Blooming Peonies

Just noticed the majority of the peony blossoms have opened. In my experience this means there's a wet change due in our weather in the next 4 days. A similar weather change happens when our cherry trees blossom in early Spring. It's what I've come to call, "forecasting by flowers". Although, maybe when it's Spring in the Willamette Valley you could forecast rain sometime in the following four days and usually be correct?

From Peonies

My folks drove down from SW Washington to eat breakfast and spend the day with us yesterday. That's always a special treat. We visited all day in the backyard, while N toiled away on the deck. He found out (through research on the web) that instead of just cleaning the deck and adding a new stain, that he also needed to strip the wood. Evidently that's the difference between using a waterseal and a stain. Otherwise the new coat won't adhere as well, wherever the old stain is still present. I wonder how many other projects I'll have to sit out on? I'd rather be a participating member of the household.
I did do something - I made dinner for all of us. Of course, Mom helped. :>) I printed out one of the many chicken jerk marinades that are out on the web. Mom and I put all of the ingredients together in a big zip lock bag with 8 big chicken thighs to marinate over the afternoon. I love the combination of spices in jerk recipes!