let the hurricane roar

We've had some interesting weather lately and have TWICE had to shelter in a bathroom because a tornado was coming through!  We just missed a stretch of up to FIVE INCHES of rain in a three-hour period (we didn't get a single drop) and now the long week of constant storms is past.  But while it was here...

We hike every morning at a state forest that's about a mile from our house.  The tornado tore a path right through the trees...

...and right through the entrance to the park.  It could be closed for a month!

Trying to hike around the fringes still presented challenges.

We're hiking in a different part of the forest, a half mile in the other direction, but even this area had damage and is being cleaned up.

Now we're firmly in the hard heat of midsummer.

I've never seen so many rabbits.  Every morning when I take Pepita out, I see a rabbit.  I usually see a few more as the day goes on.  And deer!  It's baby season.  I probably see a deer and fawn pair at least every other day, sometimes daily.  

The mothers leave the babies for multi-hour stretches while they forage for food, so sometimes I'll see a fawn stumbling out of the woods and rummaging around my garden.

Oh, the adults still love the garden as well.

Now that we have regular heat advisories, Pepita has to stay inside more.  With her black double coat, she gets too hot in the sun.  She has become really good at embodying "the dog days of summer."

"I get to stay inside??"

The cats, of course, were already champion nappers!

June's almost done...just two hot months until the weather cools again.  We can do it!