While Dad and I were walking yesterday, I told him about our poor tree. "I think we killed it when we pruned it last autumn," I sighed. "It only has leaves on the bottom half of the tree."

Dad frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know much about trees," he said, "but if it was the pruning, I'd think the damage would be on the limbs closest to the pruned sites, not just on the top of the tree. I think you may have some drought damage, there."

It's hard to think of Williamsburg as being in any kind of drought, I know. But once he said it, it did kind of make sense. It's been a very dry winter and spring, and our yard is mostly clay -- it does not retain moisture very well.

So when I got home, I hauled out the hose and hooked it up, and set it up with a slow trickle of water and left it at the base of the tree.

While I was doing that, our next-door neighbors came home, and I walked over to ask Melissa if perhaps Ray would like to join us tonight to dye Easter eggs. (Ray squirmed excitedly until Melissa got him out of the car, then ran to greet me. He's a cute little boy.) She said it sounded like a lot of fun, but they're leaving immediately after school to go visit family for a week. Alas.

"Oh, well. Maybe after Matt and Penny get home, Ray would like to come over and play?" Melissa agreed that sounded fun, and I waved at Ray once more and went home.

Matt and Penny were home only a few minutes later. Penny's first words when she came through the door: "Go see Ray-Ray?"

She kept up that chorus and would not be swayed by my promise that Ray was going to come visit her in a little bit. So we all trooped next door.

I keep forgetting that Ray gets his dinner immediately after they get home. But once Melissa opened the door, Penny would not be pried out of their house. So I sat in the living room and watched Penny play with Ray's toys and listened to Melissa try to convince Ray that he could go play with Penny after he'd eaten a few more noodles.

Matt went home to set up the sprinkler (since he'd just seeded the lawn and the tree isn't the only thing suffering from dehydration), and got back just as Ray was finally freed. We watched the kids play for a while, then Melissa put a Muppet Show DVD in, which earned her some points with Matt, I'm sure.

So it was when we left that Penny had her first real experience with a sprinkler.

Ray came out to see what the excitement was about and got a little damp, too. And Emma came over to see Penny and stood on the sidelines to watch. (Though she's not fond of falling water, apparently, and wouldn't actually come into the yard until the sprinkler was off.)

It's going to be a fun summer.

--Liz