Lupines, millpond

Today started out sodden and sad. To be sure, the rain—and it was real rain, for a change—was a genuine blessing, but it was hard and steady enough to cancel another splendid tradition around here: the annual Memorial Day parade. Our town is still small enough so that you're either in the parade or part of an audience watching people you know march in it. This year, we were slated to be watchers, although that status could be changed easily enough. But when news came early in the morning that the welcome rain came with unwelcome collateral damage—how like war—I got some indoor work done then, when the precipitation finally lightened late in the day, went for a walk to the millpond. Along the way, I noticed another blessing: my neighbor's untended wildflower garden was putting forth a beautiful crop of Lupines. The local hummingbirds should be parading through in short order.