An early symphony of rain
The rainy season began last night. Maybe.
The sis-bam-boom of thunder and lightning, and the crescendo of fat raindrops pounding the skylights, was a welcome spectacle last night, assuming it was the overture to this year's rainy season.
The all-night rain ranged from furious to gentle and back again but it never seemed to quit. Our cheapo rain gauge went missing, but judging by the amount of rain that collected in the dog water dish outside the kitchen door and the bird bath by one of the bedroom windows, we must have received at least one inch of precipitation.
Certainly it was enough to rinse off the roof of the house. Now we can shut off the two overflow valves so the next rain goes into the cistern under the terrace.
The rain also revivified the tender growth on some trees that appeared a month ago, but later had second thoughts and began to shrivel for lack of moisture, to straighten up and look alive.
I don't know if it happened last night during the rain but our young guava tree, only about a meter and a half tall, was sporting three small white-and-lavender flowers this morning.
Going from flower to fruit sometimes is a slow and tricky leap, so I'm not having visions of guava paste and cream cheese yet. We have cherry, plum and apricot trees that have flowered for the past three years but it was all a tease with no fruit following.
On Friday, contractors also had just finished resurfacing our access road with a fresh coat of tepitate, a local sand-like dirt used for paving, and a good rainfall will help pack it down.
The only miscue on our part was the installation of an irrigation system that we finished last week. It seems superfluous now that we have entered the rainy season.
But have we?
Shush. Better not get too excited. Mid-May seems a little early for the rains to begin. Maybe climate change is speeding up the seasons.
I'd just better quit right now before I jinx this happy turn of events.
-30-
The sis-bam-boom of thunder and lightning, and the crescendo of fat raindrops pounding the skylights, was a welcome spectacle last night, assuming it was the overture to this year's rainy season.
Certainly it was enough to rinse off the roof of the house. Now we can shut off the two overflow valves so the next rain goes into the cistern under the terrace.
The rain also revivified the tender growth on some trees that appeared a month ago, but later had second thoughts and began to shrivel for lack of moisture, to straighten up and look alive.
Going from flower to fruit sometimes is a slow and tricky leap, so I'm not having visions of guava paste and cream cheese yet. We have cherry, plum and apricot trees that have flowered for the past three years but it was all a tease with no fruit following.
On Friday, contractors also had just finished resurfacing our access road with a fresh coat of tepitate, a local sand-like dirt used for paving, and a good rainfall will help pack it down.
But have we?
Shush. Better not get too excited. Mid-May seems a little early for the rains to begin. Maybe climate change is speeding up the seasons.
I'd just better quit right now before I jinx this happy turn of events.
-30-
I SO agree. The sound and smell of the fresh rain last night was more then welcome! The thought occurred to me to go dance in it, but then I came to my senses and just kept the door cracked open all night so that as I awoke, I could hear that magnificent sound. I'm afraid to get my hopes up that this is the beginning. It usually is a teaser this early and then doesn't really start til mid-June. However, I'll take whatever and whenever it wants to rain again.
ReplyDeleteNext time just go for it and dance in the rain... You be glad you did.
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