Leaves of Three, Leave it Be...

It's fall, and the poison oak is quite pretty, though many might not believe it possible. This photo was taken a few days too late - the color was quite impressive a bit earlier.

At the moment, both my wife and I are suffering from the rash that accompanies poison oak contact, so we're not big fans of the weed, but when it turns bright red it's quite striking.

The recent storm dropped about an inch of rain in our area, give or take, and the temperatures came down for a while, but warm weather returns in the coming days. Indian summer. But fall really is here, and the weather is changing. I hope we get a lot of rain this winter.

It's going to rain!

This may seem like a totally mundane thing to those of you living somewhere other than Northern California, but for us, it's not.

You have to understand that it doesn't rain here during the summer. At all. We generally get rain starting sometime in October and if we're lucky we get a steady stream of storms through sometime in April or May. If we're not lucky, we get infrequent storms that don't produce much precipitation.

Living in the Santa Cruz Mountains - where fires have been a problem since last May - we've all grown accustomed to the lack of rain. The native vegetation evolved to live without rain for five or so months in a row, but it still gets awfully dry. So, that first rain of the year is always a welcome relief, even if it isn't enough to end the fire season. Just the smell of rain is wonderful.

Last year our total rainfall was poor - the second lowest total we've recorded in 16 years of living here. The year before wasn't much better. That makes getting a good rainy season this year all that much more important.

I cannot claim that one early storm sets a precedent or establishes a trend, but I hope it does. I'd love to see 70 inches of rain fall this year, and for all the reservoirs to be full to the brim again.

For now, though, I'll take the first rain of the season - assuming it happens on Saturday as currently predicted - and revel in it.

Fog! Wonderful Fog!

For the first time in weeks we got fog last night. Deep, thick, serious fog that makes it sound like it's raining outside as it drips off the trees.

It's been way too long since the last time we were fogged in, and every plant out there missed it at least as much as I did.

Now, of course, I have to go walk the dogs in it. Leah may complain, but I won't.

Hot hot hot...

Have I mentioned I hate hot weather?

I have less than a month before an art show. There are quite a few things I need to get done before then, but unfortunately every time I go outside to work on something I wilt in the heat.

Someone please turn the thermostat down at least a dozen degrees!

Maybe no lightning after all...

The NOAA weather site has dropped the chances of lightning over the weekend. We all know weather forecasts aren;t that great beyond what's happening right now or in the next hour or two, but I'll take this one. This morning we had a 20% chance of thunderstorms on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Given the vast number of fires started all over the northern half of California by lightning last weekend, I rejoice to see that vanish off my local forecast.