulling weather. It's not hot. The ground is wet and soft. The mosquitoes are so confused that they don't know whether to bite you or run for cover. This rain is also keeping the Rattlers at bay.... for a while.  That's a good thing.

So I started cutting back the Vinca. This is a landscaping nightmare. Please don't ever plant Vinca Major. It's an invasive, noxious weed that never goes away. We have controlled it by surrounding it with rock and concrete blocks but still it spreads everywhere.

This stuff would survive Armageddon.

It's beautiful but it's so invasive. It creeps everywhere and I truly wish I had never planted it. 

Look at this...

It grew right through this rock. Lava rock is an igneous rock that is volcanic in origin. It's very porous. The Vinca found an opening and has grown all the way through. I know this happens. I've seen ivy grow through concrete. But still, I find this amazing.

So I made a big mess everywhere. Not even neat piles of cuttings. I just tore through the Vinca.

I even had lots of help...

Then I noticed that the Yarrow was almost on the ground after all the wind and rain so I cut some of it back and made another pile of these beautiful yellow flowers to hang and dry. I will use them for an arrangement later on in the Fall.

Oh, and the hillside had some huge weeds growing as though they belonged there, so I sat down on the hillside and picked as many as I could. And then... I cleaned up the Chrysanthemum bed. More Nettles!
When I realized that I couldn't stand up straight without severe discomfort and that I couldn't feel my toes anymore, I knew it was time to stop.
I have six or seven piles to clean up this afternoon. Don't you just hate it when you work this hard and  have to CLEAN UP afterwards?.. Darn.

Rockrose Collage