Still Rainy

The backyard rain gauge is showing just about 4 inches of rain since this series of storms started, what, a week ago? But as I had the morning off, I wasn't about to let a little precipitation keep me out of the Bad Garden!

The straw mulch I put down kept the ground around the raised beds weed-free, but the blackberry...my on-going efforts at eradication lagged during the summer and fall, and it shows. So I geared up, grabbed my shovel and set to.

I like gardening, even in poor weather: I'm outside; doing something productive; and spending quality time with the cats. (Although Vivani sat out this session.) And poultry—they saw me heading to the boxes and came running.

The ducks are big piggies for worms, and they know now to watch me spade the earth. But they keep getting all up in my grill, making it hard to work. And I mean, way up there:

See, Carlin says, if I get my head in there while she's lifting a spadeful of dirt, I get the best choice of worms.

What's H.I. McDonough say about them babies? "They were all over me...it was kinda horrifyin'." I kept having to pick them up and move them bodily out of the way.

But they kept coming back. I switched to using a trowel.

After the blackberry, I moved over and started trimming back the one and only backyard shrub I bought and planted. It exploded in size and needed to be thinned and shaped to stop it from taking over the back corner of the yard. It was also harboring a secret stash of chicken eggs:

Eleven chicken eggs! Those girls have been holding out on me.

Soggy yardwork isn't the only thing we have to thank the rain for. A gutter over the back wall of the New Vitality Homeland stopped up and rainwater made its way into the closet in Greg's office. We pulled everything out and called the roof guy. And while we waited for him to fix the problem, the gatitas holas discovered the warm and soft blankets folded near the heater. First Orange Gina found them, then Vivani Catpants found Orange Gina.

Since Gina is half again as big as Vivani, Vivi's usual tactic when she wants something Gina has is to initiate a grooming session—which inevitably devolves into tussling and wrassling. And usually ends with Vivani getting what Gina had and gave up to get some peace. So when Vivi jumped up and started washing Gina's head, I grabbed the camera in anticipation of some cat-on-cat action:

They surprised me, though, and after Gina's head was nice and clean, they both laid down for a nap on the blankets. A first! Maybe in another couple of years they'll actually sleep together regularly.

Is not Kashmir one of the best rainy day songs?