Showers of Rain and Debris

Yesterday was a perfect, lovely summer day.

Nighttime came with a little surprise.

After my family left for the fireworks (I run out of steam before fireworks time), there were a few thunder rumbles, but the clouds did not look too serious. I went to bed about the time fireworks should start, and about the time God's fireworks really took off. Then it started to rain. I wondered what that would do to the fireworks, but thought the little storm would probably quickly blow through.

I was wrong. The rain kept falling, and, indeed, increased in speed and volume. I could hear a few pops and bangs of fireworks through the rain, lightning, and thunder. And it just kept raining. After a time I heard the garage door and knew the kids were home. And it was still raining. After midnight I went to sleep while it was still raining (the rain gauge tells me .4 inch fell).

During the last good rainy spell we had, the rain did a very nice job of washing off my deck and leaving things quite clean and fresh. Since we've been having a lot of cottonwood cotton falling on everything, I was hoping and expecting to find a lot of that washed away this morning.

I opened my drapes and looked out to see:

Pod shells as table decorations.

Chicken Little would have been sure the sky was falling!

The rain had knocked twigs, leaves, and cotton shells all over everything!

After breakfast I took a few photos, grabbed my trusty broom, and swept up a very considerable pile of debris. However, I could not sweep up all the cotton seeds. At least ten jillion (of course that's a real number!) seeds are wedged into the cracks between the deck boards. Since dust that blows in also settles in those cracks, I could probably start a cottonwood forest if I just kept it moist! The cottonwood seeds germinate with amazing speed whenever they land in a moist spot.

I'll have to ask my son-in-law if he will powerwash the deck, as he has in other years. That will clean most of the seeds and dust out of the cracks. In the meantime, I'll just enjoy the deck.

P.S. The fireworks did go off as scheduled, and added to nature's display. I have never watched fireworks in the rain!