Good morning or good evening, wherever you may be, across the nation, and across the world. It is just after 6:00 a.m. in "The City."

According to the NWS, the current outdoor temperature is 58° under clear skies. My DTWS also shows 58º on both the front porch and the deck. Also according to the NWS, winds of 16 mph make it feel like 54°. Early yesterday, the winds seemed to make no difference. Go figure.
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The forecast from the NWS calls for today's high to be near 70º under clear and sunny skies with a relative humidity index of 63%. That 70º mark is 6º cooler than yesterday's high temperature. Since we still don't have A/C, that lower RHI is welcome. Currently, no rain is falling. That should continue throughout the day today and for the next several days. At least the rain from yesterday precludes a need to water today. The overnight low tonight is forecast to be 56º.

According to my DTWS, the barometric pressure is 28.24", while the NWS is reporting 29.81". Generally, those readings, which are rising, indicate clear weather ahead.

The sun will rise this morning @ 6:05 a.m. and it will set later @ 9:24 p.m.


A Small Craft Advisory is in effect until 10:00 p.m. tonight. West winds of 10 to 20 knots with gusts up to 25 knots and waves 3 to 6 feet are possible from St Joseph to Manistee. Conditions will be hazardous to small craft. Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller vessels should avoid navigating in hazardous conditions.

A Beach Hazard Statement also remains in effect through this evening. High wave action, strong currents, and dangerous swimming conditions are expected. Piers may be heavily swamped by waves in Mason, Oceana, Ottawa, Allegan, Van Buren, and Muskegon counties.

I miss my editor. I had Ellen to read and edit my work when I was teaching, but for my own personal work, I actually never had an editor. I used to edit for Mary when she was indexing, but I am now doing my own editing and all too often, I don't find mistakes until the next day in my blogs. Oh well, I hope you can overlook my various faux pas'.

In between the rain events yesterday, I took some pix of our vast gardens and their surroundings. I think some of them turned out nicely, including one of the first rose of the season that now resides in our living room. That pic was taken by our Senior Staff  Photographer using my Olympus DSLR camera set for closeups.

Once the first rose was cut, this blossom was left behind.

In the vase, two roses from Mary's rose garden, the white rose is from a JFK rose that we have transplanted several times.

As the vines in our garden grow, they are slowly subsuming this frog we got from Debbie and John several years ago.

These begonias await the planter that should be arriving today.

No matter what name I choose, I know that I'll get it wrong. So here is a "Tree Man" planter in the vast gardens.

In the back of the vast gardens is this bench we REclaimed last year from a person who was giving it away. The bench is near the St. Francis statue in the far reaches of the vast gardens.

I like to think that our vast gardens do offer peace. This was also reclaimed from the man who was giving away his unwanted garden decorations. It is located near our deck.

As I've mentioned before, nature quickly reclaims her space.

We finished our indoor chores yesterday and watched three, count em three, episodes of Outlander.

Mary got creative in the kitchen for dinner last night and we had bean enchiladas. Next time, I'll have to make some rice to go inside, as that's one of the ways that I like them.

Today, Ginger needs further grooming, but that's about the extent of our planned activities. Mostly reading, crossword solving, more Outlander, and doing nothing. Ciao.