Gray Days

It is not unusual to have storms every day in Colorado in July. It is unusual to have day after day without any sign of the sun. (Okay, so that is an exaggeration: I think I saw the sun briefly on Friday. I still feel deprived.) There is significant flooding in the mountains, not far from here. Here, though, the apparently unceasing rain has left a dreary mess. At least we no longer have to worry about wildland fires for a bit. Going out several times aweek to scan the surrounding horizon for signs of fire because I smelled smoke was getting old. (Usually, the fires were miles and miles away in other parts of the state.)

When it hasn’t been raining it has been extremely muggy. We are not used to humidity along the Front Range, or that feeling of never being quite dry that I remember unfondly from Maryland and Texas.

However, the worst part of the weather have been the thunderstorms. We lost our power for five hours the other night during one particularly violent storm, and I’ve lost count of the times that I have reset the electric clocks and time on the microwave. Right now, the phone is blinking annoyingly at me.

Three weeks ago, I would never have believed that I could be so tired of rain, when we needed it so desperately.

Lily

Lily has been doing really, really well for me under saddle the past month. I had given up hoping she would ever do this well. She is doing so well that I have an almost superstitious fear of mentioning it: her improvement over last summer seems almost magical. Last summer, when she wasn’t cranky about saddle fit she was backing off from whatever bit I put in her mouth. I finally stopped riding her in anything but her western saddle and started using a mild hackamore instead of a bit.
Continue reading Lily