Rain: Another Two Inches (April 2, 2014)

Heavy rain yesterday and the day before has added another two inches to our total for the 2013-2014 rain year.  Our total now stands at 21.25 inches. That is still low relative to an average year, when we would have had well over 30 inches by now (32.62 inches is the average for April 1), but I'm beginning to feel like the upcoming summer won't be as dire as it looked like it might be earlier in the season. Oddly, the one Santa Rosa weather station I monitor online (and use for the average rainfall data I report here) is showing only 16.45 inches--a large discrepancy. Normally our numbers are very close. Perhaps the rain this year has been more localized than usual?

[Update: Another 0.50 inches overnight on the 3rd and on the 4th brought the total to 21.75 inches.]

Words I'm Writing: A Poem (April 1, 2014)

I generally don't like reading poetry. Too often it's cryptic. Too often it's self-indulgent--little more than an author's in-joke--deliberately obfuscatory, or simply obscure, but that doesn't keep me from once in a while perpetrating the same.

Pearl

A pearl

Is what an oyster conjures—

A sheath of smooth, bright nacre

Over sand that wounds

But what oyster

On what wave-lashed rock

Is ever asked to form a pearl

Not over jagged sand

But to fend against

What is keenly longed for—not once in a lifetime but twice—

To shut away the selfsame haunting grain? 

I began this more than five years ago. I came across it today by chance and changed a few words that finally made it seem finished. Virtually no one will understand it, but I imagine poems are somewhat easier to decipher than visual art, which I fairly regularly create while feeling no need to explain. So, here is a poem: Make of it what you will.

Birds I'm Watching: Odd Bushtit Behavior (March 31, 2014)

Spent the day indoors today (March 31, 2014) because of the rain, but I didn't have to go out to do some bird watching. The birds came to me--one bird, anyway--a female Bushtit that spent several hours flitting back and forth through the dense plant growth near one of my living room windows. I watched the bird on and off for quite some time. No sign of nesting material, but it was clearly occupied doing something--and alone, not in a flock. She pecked at the window repeatedly and for no apparent reason, making a circuit of a fixed number of perches near the glass over and over again. She was loud enough that I could hear her from upstairs. I'm wondering if she's looking for a nesting site? I got some good close-up photos of her. I wonder what she was up to? Perhaps just pecking at her reflected rival in the glass....

For more about birds and birding in Sonoma County, see my Website: Sonoma County Bird Watching Spots. 

Rain: Getting There…. (March 31, 2014)

The past week has been a busy one, mostly stuck at the computer working. It's been a good thing to hear rain outside my office window for much of that week. It's rained off and on and there is more rain in the forecast for the next few days. We need all we can get. I've recorded another 2.0 inches at my house since last reporting.  That brings the 2013-2014 rain total at this location to 19.25 inches--still well below normal, but we're getting there. And more rain is on the way.