Weather- August 2010

[Olga Bondareva]

I'm blowing

Thank you David!  Some rain dropes fall down yesterday. Please blow more! 

[iann]

A little hint as to how our weather is.  Six weeks ago this was a brown prairie.  Don't even mention the snails!

[Anthony Darby]

We had a lovely day at Tentsmuir Forest (http://www.tentsmuir.org/) on the Fife coast yesterday. Sunny intervals, and the kids went into the sea for a swim. Heidi just ran and ran. We decided not to go along to see the seal colony, but a 1½ mile walk along the forest road to the ice house, where they used to store locally caught salmon was enjoyable. The ice house is now a hibernaculum for Natterer's bats. It was on this track, yesterday, that I saw my first Scottish comma butterfly, and my camera was in the car!

[Panu]

It´s autumn here now, I think. At the moment +6 C. Last Saturday we had officially 28 degrees, but our thermometer in shade said 31. Record from July +33 C. This summer has been lovely.

[cohan]

chilly and smokey--smoke blowing in from distant british columbia forest fires-hundreds of miles away! pics from yesterday, more at:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5641.new#new

[TheOnionMan]

After two nighttime rain showers, with a trifling amount of rain, the drought here deepens. Endless days of sunshine continue, 90 F yesterday (32 C) and humid yesterday, but a cool front went through, much drier air today and only 83 F (28 C), but gusty dry winds continue siphoning away any ground moisture.  We have a total outdoor water ban in effect until October, but I must admit to spending some hours filling a watering can in a desperate attempt to save my more prized plants... I feel like some sort of criminal while trying to sprinkle a bit of moisture on some plants.

A few photos.  My giant clump of Epimedium grandiflorum 'Red Queen', which measured almost 4' wide (120 cm) x 30" (75 cm) tall, has all but collapsed... I have stopped trying to water it, just hoping that the rhizomes and roots survive.  Then a couple shots of the crispy lawn, normally thick and green. 

[cohan]

After two nighttime rain showers, with a trifling amount of rain, the drought here deepens. Endless days of sunshine continue, 90 F yesterday (32 C) and humid yesterday, but a cool front went through, much drier air today and only 83 F (28 C), but gusty dry winds continue siphoning away any ground moisture.  We have a total outdoor water ban in effect until October, but I must admit to spending some hours filling a watering can in a desperate attempt to save my more prized plants... I feel like some sort of criminal while trying to sprinkle a bit of moisture on some plants.

A few photos.  My giant clump of Epimedium grandiflorum 'Red Queen', which measured almost 4' wide (120 cm) x 30" (75 cm) tall, has all but collapsed... I have stopped trying to water it, just hoping that the rhizomes and roots survive.  Then a couple shots of the crispy lawn, normally thick and green. 

hope you get some rain! i was feeling a little dry after a couple of weeks late july/early aug without much rain, but we haven't really been dry since  spring, which was crispy..

[Maggi Young]

McMark, does your watering ban extend to the use of 'grey water' that you might recycle?

[alpines]

We live in an "automobile" society. It's OK to wash your car......but not the plants you've nurtured and spent thousands of dollars on.
Mark, I am amazed at how green it has remained in Kentucky. We have just recorded 28 days of 90 degree temperatures and our grass (no pictures, I'm sorry) is still as green as it was in Spring.....and we haven't artificially watered it. Strange !!!

[mark smyth]

Mark is that a nest box on the pole?

[David Nicholson]

It started raining here about 1430 on Thursday and since has hardly stopped. Not heavy stuff most of the time but a typical Devon mizzle with a mist. We've hardly been able to see across the road for the past two days.

As both of us were on the points of becoming stir crazy we went to Exeter today (about 30 miles up the road) to do some shopping to find blue sky, 24C and people walking about in shorts and tee shirts. I hate Ivybridge!!!!!!!

[Maggi Young]

It started raining here about 1430 on Thursday and since has hardly stopped. Not heavy stuff most of the time but a typical Devon mizzle with a mist. We've hardly been able to see across the road for the past two days.

As both of us were on the points of becoming stir crazy we went to Exeter today (about 30 miles up the road) to do some shopping to find blue sky, 24C and people walking about in shorts and tee shirts. I hate Ivybridge!!!!!!!

You're sure you haven't left the shower running upstairs.........

[David Nicholson]

Not likely, we're on a water meter, it's the Yorkshire blood yer know

[TheOnionMan]

Mark is that a nest box on the pole?

Yes, it is a blue bird house.  People in these parts have lots of open land, and they encourage the spaced placement of blue bird house to create "corridors" of blue bird habitat, there are even local organizations devoted to encouraging blue bird habitation.  My boxes only had bird birds a couple of times, typically the aggressive sparrows move it, and I never had time to remove their nests daily, nor do I kill the sparrows as some people do .  Some years I had wrens or tree sparrows, the latter flashing iridescent green blue feathers as they so gracefully circle, a joy to watch.  Fortunately, the blue bird population has greatly increased in the 22 years at my location, and I get to see them daily for much of the year.

[TheOnionMan]

We live in an "automobile" society. It's OK to wash your car......but not the plants...

Alan, how true.  It's getting depressing... hard to enjoy all the fine sunny days when it just refuses to rain, and even the weeds are dying.

Maggi, the idea of grey water is a good one, but not practical in my current situation.  My next door neighbor suggested taking empty buckets into the shower, although that might yield a mere two buckets, and yield a clumsy, somewhat silly showering scenario.  And they're using the rinse water from washing dishes on their vegetables, although they have all but given up, the ground is too dry overall and much more water is needed.  Spent 4 hours yesterday making about 120 trips hauling a watering can, and it barely made a dent, I have a sore shoulder, and I have already chosen which parts of the garden I will let go completely dry as there's no way I can hand water 1 acre of cultivated area with a watering can, given the depth of the drought.