First, let me say that I am not a fan of dandylions. I consider them weeds in the flower garden of my life. Okay, I admit it, I'm not poetically inclined.
I don't like wild blackberries either. I hate being pricked by those thorns!
When I see either of these plants growing in the yard, I yank them out by their nasty little roots.
That said, I decided to shoot some close-up pictures of them while we were down at the river last week.
And I must admit that when I looked at them close-up and personal, I was pretty impressed.
They were actually pretty and I loved the bright yellow color on that dismal, gray day. I did mention that it's still raining here in the Pacific Northwest, didn't I? 
But I digress...
Even the blackberry vine blooms are pretty if you ignore the fact that the vine itself is very invasive and has long, nasty, prickly thorns that grab onto your clothes and hold you in their tight little grasp. They're just nasty, I tell you. 
But the blooms on the blackberry vines? Well, they kinda make you forget about the thorns. 
Right now, the tops are waiting for their turn to be quilted by a local machine quilter who does exceptional work. In fact, I'm probably more anxious to see the final quilts because I know the quality of work this quilter does. 
Unfortunately, Saturday was a beautiful day - the kind you wish for with sunshine streaming down, temperatures in the low 70s, and a very slight breeze. Perfect! Except if you want to sail.
There were over 70 boats registered to participate, with a couple of sailors flying in from East Coast and midwestern states.
At one point, the breeze seemed to pick up. The race committee spotted it from the docks.
You could see the wind filling in on the far side of the lake. Everyone dashed to docks, untied their boats and hoisted the sails...it was time to sail!
Only one race got run on Saturday and from what I heard, it was a pretty slow race. When I got to the club around 3pm, the sailors were sitting around the club grounds visiting and anxiously watching the water.
Watching for wind...that never came. This is Team Frenzy...being hopeful that the wind is filling in!
Oh well, there was still Sunday. And if conditions were right, it would be possible to get enough races in for the regatta to still count.
Randy and I had volunteered to prepare the Sunday morning breakfast. When we woke at 6:30am, we could hearing the rain beating down on the roof. It wasn't a good sound.
We hurried to the club to get coffee started and pancakes mixed for those sailors who were camping. Let me be very clear, this wasn't just rain. This was like monsoon-type rain. It was rain like we get in January. The amount of rain forecasters warn could trigger flash floods. And there just didn't seem to be an end to it.
It finally let up - just a bit - about 11:30. With rain gear donned, the sailors headed out once again.
Only to have what little wind there was, die completely just as the race committee was preparing to start the first fleet race. The sailors floated around on the lake for well over an hour before cancelling the races.
Let me just make this point...Sailors aren't very happy people when they don't get to sail.
We discovered on Thursday of last week, however, that our beautiful sandy beach has been consumed by water. 
And while Charli loves to run on the beach and roll in the sand, she really loves to swim. So, even though there's no beach for us to walk, we continue our daily trips to the river.
Because Charli doesn't care if there's a beach; she just wants to swim.
