Finally. A weekend with good weather and no major outside commitments. The local paper recently noted that of eight weekends, six had been wet and stormy. Outdoor leisure businesses were hurting, the paper noted. I’d guess plantsellers would be in the same situation, though I really think gardening is much too important a thing to even begin to call “leisure.”
One of the commitments that ate into the free time was a family birthday that we celebrated at a rental condo down on Mission Beach (San Diego Beach House). That was the day of the mega-earthquake in Chile and the international tsunami alerts. A pretty bizarre day for a party.
Lifeguards a few miles up the coast noted some abnormal tidal action that they thought had something to do with the tsunami, but we were enough in celebration mode that we didn’t notice it.
Somewhere during the afternoon someone was alert enough to spot a boat in distress. Here it is through binoculars.
That was another stormy, dramatic weekend, however, and the boat’s problems had more to do with the brutal on-shore winds and big waves.
Leaving the beach I photographed this sign. I’d noticed it before and almost thought that it was a joke. That day I wasn’t so sure anymore.
The time at the beach with the was dramatic as all get out, and we sure need the rain. But where there’s rain, there’s weeds.
So this weekend I’ll be spending a lot of the weekend outside, in the sun, pulling weeds. Absolutely, there are worse things to have to do, but with so many wet weekends the weeds have gotten so far ahead of me I hardly know where to start.
Much of the weeding will be like this: one tiny little keeper plant mixed in with dozens of interlopers. There’s a desert marigold seedling (Baileya multiradiata) mixed in this mess. Somewhere.
I’ll enjoy my time in the sun, but leisure? I think not.
Hi James,
Left a note for you on Blotanical: I’m guessing the La Nina pattern has affected San Diego this winter, and here, as well.
I was excited to have a couple dry hours the other day and I went into the garden to transplant a bunch. For three days I’ve been barely able to move because of back pain, and honestly, I didn’t accomplish much at all. It makes me crazy how this body will no longer cooperate:(
Hope you manage some leisure moments between weed extraction. That’s a problem for me in the front areas that receive no summer water. Insidious weeds that spread by runners. Don’t even know their names:^
Well, in Germany we say “Bad weather doesn’t exist. Wrong clothes do”. Leisure businesses indeed. Can’t people put on something waterproof?
Regardless, it’s nice to have some sun for the weeding. I just hope the rains will be back, we actually have barely had the average rainfall.
Have fun!
There are tsunami warning signs up on our coast now as well – the first time I saw one it caught me off guard. We’re definitely at risk for earthquakes – there was a big one in the late 1800s in Charleston and every now and then, we have a little one. These larger ones in Chili and Haiti are a bit chilling (and so horrible for those folks).
It’s fascinating to see how different your weeds – and your soil – look from mine. My weeds are almost all grasses, and my soil is mud for half the year and dry, cracked, former mud the other half.
yes, we’re definitley experiencing some turbulent times, huh.
That day of the tsunami the waves raged here. My brother’s yacht (his home) was tied up in Santa Cruz harbor and it bumped bottom many times as the water rushed out of the harbor – then rushed back in banging things about. I’ve been having similar weeding experiences to you, but took a break and planted this weekend instead. Maybe I’ll paint the greenhouse!
Alice, I hope you’re doing better–I know how miserable things can be when the body doesn’t cooperate, both physically and emotionally when there’s so much to be done. And good luck with he weeds–down here I think I’m seeing weeds I haven’t noticed before.
TM, I like the line about weather and clothes. We’re pretty fair weather people in town, and I suppose it’s not the safest thing to do to go out skating in downpours and puddles.
Pam, it’s a real wake-up call, isn’t it? I live pretty much on top of the major earthquake fault that runs through San Diego. But it hasn’t slipped significantly in a thousand years, so denial goes a long way in coping…
Gayle, spoken like a true gardener, comparing your weeds with mine. I know you’re experimenting with a lot of different plants. I know it’ll be just a matter of time before you find some that work for your conditions and don’t mind the occasional misstep by the dogs.
Wendy, lots of disasters going on, for sure. Life is short. Garden more.
CM, interesting to hear of your brother’s experience in the harbor. It sure personalizes a far-off event. Nice to hear you got some planting done. I’ll have to admit that I played hooky today and went to look at the desert bloom. Priorities. Plants wait for no one.