rain, finally!

(I just learned how to upload photos for the blog, so here is the Camel Crossing - about to be unnecessary, I hope)

Thunder and lightning just when the garden needed it! I think I could see the asparagus growing it's so happy to have real water to drink. I think it has been nearly a month since we had a decent rain though it's been raining in California. The irony!

Drought is uncommon here, and while I was never desperate for water for the garden, I was contemplating siphoning water out of the two old wells the old-fashioned way - by mouth. It felt almost necessary when I could smell the smoke from forest fires in Quebec as I worked in the garden. I didn't quite need to use it though, and I am grateful.

Memorial Day weekend was memorable for the rest of the Boothbay region, though not so much for East Boothbay. Because of the water main construction, the powers that be in the VA cancelled our parade, and people were quite upset. It has not been that good a season for East Beirut here. First there's been the construction which has been going on since December. Then last Thursday, Washburn and Doughty were to launch a new Moran tugboat on the new ways in their new steel building. It wouldn't go. A littler tug pulled and pulled for over an hour, and got the new tug about 1/3 of the way out of the barn. But she just wouldn't move any farther. So she's sticking out of the barn by about a third, and looks a bit forlorn. Best not to have a parade go by.

The good thing about Mem Day was that Whorff Construction finally laid some tar down on the gravel that has been creating all the dust, that caused us to become East Beirut. Now, with this wonderful rain we've just had, maybe I won't have to wash the house and the rhododendrons, which were sagging under the weight of the dust they bore. All in all, a cup half full.

Soon, a political event - the primary for Governor, plus a referendum on the tax reform bill passed last Legislative session.