A whole night and day of drenching rains, finally. Everything is perking up.
One of the front yard beds is looking better, thanks to my friend Tom and his gift of columbine and snapdragon yesterday. I got them planted just as the rain started falling. The little grassy things are thrift from Tom, I hope they take. Behind that is the pretty white flowers of bacopa, one perennial that came back for me this year. And way in the back, the Shasta daisies. I love the dark green foliage even before they bloom. These came from one seedling I started under lights indoors three years ago.
Charlie gets a wet head from the dripping bushes. Still a handsome gentleman.
Peas planted on St. Patrick's Day, loving the rain.
Magenta Swiss Chard.
Mesclun ready to be planted.
Charlie in the spot where he dug up all the grass. That stage didn't last very long, he is mostly a good dog now.
Georgia O'Keefe in the salad greens.
The dwarf blue spruce planted all around with purple alliums is my favorite thing in the backyard. I wish I could go back three owners ago and say thank you.
Allium and a peony bud in the back yard.
So many things bloomed this year that had been sulky or just absent in the four years we've lived in this house. I think it was the first year without a late killing freeze. 
Tom's columbine. I always think of them as blue, I love this creamy color.
I have been planting out the winter sown milk jug seedlings. I'm following the instructions, we'll see if anything actually blooms. That will be another post.
Dandelion skeletons are lovely. I will still work to eradicate them.
Front yard peonies just ready to burst open.
Wild rosa eglantina by the front door. I wish whoever planted these could know how much they are appreciated years later. Who knows how old the gorgeous peony is, how many owners back it goes.
Buds on our Home Depot David Austin rose from last year. I have been fertilizing and watering and putting epsom salts and coffee grounds around all the roses, mostly out of shame for how I neglected them last summer.
April Rain Song
by Langston Hughes
Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep-song on our roof at night—
And I love the rain.
Here are R's entries into Tuesday's Art Show at school. This is called "Little House with Bed and Couch." She left off half the roof so she could play with the furniture inside the house.
On Thursday she brought home this box of sand and sugar, left over from their Native American projects at school. This is not even her group's project. She said "The other kids said their moms were just going to throw it out, so I said I would take it home." Now I really can't throw it out, for a while anyway, because she built an elaborate fairy house in it after school.
She is pointing to an ivy leaf umbrella over the patio. Next to that is the "vineyard" with dusty miller vines and grape muscari grapes. The rocks with the bark roof in the upper left are the "sleeping quarters." There is a little pool with a bark ladder and slide, and in the foreground is the garden, "planted with seeds."
Some have been moved outside to the cold frame and hoop house that D built for me. I'm putting in more lasagna beds (no fun to put down the newspapers on a windy day, but we wanted to get it done).
And then the next weekend, our high school friend S visited from New Mexico, and we got together at our house with T and our other high school friend J, this time for dinner.
