Friday, January 29, 2010

Rain, Rain Go Away

Not really of course. But so much at once, sheesh! Even Rexie is upset about it. Living in a borderline seasonal temperate rain-forest we are definitely used to having a lot of rain during the winter season. But this past few weeks was pretty extraordinary. More than 10" in just a few days and then 5" more spread out over the remainder of time. That plus the high winds made for a lot of excitement around here.
Trees were down and hanging in the power lines for more than a week. I ended up with power lines on top of my car at one point. Hey! Exciting! Yikes! The boys had two days off from school. During finals week even. We have "Rain Days" instead of "Snow Days" I guess. Too risky that everyone can get to and from school
safely, oh and that the power stays on for the whole school day.

Dark dramatic skies while in the eye of the storm.

And a small rainbow flare just for some color.

The saddest thing was the loss of our almond tree. It just fell over during one of the big windstorms. Luckily it missed all the cars and didn't block the driveway. It leaves quite the hole in our landscape, I really miss it.
I don't know if it was weak and fell over due to being infested with this stuff or not. Or because it was just such an old tree, at least 20 years old, not sure how old almond trees usually live to.
The worst thing is that it was about to burst into bloom. Such a glorious sight that I shall truly miss. I've got a bunch of branches inside in vases to hopefully catch a few last blossoms.
Now for some replacement tree shopping. Shall we go with almond again, or try something different?

3 comments:

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

Well, it is sad as all get out seeing the almond tree down, but I have to admit, those lichen are quite interesting!
I have the one that is grey-green on my ash tree; doesn't seem to affect it. Humidity here. I am unfamiliar with the others.
Try cutting some of the branches, bring them in and put them in a cool area in warm water. You might be amazed at getting them to blossom one last time!

XXOO!!
Anne

Cat said...

Sorry to hear that!
It was wild here last week, but this week is better.
I'm having a giveaway so do drop by!

Deborah said...

Great cat!