Skip to main content

monsoon

We're in the midst of a pretty decent monsoon season here in Tucson. In Tucson the monsoon season starts sometime in June (early) or July, when we have 3 consecutive days when the dew point averages 54 or more. I don't know exactly when this monsoon season started, but I do know that we had more rain than ever before on Saturday, July 29. To wit:


There's DH, Jack, and Cassie on the east patio while I snap their photo from the west patio.

The land behind our house enjoys a slight incline, and as the rain continued to pour down we experienced quite a raging current in the wash beyond the wall. Usually the ground is dry enough to absorb the water from any storm the monsoons deliver, but we've had a spat of storms over the past week that have saturated the ground, allowing the wash beyond the wall to channel the runoff to the larger creek (dry all but 3 or so days a year) to the east. Cassie didn't know what to make of the churning rapids (impossible to photograph) so she ran from one end of our morassed backyard to the other, trying to make sense of the weather.





The sand beneath the swing set reached saturation, too, enabling the Mother of All Streams to flow off to the eucalyptus back there. (Jack and Evan like to arrange their Star Wars Galactic Heroes in various scenarios back there in the sandbox, then run the hose to create a stream. I always let them, cause I figure it's one of the only ways the eucalyptus is going to get any water.)


Here's the scene under the eaves, where we keep a plumbago and where I'm storing an ocotillo until DH plants it in the floodplain beyond the wall. The soil in the ocotillo pot is about 10 inches from the rim of the pot, so all that's water. In the desert. Ain't it glorious?


(extreme close up)

Comments

sulu-design said…
I'm in love with your dog! Between the previous photo with the peanut butter jar (if only my tongue were that long!) and the adorable photos in the rain, I've decided I need to get a dog myself. So cute.
Lynx217 said…
Yuma got hit with a monsoon storm from heck the weekend before me and the now ex-bf were moving across country... LOL it was bad, and most of our cardboard boxes were ruined... I told him he was stupid for storing them outside, but noooooooooooooooooooooo LOL... I thought my cats were big... you look like your cats are out to compete with my 20lbers!

Popular posts from this blog

doesn't take much

This afternoon I went to Starbucks. I don't go often because they're spendy and they've monopolized the coffee business and most of the time I just want black coffee. Part of our Thanksgiving tradition, though, is going to Mom's Target and Starbucks on Black Friday. This year we made it to Target but not to Starbucks, nor did we make it to Starbucks on Saturday, as we said we would on the way to the Deer Valley Goodwill. I have a gift card smoldering in my pocket so today, after buying spray paint and water marbles at JoAnn, I pulled up to the drive-thru at Starbucks. Usually I get some kind of blended iced vanilla chai thing. At the orderboard I was distracted by all the holiday drinks and opted for a white chocolate peppermint mocha, grande. One thing I will say for Starbucks: the employees are always uber-friendly. After ordering from the chirpy counterperson I pulled forward slightly, plugged in my ipod, and started a game of solitaire while listening to the White S...

memory

thrifting: getting good again

The Sunday before Halloween I scored this vintage Fisher Price Barn at Saver's for $2.99. When I was a kid I had this barn, and played with it all the time. At that age I was convinced my dad could fix anything, and I can't remember if it was the Fisher Price Barn or the Weebles Cottage that he fixed up for me, numerous times, beyond any reasonable expectation. Jack's interpretation of how the barn should look on the inside. Retro sticker, clue to the life of the previous owner. I should also mention that I recently found another similar Fisher Price vintage barn at Goodwill, but they had it priced at $19.99! At Goodwill! Crazy. That same thrifting day at Saver's I bought this repro Kewpie for $7.99, which is, for me, quite a lot to dish out for one item. Again, I had a similar one when I was younger, but mine wore yellow/peach flowered coveralls. I remember once learning that Kewpie is a boy, and trying to reconcile that with my own conception of Kewpie as a girl. Clea...