It has been an amazing few days in central Oklahoma. First of all we had a major cold front stall out over the state. It lowered the temperatures first in the mid 90s, and then into the [dare I say it?] 80s!
Yes, for a couple of days here, locally it was in the 80s. The kids and I played and hiked every chance we got, barely breaking a sweat if not for the distance!
And then yesterday, after several days of watching the storms form and rumble and move off into other places, it rained. There were all sorts of rain too. Gentle soaking rains, buckets of cats and dogs, sky-spit, and finally this morning, the most amazing fluffy fog lay over the land. It was like walking through Mother Nature's answer to fabric softener and static cling all at once.
It was positively soothing to hear the thunder again.
I can imagine that my needled plants, my Rosemary and Lavender are drinking this fog in in large quantities.
We had planned on going camping last night, but the weather predictions called for severe weather. We decided we didn't want to deal with hail and high winds in our tent. We should have ignored the prediction.
That's the funny thing here with this crazy-ass weather. I find our meteorologists have difficulties calling the predictions lately. I suspect because the weather has been so volatile.
So we went for a 6 mile hike instead, yesterday evening. Everything was brand new again because of the rain. Just with this bit of rain, already the sod has started putting out shocking green tips, and some of the drought hardy trees have already begun to green back up as well. The drought hardy wildflowers are pretending they are desert plants, thistle, snakeweed, and asters suddenly bloomed again. Some asters simply sprouted finally. They will probably bloom in October.
I found stands of Golden Wax Weed in two counties now that are just budding out, on time. This is excellent news. Along with the Snakeweed, the few Monarch butterflies I see will have something to eat. We will know in a month what the migration will look like in full swing. Hopefully with more rain and cool nights, the flowers will bloom so that all the butterflies and bees have something to eat. The Monarch population this spring in Mexico was the fourth lowest in it's recorded History. Monarchs need all the help they can get, handling this widespread drought and habitat loss.
And I saw something new on the trail. Passion flowers. Normally our winters are too harsh for them if no one mulches them. But there they were blooming in the midst of lovegrass and blue stem. The drought had caused their leaves to drop and fewer blooms, but the flowers that were there were lovely just the same.
Why get all excited about Passion Flowers? Beyond the fact they they survived a nasty drought, these flowers are hosts to Gulf Fritillary Butterflies. A very large, lovely orange butterfly that is hard to miss.
I have three passionflowers in my yard. Wish me luck that I can get them through what will surely be a bumpy winter. I want Gulf Fritillaries hatching out in my yard. That would just be fantastic! I am growing wormwood too for swallowtails.
The thistle was blooming everywhere, and already the bumble bees and bumble beetles were all over that, along with crab spiders, waiting to catch smaller bees and butterflies unawares.
Best of all, the muddy trails. Normally the mud would annoy me, because it's slippery to walk on, and makes you work harder, like walking in sand. But Mud never looked so great as it did yesterday.
We hiked by a small pond and heard what sounded like Chorus Frogs for a short period of time. When we passed back through, they had stopped calling. We heard no other amphibians, even when we came to the river bed that had filled. I suspect because there are so few bugs, even close to the water.
It was humid on the trail and cool at the same time. So we got very sweaty, but a bit chilled at the same time. We saw some deer on the trail and there were abundant dragonflies out. Widow Skimmers and Pond Hawks were everywhere, most likely hunting gnats and mosquitoes.
After a night with no storms, and this lovely rolling fog, I wish we would have stayed out for the night. No doubt the owls and other night birds were about now that the night is cool like it should be. The kids had a great time, collecting locust skins and they even found a deceased fig beetle to add to their collection of insect samples.
I am hoping the fall is long enough and we get more rain to have a longer growing season. I am about to clear some of my beds for cabbage, cauliflower, carrots and spinach. I am going to take cuttings from my tomato plants and start them in large pots.
Oh how disappointed I was to find I didn't win the Powerball--Mamma needs a new hoop house and solar hot water heater, and some panels, and a hybrid.
Today, it is housecleaning day. And the lovely part is, that we will be able to keep the windows open to air this all out. It gets stale in here, in the heat of the summer even with the air conditioning on.