The upside of all this rain, I realized a while ago, was that the annual Southern California wildflower displays are likely to be as record-setting as the rainfall. As the first waves of flowers appear, people are beginning to report on them, getting me all excited. This morning I heard on the radio a piece about visiting Death Valley, normally the lowest, hottest, driest point in North America. But this year, it's broken the all-time rain record with a whopping six inches so far. And a 10,000-year-old dried-up lake... is back (again) -- even bigger than when that photo was taken in 2001, it sounds like. The radio report quoted a park ranger as saying that a few people had been out canoeing and kayaking on it, though it sounds like it never gets more than a couple of feet deep.

Must... splish-splash... in... humongous... puddle...

contents of purple tricycle are copyright 2005 carrie lynn king unless otherwise noted.