Being back home

Sometimes the nicest things are the simplest things. It felt so good yesterday not to have to drive anywhere, spend any money, or stress over time. After a three-hour nap I was up again at 7:30am and inspected the garden. As expected, the crops are doing well. I ate two strawberries and as many tomatoes as I walked the plots.

The rain we have been getting has done the garden good. The sun-burned photinias are back to new, green growth, the cut-down oleanders are in a vegetative growth spurt, and the beaver cacti that froze to death during the February freeze have sprouted new pods from the root base.

The two apple seedlings Nelly gave me before the trip have grown nicely, too! One of them is now 12 inches tall (or the size of a standard bottle of beer).

The only thing that isn't coming back is the Bermuda grass. We have more bald spots in the back yard than we have grass. The Texas sage is in purple bloom and the lantanas are coming up. And most surprising of all, the rose bushes are now in new lush growth and looking healthier than ever!

Sadie also came back to life as soon as we came back. After a thorough sniff-through from the other dogs, she wanted to play ball with me and came into the office with the tennis ball in her mouth. I was too tired for a few rounds and she put playtime on hold.

Later in the afternoon, before what I thought would be a rainy downpour, I took all three dogs on a three-mile walk around the hood to check out the flooding around Miller Creek. The creek, which is a seasonal creek in our area, was not running but damage from the flashflood from the 21st was still evident: weeds that normally stand tall were washed sideways and coated with mud. The faint smell of wet charcoal still lingers in the air, too, and several homes along the creek had their wire fences wash away or under by the deluge. Sandbags and stacked haybails surround some of them. However, shrubs and cacti that froze to death earlier this year are all regrowing.

The ground along the creek is heavily saturated from the rain, and walking through there isn't easy. Amazing how water seeks its own level. Our street is fine but one street north of us had the gullies wash out, too.

It finally rained long after I fell asleep last night, with the light on and the Kindle still in my hands. I had wanted to spend a few hours reading but instead fell quickly asleep. My body rhythms had been slightly off these last few days and my body needed time to catch up to normalcy. Today I finally feel normal and watched the sun rise behind the rain clouds, with the invigorating smell of creosote and sage around me. This is the aroma I love so much about the desert, and the aroma that will always send me back to the desert I love so much. This place is home. It doesn't matter how many roadtrips I take or how many places I explore elsewhere, my home is here in the desert. My heart is here, and where the heart is is home.