Mono Monday. : : Now

The much heralded rain we were supposed to receive yesterday never did materialize. It rained to the north and the south of us but instead of the inch we prepared for, we got barely a trace of moisture. 

It used to be that the average annual rainfall in this county was around 30 inches. In 2017, after the Tubbs firestorm destroyed 3,500 homes in Santa Rosa it began to rain and didn't stop until we had gotten almost twice that amount of rain. The reservoirs were full, although there was terrible flooding in places affected by runoff from the fire scars.

Since then, we have had less rain every year. Now it is almost the end of the rainy season and we have had only 12 inches of rain with little expectation of much, if any, more. The grasses surrounding us will dry out and become tinder for fires unless they are mowed. We are  concerned about the tall grass surrounding the unfinished house. The fellow can't even seem to finish his house; it is hard to imagine that he will get it together to mow the grass.

I covered the furniture on the porch and brought the new bistro chairs into the bedroom. Wattles* have been placed below the burned places on the hill to prevent water runoff. It's more likely that it will be eaten by the deer! Trying to be optimistic, I have left the covers on the chairs in case it does decide to rain but the clouds in the sky now are more photogenic than water filled.

Along the lines of 'it never rains if you remembered your umbrella' I threatened to take the covers off the furniture thinking it might ensure rain, but in the end left it on because I didn't have time to take it off. I was clambering up the hill where one of the gardeners had pruned off the burnt , and very spikey fronds of some plants up there** and then scattered them all over the hill. I ignored them for a long time but finally decided it was easier to climb up there and pick them up then try to ignore them.

It wasn't... I lived to tell the tale, though I am debating whether it is worth scaling the cliff to get the rest. We went to the Trail House where we mapped out a plan to call in reinforcements for garden maintenance. It has taken a broken ankle to convince John that he can't do it all by himself.

*Definition. We didn't know what they were either until we moved here.
** See extra for a picture of our hill complete with spikey plants on September 29th.