Let It Rain

September ended up being a very good month for rain.

We got 5.9 inches at our house and that puts it at the third highest this year. May had 6.6 inches and July, surprisingly, had 6.1 inches. The whole year has been good, actually. Especially when compared with last year. So far, three quarters of the way through, we've had 31.4 inches and last year we had 20.5 total.

We had a good storm pass over this weekend, so today I went out on a hike to see what it had brought. Our wet weather ponds have water in them again. I've seen leopard frogs hopping across our neighborhood streets and I've seen them in the ponds before. I didn't spot any today.

I spotted this small shrub, just bursting with yellow color. I don't know what it is. It's about a foot high and the flowers are about an inch in diameter.

This small mud patch had some animal tracks in it. Most of them are racoon, but I think there is a turkey print there too. The turkey is the three-toed, dark one near the center of the photo. The toes point  to the right. It's deeper than the others which is why it has darker shadows and indicates a heavier animal.