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Chinese Water Torture?

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Drip, Drip, Drip…droplets of fairy rain floating down from the heavens. So sparse and light I can barely tell it’s raining except for the ground being wet and the steady dripping from my roof. It’s been like this for days, forcing us to cancel our Memorial Day trip to Yellowstone. Our picnic in the park this afternoon has been moved indoors and instead of badminton or volleyball, we’ll be playing board games like LIFE or checkers. I'm starting to feel like I’m in the 16th Century being tortured by the subtle dripping of water. But as always, the skies are not cloudy all day and we did get a reprieve for a couple of hours over the weekend. We took advantage of it and headed outdoors.

Twelve year old E (child number 5) rode the trails when she wasn't dragging her bike through the mud.
The sun was irresistible. We were out for a couple of hours.

It's getting pretty embarrassing having to walk around with our 13 year old, so we often make her walk by herself.
 I was glad to be out, so I decided to look on the bright side and stop and smell the roses....oops, I mean the lilacs.

Inhale. Can't you just smell their sweet perfume?
What is it about turtles?  So cute! Let's stop and take their picture. And so did everybody else in the park that day.


Myrtle Turtle tells Mr. Turtle, "The sun's out, let's go sun bathing."

It's not officially summer yet and Woodland Waterpark is still closed for the season.  See the clouds on the horizon.  The fairy rain returned upon our return home.


Soon giggling kids will be whooshing down the slides.

Springtime in the Rockies can be quite wet but we hardly ever need an umbrella. It’s a good thing. We need the rain. Intense summer sun will scorch the ground and make the earth as dry as a bone. We want all the moisture we can get so we don't have a fire season like 2007.  Here is a photograph we took of the valley that summer.  There was a break in the thick smoke and we went up to Lone Pine State Park to see the eerie cloud that hovered over us.


Smoke filled the valley in July of 2007.
I can't leave you without giving you some information on Chinese water torture.  Chinese water torture is the popular term for the method of water torture where water is slowly dripped on a person's forehead, supposedly driving the person insane.  In 16th century Italy, this method of torture was described under a different name by Hippolytus di Marsiliis. There is no evidence that the Chinese have ever used this method of torture.  It is thought that the term "Chinese Water Torture" became popular when in 1912 Harry Houdini was locked and suspended upside down in a glass and steel enclosure from which he escaped. 

Although it is still a rainy day schedule, the drip, drip kind, I still have my wits about me. I like this quote by John Ruskin ~ Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

I'll close for now with telling Hendry that the Yellow Brick Roads have now turned white with the pollen of the Cottonwood trees.  It kind of looks like snow!

Enjoy your day whatever the weather,
Marlene

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