Rainy Weather Fashion

 It's been raining for what feels like a month, but it's really only been a couple of days, followed by two days of sunshine and now nearly a week of rain, then clouds, and soon more rain to feed the garden and lawn.

We are in need of warm, sunny weather for the tomato plants, but whether or not that will happen remains to be seen.

I FINALLY, after at least a decade or better, outgrew the little white hooded raincoat I had, in fact it was no longer REALLY white, but rather faded into an off-white color.

The plan for this year was to buy a pretty bright yellow rain slicker, but living where we do, I couldn't find any that were readily available.  I have to say that I did get lucky when on one rainy day I walked into a store that had a few raincoats of good quality that were marked down from $63.00 to $37.00.

"SOLD", I said, and even though it was black rather than yellow, I couldn't pass up the great quality which hopefully will last me another ten years.

So, the coat was from Penelopes in Daleville, VA, the hat from TJ Maxx, and the sweet sleeveless seer sucker blouse in blue and white stripes with a tie in the front was a find at Steinmart.  The pretty turquoise necklace is from a ladies store in old downtown Roanoke called La De Da, and the jeans are old, from the back of my closet.

A girlfriend and I did lunch today, so the outfit kept me warm and dry in and out of the car and across the parking lot to the restaurant.

Sugar melts.  *hee hee*

 Here is our screened porch right now with all of the furniture jam packed into the center of the porch so that the current, constant rains don't soak all of the seat cushions.  The dog bed is also leaning in an upright position which means the puppers can't use it right now.  But if it is laid down it too gets wet.

As you can see by the patio shot above, it is wet enough for a fish out there!

So, here I am dressed for the weather rather than for the last week in May.  

That's Virginia for you.

A little sun, a little whole lotta rain, the good part being that moisture keeps the wrinkles away. *wink wink*

It Will Have To Wait

 I've lost track, but I THINK this is day three of rain.  Constant rain.  A light constant rain.

 I cancelled today's dental cleaning since driving to my dentist entails an hour on Interstate 81, and even on dry roads I am wary of the drive.  So it's cancelled and re-scheduled for early June.  

The pansies are in heaven with this cool 47 degree morning weather and the unstoppable moisture.

 The rain is knocking the pink petals off the azalea bush. but the phlox seems to be taking the weather in stride this week.

 So it's time for other things to put a a bit of color into our landscape.

 Cedar mulch was ordered and arrived that same day.

We love the quality of any soil or mulch they deliver to us.

High quality stuff.

 My husband is such a hands on guy and can never just sit and watch.

He swings the back of the dump truck open, and would probably hop in the cab and do the dumping of the mulch if they would let him.  LOL 

 And of course there is always extra help waiting to help and make the job go faster.

 We planted this Elsie Lee azalea two years ago.... it's not growing as quickly as a few of the other bushes, but it's healthy and within a couple more years should be the height of another just like it that we have.  This is more of an upright azalea bush... it gets four to five feet high when maturity is reached.

 Soft petals that almost remind me of a hibiscus or possibly a carnation.

Enjoy the day, Ladies, and...

 don't let all this rain

 get you down.

Rain Comes Inland

 Things were just beginning to look like fall at our house, with just a sprinkling of browned leaves hitting the ground, which is how it begins every year.

 First part of October.... brown leaves, and in the weeks ahead the golds and red follow.

 Then the clouds rolled in.... puffy white ones, which soon turned gray and a bit ominous,

 And now we are in day two of torrential rains which should have been light showers at best, but the arms/bands of hurricane Matthew have found us and turned us into a bowl of soup.

Our hearts certainly go out to those along the Atlantic coastline with flooding from the rains and ocean surges who are losing property and sometimes life.

Living without electricity is such a challenge too.

Thinking of all of those affected.... our hearts go out to you.

Been A While

I'm not sure I have ever gone this long without a blog post, and there's no good excuse for it except that I really had no desire to post.

Maybe it's a sign of a change in the season.

(shrugs shoulders)

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Here are a few photos fro the past week.

 Our boxers seem to have morphed into one very long eight legged pup.

We had a heavy rain last week as you can see in this photo I snapped just after coming out of the mall  of the clouds hanging low over the mountains.

 Last night my husband grilled some super thick, yummy chops on the grill and requested some of my tri-colored pasta salad topped with artisan tomatoes.  

I obliged and made him a HUGE bowl of it of which we will be eating a bit more of this evening.

 Springtime and warmer temperatures as we had the past couple of days always lends itself to more grilling and more salads.

 Not a fabulous shot, but again... rainy photo from last week as I drove home.

 I pulled into our lane,

 and then stopped to see what was in our mailbox.

See.... not a whole lot going on here in my world,

just sitting around waiting for springtime

to send us some buds and blooms.

HURRY SPRING!

News From The Garage

 A rainy week.... yes a WEEK filled with rain, is what we are having. It rained all day Tuesday, all night last night, and it continues today with more in the forecast.

Thank you remnants of Hurricane Patricia.

I scurried to town yesterday, eyeballed a few items in a small ladies store, said "no thanks' to what they offered the customers in the way of fashion and accessories, picked up some chicken and potato salad at the grocery store and returned home.

Then I snapped these photos from the garage before I put the door down and came inside.

This photo of our sweet Rowdy on the wall was taken Monday when there was no rain, just gloomy skies.

It will be a total case of cabin fever for me before sunshine rolls around our way again, and if it continues to rain, who knows.... we may need a boat!

Happy Wednesday!