Our first rain!

The morning started out simple enough.  Steve came over to replace Kevin's front rotors and brake pads on his Honda Ridgeline and afterward we all had a late breakfast at the Country Kitchen.  I was still exhausted from the lack of good sleep the night before and just tried to nap in the early afternoon.  But then that bright sky slowly became overcast and by 2pm I thought I had heard thunder.

I went out into the backyard and saw dark clouds over the mountains.  I also saw dry lightning.  Excited about this unexpected weather (the forecast had no rain predicted, and humidity was at 13%)  I grabbed my phone and climbed up on the roof to watch the mountains better.  I hadn't been up there in a while.

Our palm tree swayed,  birds chirped in the Italian pine tree next to our house and neighborhood dogs barked.  This weather clearly got the wildlife excited. It even began to drizzle some.  The foothills of Brown Canyon looked like they were even getting some rain.

Bill and I had planned on walking the Brown Canyon loop trail again, but I opted to cancel it.  There's always more rain in the foothills than in the valley.  Bill agreed.

It was still raining at 6pm.  The dogs were restless so I decided to take them out to the burn area for a walk.  If the rain got worse, I'd just turn around.  Getting a little wet wouldn't bother me.  It rained hard on my drive to the starting point, but then it subsided to a low drizzle.  It drizzled for 40 minutes before the rain stopped entirely and the remaining minutes of sunlight resulted in a bright double rainbow before sunset.

Burned charcoal dominated the scents while in the burn area.  But then that gave way to wet creosote.  There were a few puddles along the path.

This was such an invigorating walk!  I'm so looking forward to the monsoon season.  We are predicted to have a wetter-than-normal season this year.  Bring it on!

I saw distant lightning to the south as I drove back home with four very happy dogs.