May 8, 2015

Wonderful Rain


Photo Copyright: www.rygestop.com Rain High Resolution Desktop #uifpv




We made it to and from the WWII Show Opening at the Automotive Museum without seeing a drop of rain anywhere.  (Pictures from the show later.)  We woke this morning to glorious wetness everywhere.  All those brown lawns will be thinking green for a short while.  The succulents will love it.

This is a desert something everyone forgets or didn’t know.  Our acres of green lawns and parks are now going the way of the dinosaurs.  The orders are out.  No more lawn watering…not even two minutes three times a week.  Even city parks can no longer water their greensward's.  Brown is in.  Brown should have been in all along, actually.

When the United States took over California in 1848, the first survey of water in the California Basin was completed.  Soon a canal was built that began to drain first Owens Valley then Mono Lake toward Los Angeles.  By 1908, William Mulholand and a syndicate of friends convinced Lost Angeles and President Roosevelt that without an aqueduct, Los Angeles would die.

The water canal and the two aqueducts began draining the waters of northern California and the Colorado River.  Soon, Mexican water dried up too and we were responsible.  Now with the low snow pack of the last few years, none of us will have the water we have depended on since the 1920’s. 

We all will have to change our water habits.  Brown lawns.  Using our low water usage dishwashers every other day will become the norm.  Paper plates too.  Dry tooth brushing.  Laundry?  Perhaps it won’t be as clean.  It’s an ongoing thing here, and I will let you know how we go.



  • Himself:  Enjoyed the dried meats and cheeses at the reception last night.  Skipped the gym not wanting to drive over in a downpour.

  • Herself:  Feeling vastly less beaten up today. 

  • Reading:  A veterinary bio.  Pretty good too.

  • Balance:  Meeting at 5:45pm.
  • 8 comments:

    1. I wondered where our rain was. I suggested to my son he buy a couple of rain barrels, because you do get rain from time to time,

      I have to laugh, the Helichrysum petiolar I showed in my photo yesterday is considered a noxious weed in CA. Apparently it loves drought conditions.

      Read Charles Fishman'e 'The Big Thirst', you will love it.

      Meanwhile the Navy is concerned with keeping ships afloat according to my son.

      Get rid of lawns and golf courses in the West and also cruise ships all over which are polluting the seas, and lawn mowers and off road vehicles too.

      Grrr, I'm becoming a Green Peace advocate. Always have been a conservationist, that's why I can't vote for most Republicans. (McCain was an exception)

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    2. and it rained while you were at the store.

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    3. Glad for the break to get the dust out of the air and wash all the plants and roof tops. I hope some people are catching it. We are super green here, completed with the super hurricane weather at times.

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    4. All our lawns in Oregon and Washington were brown in the summer when I was a kid. No one we knew watered then. It'll be coming back here too.

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    5. We don't water our lawn here in Hilo! It needs no care beyond mowing. If I lived in a dry climate I would certainly not want to cultivate lawn, though.
      Celia: We also had lawn in Portland, OR, which we did not water in summer.

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    6. Wow! That's hard. I just saw on the news that there are even people who are taking photos of water hogs and posting/shaming them.

      We are trying in Hawaii to get more lawns/gardens with plants that don't need much water.

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    7. And that is an INCREDIBLE photo!

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    8. Glad you got some rain. Although we all have them, lawns are somewhat useless, I suppose.

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