The weather was again unsettled. Jane and I planned to ride, and the morning seemed pleasant, birds and squirrels delighted with the offerings on the back porch.
Breakfast is served! 
Blue jay 
Goldfinch on the rain gauge 
Disreputable looking female cardinal 
Dove 
Squirrel Nutkin is wondering if he even needs to fear me
Bart heard our ride time plan…
Stone was off the bench! He was delightful, of course.
As we were tacking up our second horses, Jane got a weather warning that it would rain in ten minutes. She dismissed it – apparently it’s often wrong. Well, it was wrong, in that the rain arrived in less than ten minutes! We managed to walk, trot and canter, then hurried back to the barn. Bad training for the horses, but we were quite wet.
For the rest of the day, it was hot, and rained off and on. It’s tiresome weather, but we see it is much worse in the Northwest and the Northeast, so we can’t complain. And it is nice not to have a dusty ring.
Blue skies were briefly above us today
I saw a lined snake today, but was too slow with the camera, so missed the picture. This is another shy, harmless Missouri snake. It’s so sad that people tend to freak out and kill snakes, when most of them are benign and just trying to live their lives. Lined snakes almost exclusively eat earthworms, of which we do have plenty.
I bought some red drift roses from the horse show. They are waiting for the weather to dry out a bit for planting. Meanwhile they are nestled amidst the mint.
Oisin enjoying evening turnout, hoping for a night without rain.
Stay safe, stay well. Peace.
We planted 4 drift roses Monday and this morning Ihe deer had eaten all but a few blooms. This means WAR!