I know it was rain. I could hear it, lightly, pattering on the office rood as we watched TV. I even stepped outside just to convince myself it was really raining. Of course, it ended much too soon with very little actual moisture. My sources over at WeatherSpark.com only show about 0.038 inches of rain — a bare trace, really. Certainly not enough to have any real impact.
I keep wishing for our usual Winter rains, but they never arrive. These are usually several days of sustained rain with wave after wave of comma-shaped storms rolling in from the west. Unlike today, they are slow storms, plodding almost, that linger and drop every last bit of moisture they have. The plants almost leap up in response to these rains. The roses sprout new life and blossoms, the bulbs jump from the ground and everything recovers from its brown Summer dormancy with new green shoots.
I have toyed around with the idea with adding some rain barrels here, but I don’t have enough gutters on the house to real make it feasible. You really want to have every eave of the house guttered so every last drop of water gets funneled into the barrels, cistern or whatever other storage area you have. If you are interested in adding rain barrels to your house and garden, here is a link from Amazon.com linking to some of the options available. — Rain barrel equipment options at Amazon.com
Of course, too much rain can bring its own set of dramatic problems, but in the time we have lived here it seems that the rain is always too little and only occasionally too much. I, like my garden, seek a balance in life but our weather here in Los Angeles is more often found at the extremes. Still, my fingers are crossed, my potting bench is cleared off and ready for new season and I’m sure you can find me starting up the sky, looking for clouds.
Previously on End of the Day: