Well, Alex is moderating the temperature this week

Hurray! Last week was at or near 100°F every day. Yesterday was nice and cloudy; we got a lovely slow rain for much of the evening and night, and the rest of the week promises to be cloudy and low nineties, or even lower, with possibly more rain if Alex slings it our way.

Lots has been happening at the Ridge, that I haven't gotten around to writing about. The spring flowers have been and gone. The horsemint is blooming now, and deerpea. The black-eyed susans made a good show, but have totally dried up now. The last rain before last night was a thunderstorm in the early morning of the 15th, two weeks ago, and 3/4" of rain doesn't last for two weeks.

The bees, after a slow start, got going with a new queen, who is laying lots, Unfortunately the nectar has apparently dried up, so all those new bees don't have enough to do. Unemployment leads to too many security guards, and I got stung a second time Saturday, because I didn't heed the extra buzzing and flying around, and go right away to get more protection on.
In the first couple of weeks of this month, they made about 2/3 of a super of honey, but almost nothing since then. I am really hoping that this rain and, with luck, more this week will restart the honeyflow for a few more weeks.


Later -- the rain gauge in the herb garden by the front gate says 2.3 inches! A good "rescue rain," as Elizabeth Moon says. It will last a week or so, and we might possibly get some more later in the week, hope, hope.

The horsemint is done, however. The handsome upright stems with the white whorls of bracts still look lovely, but the bracts shelter globose clusters of maturing seeds, with very few flowers left. The snail-seed vine is starting to bloom, for whatever it may be worth to the bees, and the mesquite on the tank dam is blooming. The mimosas continue to bloom, but I have seen very few honeybees working it -- there was a bumblebee on the old one in the corner of the yard today.

(note — these two pictures of bees by my cousin Kieren Ladner)

waiting for Ike

There really is a "calm before the storm." 7:30 am, the sun is presumably just up behind the thick overcast, humidity 80%, all quiet and still. Going to be a few more hours till the storm reaches here with more than clouds.

I looked at the Houston area accumulated rain radar. I have never before seen the colors for 6, 8 10, or 12" on such a plot!

Virgil and I cleaned the roofs and downspouts yesterday, put a bit of acrylic patch compound in the presumed source of the leak in the office roof, and spread a hopeful layer of asphalt over Shanna and Larry's bay window. I meant to clean off the shelf behind the gray fence, and haven't, so things might blow there.

They have increased the forecast speed of the storm as it moves north, shortening the estimated time it will be dumping on us.

7:50 - A breeze is developing.

8:10 - According to the radar, the first little band of rain is about to manifest itself.

More later.

Later (much later, I write this in January 2009, since I never got back to the post) -- We never had any significant wind, nor even much rain, though areas further east did. As the weather bands came rotating around to the west side of the storm, they just evaporated and disappeared. Places in Arkansas lost power for days, and Kieren and Jon's beach house vanished completely off its foundation; Amy had no power for almost 6 days, but nothing happened here.

ghost of Dolly, crying

Well, hurray for the ghost of Hurricane Dolly. When she came ashore down in Brownsville, no moisture or even clouds to speak of made it up here. But over the last week she has drifted up the Rio Grande Valley, across the Panhandle, and along between Oklahoma and Kansas. There she joined up with some instability, and wonder of wonders, produced some off-and-on rain from 6 to 8 this morning. Not much, maybe an eighth of an inch, but it's something. And the clouds that kept the temperature to only 96 or 97 yesterday when another 103 was forecast, they were pretty welcome too.

It sure doesn't look like much on the radar. Going by usual occurrences, I would have expected the clouds to develop a hole that slid right over Denton. And last night the forecast only said 10% chance, though that's upped to 30% this morning, I see.

Well, anyway, we aren't going to get skunked entirely for the month of July, like I thought -- the last decent rain was a inch and a half the last weekend of June. I feel sort of like that old headline from July 20, 1969: "Man on the Moon! Besides, it rained"