After the rains

We've seen four monarch butterflies on the milkweed. They must have been brought by the weather, which has consisted of one thunderstorm or just plain downpour after another. Today we dined on a copius harvest of Little Marvel and Wando English peas. The blue Dutch irises are diminishing in numbers now, but we counted sixty and more at what we think was their peak before the rains. The first white Dutch iris will be fully open tomorrow. There are buds on the clematis.