Still more rain....

.... and flash flooding.  But thankfully, not right here.

I woke up in the middle of the night, around 2:00.... couldn't sleep and I had no idea why. It just seemed like there was a weird energy in the air.  Can't explain it, but that's what it felt like.  I've had that sensation before... when my husband and I were looking at houses.  We'd go into a house with a realtor and I had to get out of the house quickly because I felt like I couldn't breathe.  "Bad energy in there," was always my reason.  My husband took me seriously... the realtors always looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

Last night when I couldn't sleep, I just decided not to fight it and I spent some time at the computer and even more time with a book.  The rain started while I was awake and it came down in buckets. We didn't get thunder, but there was indeed a rumbling in the air that wouldn't quit. I just kept reading, and then got out of bed before the sun came up.

The rain continued all morning long, and then the afternoon turned sunny and warm.  I spent part of the afternoon picking up the branches that had fallen from the pecan trees during last night's wind.  Those trees are massive, but the smaller branches are delicate and even a gentle wind can send the bare branches falling to the ground.  As I've been doing since we moved here, I pick up the branches and toss them onto the ever-growing brush piles around the property.  I've lost count of how many nails I've broken with those blasted pecan branches.

The hawks sit patiently on the fences near those brush piles, waiting for small birds and mice to come out from inbetween and under those piles of branches.  The brush piles are there for the safety of small animals, to give them a place to nest and hide, but I think the piles attract the hawks because they're smart enough to know that little animals make their homes in all of those branches... especially when the grasses start growing up and around them.

A nice surprise from all of this rain we've had..... the waterfall at the edge of the creek down the road is once again making a joyful noise.  The creek-bed itself is rather wide and very deep, the precipice is narrow, and the water that goes over the edge there comes from a very thin but very long creek that runs along one of the nearby properties.... and the sound of that rain-water rushing over the edge is just so beautiful.  It's been nearly a year since we've heard that hidden waterfall.  When I drove down the road later this afternoon, I stopped my car and opened the window.... the water was running over that edge in a contented rush, and I heard cardinals chirping in the woods.  A little country-road surprise that not everyone has discovered.