Picnic in the Park and Yet More Rain

On Sunday night the rain let up for long enough that Matt and I decided to take a walk. 

We made it about a block before deciding to return home, pack a picnic dinner, and go to the park to enjoy the sunset.

We have to enjoy the sunshine when we can since we are, apparently, trying to set some all-time record for rain in Montana this year.

I spent the whole walk trying to avoid stepping on worms.  I've never seen so many worms in one place! I suppose their homes are the first to flood them out.

We found a dry enough spot under a gloriously blossoming crab apple tree. 

The bees were buzzing.  One was so large that at first glance I mistook it for a bird!   The sun was sinking low.  The food was simple, but good.  It was quiet and smelled of rain.

I  think picnicking is swell.  Especially in the summer it is so wonderful to eat and relax in the fresh air.  I just got my little picnic basket a month ago or so from Matt's Aunt Verna.  I see even more picnics in our future now that I have such an adorable basket to put everything in!

The blue sky made a brief, but welcomed, appearance.

 We walked back to the park last night to see how swollen the stream was from yesterday's record breaking 3.12 inches of rain.  Sadly, the gloriously pink blossoms on the trees had taken quite a beating, making me all the more grateful to have enjoyed Sunday evening beneath them.  The stream had been well over its bank and was still threatening to overflow at the culvert near the end. 

We ended up with water in the basement yesterday for the first time ever since we moved in four years ago.  What a mess....at least it is unfinished and has a floor drain.  The library also has water coming in to the basement level in many places. 

The pines were in standing water on the lawn of the library.

This is a "stream" running by the west side of the library yesterday.

The Crow Reservation is under a state of emergency and more than half of Montana counties are experiencing flooding in some scale.  My boss and I were talking yesterday as we watched the rain pouring down and water creeping up over the basement windowsills about how "in control" we like to think we are as humans.  In the end, nature is really running the show and we are only trying to hold on.  I think floods and the news stories of recent tornadoes and earth quakes are proof enough of that.

Usually the water is drained through some bars into a culvert underneath where Matt is standing.