Stick Horse Cowgirls

I love red birds! I've always heard that seeing one meant company was coming--it's a sign of good news! I hope so! I'm not expecting any company, but good news would be nice!! As "C" described in her last post, we had rainstorms for most of the this weekend, and my mood has been dampened along with my yard. Our lawn is saturated; large branches have fallen and the dogs track in mud. The brief period it did not rain, I arrived at home and noticed that my dog, Dudley, was alerting me to something in the front garden. Since we live out in the country, my first suspicion was that it was a snake. Dudley was bitten by a poisonous snake a couple of years ago, his head swelled painfully and he HATES snakes!! I figured that his behavior indicated the presence of a snake. I went into the house to unload my packages, answered my cell phone, but Dudley's continued frantic barking from up on the porch compelled me to go take a look. Sure enough, coiled up in my garden amon...

Last night was an “active” meteorological night, as spring nights often are in this state.  I was up just a tad later than usual watching the weather.  We are too far out in the country to have weather sirens.  I am thankful for our television weather coverage. I phoned MIL to ask if she would like to join me—she declined, stalwart that she is.  We missed the tornado activity, it moving through on the opposite side of our city, leaving some devastation in its path.  As I write this, it is early morning and I am only getting a smattering of reports, but it seems that there was damage and perhaps death in some parts of our state.  Every spring’s business here.  Growing up, I used to talk to my California cousins when they came to visit, wondering how they could possibly make through each day when their state was slated to fall off the continent at any moment.  "You’ll be carried off by a tornado before that happens!” was their frequent rej...