Clearwater rising

Torrential storms have hit us this past week and the river continues to rise - the highest we've ever seen this early in the year. We can stand on my parents' porch and see it, about a quarter-mile away.

Tuesday evening while we were watching a movie we could see the sky turning that strange yellow color it does when a storm is moving in. I stepped out on the porch and heard the hail coming before I even knew what it was. A minute or so later, wham - we were pelted with hail and then rain as this huge thunderhead moved over us and then up Church Canyon.

Pictures don't do it justice - the thunderhead was stacked and swirling, very impressive to watch. And it filled our rain barrel screen with hail.

Last night we walked the dogs down to the river to see how high it was (this is rural entertainment). The Island (on the right, above) is barely sticking up out of the water and the "boat ramp" at the end of the road is way, way under. Not sure what this means for our summer weather. 

Keith's been after me for a week or so to thin the lettuce growing in the grain drill, but I just have a mental block against pulling up plants that I deliberately planted (silly, I know), so I told him to go for it I ended up with a tiny bowl of microgreens (I didn't want to take the time to wash them for 2 bites.)

The tulips under the apple tree are withstanding the rain quite well and now the apple and pear trees are in bloom.