Monday, June 06, 2011

My, Didn't It Rain


We sang that Negro spiritual when I was in high school choir and that popped into my head this morning. We got an inch of rain last night and another half inch this morning. I took these pictures about 10:00 and the rain finally stopped at noon. Our region was under a flash flood warning but since we're on a hill I was more worried about our driveway washing out. It didn't but I saw other neighbors post on Facebook that theirs did.
Our garden boxes are hanging in there. We have good drainage, but the back box is our frost bitten potatoes. It was 26 the other morning so they're starting all over - again, for the third time. Most Junes aren't like this one. By the way, I am warmed by a woodstove fire as I type.
The tomatoes and peppers are still hanging on inside their walls-of-water but have no new growth since they were planted. Our growing season ends mid-September, if we're lucky. These guys have a lot of catching up to do.
I whipped out a batch of soap in between loads of laundry today and when the cloth I bought and washed for weaving came out of the drier, I took it upstairs to iron. I had help.

I had help, if you can call pushing scrap cotton out and batting tiny snippets of cotton and yarns onto the rug help. He has taken snopervision to a new art form.
These are the new "colors" I have to work with, but in viewing them now, I realize that I didn't find any deep contrasts. I'll have to check the $1 a yard bin every other week for a while and see if I can get a little more variation. The total cost was $9 and I'm kicking myself for paying $4 for a single yard of yellow. I won't do that again.
When the clouds finally lifted this afternoon, there was new snow on the Sierras. I know weather is crazy all over and given what some are getting, I'm not complaining. I'm just documenting.
It's been perpetually overcast for so long that we haven't seen a sunset in I don't know when. This was a real piece of eye candy for us this evening. The forecast for Saturday is 72 degrees, which will be the first time we've cracked that number this year.

7 comments:

Marion B. said...

And we need rain, a lot of it.
It's never been this dry and sunny before since people can remember.

The picture of the sunset is super. Wow.

Theresa said...

Wow, we missed the heavy rains, for once. Did get some thunder and lightening though. Days have been half and half though nothing as pretty as that sunset.

danielle said...

We drove to NV Sat for grandson's birthday - back home Sunday. Poured rain all the way up until we crossed the NV line. Then some really hard downpour around state lines on the way home and that was it. We were very very happy. Especially when we heard they were advising chains on Monday! I personally dont think we are going to see summer....maybe a late and prolonged spring right into fall....sigh....my garden needs some sun and heat!!!

Laura said...

You should tell Ian that, since potatoes are in the same family as tomatoes and peppers, they shouldn't be left out and have wall 'o' waters too.

I've had heavy drizzle for 2 days. Ok, so it's not the torrential downpour that you've had (I'll be the Keystone property was under water!), but after 92 inches, any water falling from the sky is too much, at this point!

We're supposed to be mid-70's today, but unless a miracle happens, it won't.

Lovely sunset - I miss those...

Nina said...

We've gone straight to high summer, with really hot, muggy weather and T-storms. Potatoes can do with a touch of frost but they like protection. You can mulch them heavily with straw which will really help a lot. As for the tomatoes, ours have heat and water but still don't seem to be doing much growing.

Evelyn said...

That is a spectacular sunset. It is a slow spring here also - tomatoes beginning to look a little purple in the garden. I am glad I have a small greenhouse and we just harvested the first cucumber.

Michelle said...

A fire in June? Wow. Summer started here last Friday. Highs in the 80s; UG. Now it's cooler, but muggy. Like you said, though, it could be much worse and I'm not complaining - much.