Looking out my Backdoor: Morning has broken

“Like the first morning.” Scrub oaks, verdant from recent rains, reached out branches and clutched passing clouds onto high mountaintops, puffy sombreros heavy with moisture. Mountains held onto the clouds tightly until near noon when clouds, with a mind of their own, lifted off and away. Clouds will return, dark with a new load of water in the late afternoon, tonight’s fresh downpour. Since the season began, about six weeks ago, we’ve averaged half an inch each night.

Sounds idyllic, doesn’t it? Like any place, it has its moments.

Geraniums do not like this rainy season. Rose...