Rain and lots of it greets us this morning. I woke up to a period of really heavy down pour around 0600. Since then it has come and gone and returned again. We are supposed to have this all day. But by this evening all of the rain is supposed to have moved on. I hope that is right. This is the weekend that we are heading out for vacation and I'd prefer not to drive in storms or have the girls flying through storms. Jules will be driving from southeast Indiana, Heather will be flying from California, Lisa will be driving from North Carolina, and Stephanie will be driving from Oklahoma and we all meet in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This has been on the radar for exactly one year and has finally arrived. Now I simply ask God for safe travels to and from for all.

All of my bird feeders are full this morning and I indeed have a lot of guests regardless of the rain. I had a set of chimes fall this morning. The little limb they have been hanging on finally broke. I'm glad I was sitting here and saw it happen or I surely would have blamed eithe Bandit, or the squirrels. Although I did watch a squirrel knock down one of the bark butter feeders today trying to eat off of it.  Of course once it hit the ground, it was no longer interested. So, I run it off and rehung the feeder. The robin has been here twice to take a bath in the bird bath, I guess the rain doesn't clean it up enough. Last night Stripes was here again cleaning up the remains of what all the other critters knocked down during the day. He was here right on schedule at 11:15 pm. It stayed about fifteen minutes and waddled on off.

God's rain has made the area look so much more lush this morning. My flowers at this time are the lilies, the phlox, the hydrangias, and our potted geraniums.  It is a good combination and keeps the yard looking beautiful. Our handi-couple got the fence about 95% done and will finish up Monday or Tuesday. It really looks great. I mowed the backyard yesterday so that won't begin to need it again until we get back.

Today we are having lunch with our friend Bob, his daughter Brenda and a couple of Bob's great grandkids. It will our first lunch together since Ms. Georgia Ann passed away. It will be hard for all of us but it is time. I'm hoping it will be a bit therapeutic for him. Having Brenda there will help; and having those two great grandchildren there will help with the plunge.

My writing may be a bit sporadic for the next week but. Know you will appreciate the fact that we're busy doing family time. Until I get back to you, I wish you God's peace.