And Then the Rains Came
It woke me up at 3:30 am.
It was still raining at 7am and it was raining hard. This was going to be a gully washer.
At 2pm at the start of the third wave of torrential rain I headed out. I had missed an earlier much larger flow through this gulch today. Another chunk of the bank had been scoured away. The Agave attenuata at the base of the palm tree had washed away two years ago. Now the roots of the palm were exposed.
About four years ago from this point on down, the bed of the gully had been scraped clean down to solid rock. It is a very striking natural feature. During the dry season the irrigation system puts out enough water to let Impatiens seed themselves freely and grow on top of solid rock. They were all gone today.
The irrigation pipe that dips into the gully to water the shrinking bank on the opposite side was snapped off for the third or fourth time.
Some wet gratuitous foliage, Dracaena reflexa
And a gorgeous Bromeliad.
6 comments:
Finally, you got the rain you wanted so much...
I forgot -- what was the reason you wanted it?
During the warmer weather, I wish for clouds and rain every day, because it cools and cleans the air so nicely. Now that it's Fall here and the air is so crisp and fresh -- and the days are getting nice and short anyway, I actually appreciate the Sun more.
Because I live in a dry savannah and our average annual rain fall is about 12 inches. Rain is a nice change of pace.
Rainstorms can be destructive and are lousy to drive in, but all the same I love them. Something wild and refreshing about them.
Not exactly a tropical shower, was it - but I hope the water refreshed everything washing the 'vog' out of the air.
The 12" average is amazingly low. On the Big Island we saw huge ferns around the Volcano tube trails in the east side of the island, as well as grasslands. On the west side there were irrigation pipes visible everywhere, leading to all the trees along the highway.
Nutbuk had photos of fog on the east side of Oahu, too.
So I guess the other side of Maui gets more rain in general, too. Do you think you get better gardens where the water comes as rain or where you irrigate? We worry about lake levels when it's dry, but the plants are sometimes less buggy and moldy when we do the watering.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I love it when the rain wakes me up in the night. Our roof is pitched, and the bed is pretty much right up next to it. I like listening to the rain hit the roof in the quiet of the night.
The Vog is gone and the rain has passed but we are still getting south westerly mega humid winds, (I put my work clothes directly into the dryer when I get home), which generally means more rain is a comin.
The change from the dry dusty brown grass to a green covered mountain is fast and dramatic. With that amount of rain the ranchlands will be green in a week. It is a refreshing change.
All the main islands have a wet NE windward side and a dry SW leeward side. It is the winter storms that bring most of the annual rain for the dry leeward sides. The wet windward sides get rain throughout the year.
I think plants actually grow better under irrigation on the dry side. The get more direct sun and the temperature is just a bit higher.
I look forward to another rain day.
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