I've been enjoying my work-cation. Much of the Manana list has been whittled down to a few things which will have to wait. But that's okay. We'll get there. I've also taken plenty of time to putter and relax. It's been a good month and I've needed guilt free time off.
We've had lots of rain and believe me I am not complaining after last summer's drought like conditions. Here it is at the end of July and everything is still lush and green. I still have lots of water in my ranch ponds instead of a dusty bottom with a 3 foot wide puddle of water. Granted, it is a puddle fed by a slow trickle spring, for which I'm very thankful as are many of the critters that drink there. But both ponds are full.
Thunderstorms or rainstorms have swung through almost daily. It's kinda cool when we have a heavy rain and then the sun comes out while the rain is still falling. We call them sun fluffies. Usually happens in the afternoon. The sun shines from the west and it's made for some bright and beautiful rainbows. We frequently get rainbows and quite a few double rainbows.
You can click on anyone of the pictures to enlarge it.
The sun is shining from the west. The horses are under the community chat tree because it's still raining, although lightly. I love the texture and color contrast of the sky.
Looking in the opposite direction, with my back to the rainbows:
You can see the haze of falling rain. I loved seeing this. Lots of green and this angle of the sun just makes everything look beautiful and clean. It gives the feeling of peace.
This is the other side of the rainbow and part of my front side yard. Alas, no pots of gold were discovered. Damn those sneaky leprechauns.
A few other pretty things which made me smile from the past weeks. I found a gorgeous Lunar Moth in my Crape Myrtle tree. It was bigger than my hand. 
There was another moth I found, one evening on my patio, that was a deep green with black crosshatch lines. I tried but the pictures just came out wrong. The light was off and I had the wrong camera to do it justice. But the Lunar was such a wonderful poser for me. I loved the play of sunlight and shadow. The markings were gorgeous.
I couldn't resist taking a shot of these sunshine yellow flowers with bees and other insects just sipping away at the flowers.
I have a very good sized shrub off my patio that is a favorite with my cats. It's as tall as my house and we work hard at keeping it trimmed.
At any given time you will find one or more either playing in the branches or snoozing. The only way you can really see them is coming up and under the boughs. Here is Mr. Bodie in the tree. He's looking down at Callie sitting below the tree. About two minutes after I shot these he decided to *drop* in on her, lol!
And so another day ends. The evening shadows crawl across the land and in the distance the fog rises in the fields. I again, didn't have the right camera with me to get a better shot but still, this give you a glimpse of it all. Now imagine the sounds of the night birds and Cicadas singing the sun down and away from the porch spotlights the lightning bugs are rising and twinkling.
For me, observing scenes like these puts things into perspective. Troubles don't seem as big. You can't help but soak in the beauty and the peace. I imagine this was one of the reasons such things were created. To touch our senses with beauty and contentment. I, for one, give thanks for that.
Life is good.
