even though...(funny story)...

...it has been really dry in our area, there have been places that have benefited from short-lived drenching thunderstorms with lots of pounding rain passing through. Not here at my house, but nearby (like the asphalt paved parking lot of my workplace - what a waste!), where it seems there has been some much needed rainfall every where but right here. So I continue to try to keep things alive, dragging garden hose and watering daily. Turning on soaker hoses to drip and revive drooping plants.

I got a very nifty present back in the spring, a surprise box delivered with some unexpected mystery item inside. It turned out to be: a lily cup rain chain. I've seen this sort of device before, attached to the corner of a house to catch rain as it would spill off the roof and drip down through a series of cup-like containers until it reaches the ground. I'd admired a 'rain chain' at a hardware store last year, and was delighted to receive two in the box to install at my house.  Needing tech support, it did not happen until over this past weekend.

And, it's been soooo dry I wonder if there will ever be an actual need for gutters and downspouts again, or like my grandmother often said: 'we are living in the last days'... with life on this small planet slowly coming to an end? Hopefully the weather will change. But probably not soon enough to save lots of crops and farmers that depend on the elements for their livelihood.

The funny part is: P. clambered up the step ladder with the garden hose, after the rain chain was installed at the corner of the roof, where the gutter has a downspout. She was holding the garden hose, and proceeded to run water on the roof, that poured into the gutter and through the series little 'lily cups' and onto the ground at the bottom.  That series of little cups, connected by links to form a chain reaching from the guttering to the ground, with holes in the center, so the water splashed in each one, and on down to the bottom: pretty amusing.  I will get some sort of basin to put at the bottom that will hold water. Hopefully providing drinking water for local wildlife, and possibly a nice refreshing bath for song birds.

Even funnier is that it made me think of the time their grandmother gave them umbrellas when they were little people. And I have a photo of one standing under the open umbrella while I pour a bucket of water on her. She stands there looking confounded when she realizes she isn't getting wet, while the water runs off the edges of the umbrella from the spout of the watering can. Making the 'surprised face': eyes wide open, mouth in that little 'O' shape that indicates complete amazement. Remembering that makes me smile.