Monday 18 August 2008

Rain, rain, again


















I keep hearing, "it's not usually like this," and "isn't it horrible," about the weather. I have been here just over two weeks and beginning to adjust now. Mind you am typing this in a sweater (cardie) and slippers, in August yet! I'm allowed! After all arrived here from forever blue skies day after day and 36 degrees and holding! Weather is just weather. We have no control over it what so ever. What good does complaining do? None. I think complaining and moaning makes us feel miserable and hard done by, cheated out of our summer. Why do we think we have the right to a good summer? What we term as bad helps us to appreciate even more the good. As Stuart Wilde, one of my fav author's says, "Rain is just rain it isn't good or bad. We are taught that it is wet (yucky), uncomfortable (groan moan) and to be avoided. So go out in it and just do rain. Get wet, let it run everywhere, learn to enjoy it." Bracketed bits are my additions.

Where I live we have so little rain it is a miracle that anything grows. Sure we have incredible hot and sunny weather for many months but we also have huge forest fires that rage on for weeks and weeks often burning out of control. Forest fires that cost our province millions of dollars for fire fighting men and equipment. The choking smoke haze invades your home and stays for a month or more. The sun can be totally obscured by the smoke. Deer and bears have to swim large lakes to escape the fires. Whole grazing grounds for the wild sheep and goats are wiped out. Many micro-ecosystems are destroyed. The tourist season and locals holidays are ruined as camping is not allowed nor off road driving.
We have water shortages, that is drinking water, oh yes, as reservoirs become dangerously low. There are watering restrictions for home owners, farms and orchards. Fish die when lakes and rivers levels get low. Grass becomes bleached and burnt from the sun. The Okanagan is the first place I have ever lived that never has dew, imagine that! We long for rain. We long for a relief from the heat, those hot nights when it is impossible to sleep, when there is not a breeze. Yes air conditioning is a must. I often go out around 9:30 in the evening for a last swim, that cool down so I am able to sleep. A whole other world.


10 comments:

Lady in red said...

Thank you Jenna for reminding us how lucky we are.

I don't actually mind the rain as long as I don't get soaked on the way to work then have to stay in wet clothes all day.Warm sun to dry my laundry is a bonus though

DJ Kirkby said...

Well you already know that I don't particularly mind the rain (though less of it on occasion would be nice), it is the wind that disturbs me. I am sure it will come as a huge surprise to you when I tell you that we suffer water shortages here too, oh yes we do. Something to do with leaky pipes, no really, we really do have water shortages.

Casdok said...

Unbelivable we do have water shortages even when it has been raining!

I love the smell of rain especially in the summer.

aka k said...

yep, no rain for a few weeks and out comes the hosepipe ban. Thereafter, any rain is deemed "the wrong type of rain" until we get floods , except that could be running off too rapidly and not getting into the aquifers. Its the difference between getting water from underground sources rather than reservoirs. This stuff is drilled into us from birth so we never run out of conversation pieces. Oh, and don't get me started on weather forecasts!! How is it they can't even see more than one day ahead these days, and still get it wrong. oops, didn't mean to start.

Jenna said...

lady in red: Oh I love to hang clothes on the line and take them in. My designated task here. Much rushing to do it excitedly. I haven't had a clothes line for years, not allowed in so many places where I live. Silly that!

djkirkby: a couple of people have now educated me on your water shortages! I would never have imagined.....I usually lvoe the wind and walking in it. But been a bit extreme this month!

casdok: yes rain does bring with it a lovely fresh smell.

aka k ha at home too they can't forcast weather. Gee if we did that poor of a job we would be let go! They forcast rain for us often and we almost fall over laughing, it rains so rarely. Usually turns out to be one of those gorgeous days with big fluffy clouds and clear blue forever skies.

DJ Kirkby said...

Mom
I meant to say in my alst comment that the pic of that chicken is great and also the one of my echinacia plant. I think you should post that pic of you laughing with the man who had the racing pidgeons, that is a lovely pic of you.

aka k said...

I've recently planted an echinacia (hope it survives longer than the last one). Careful observation, however, reveals that the photo in question is in fact of the snail, I believe :)

Jenna said...

djkirkby: acck skreech no like that pic of me and pigeon man. think I look like some old back alley homeless woman! yeah fond of the chicken pic so too is auntie Carol.

aka k yes the pic of the echinacia plant is with the snail. They grow like weeds whre I live, the plant that is, not the snail! We don't have snails or slugs too dry for them. We have other garden beasties.

Lady in red said...

I've seen very few snails this year, lots of slugs but not snails, but that could be because I have not spent much time in my garden. I have been cultivating the nettles and brambles this year.

Jenna said...

lady in red: there are quite a few snails in my daughter's garden.As for nettles we have encountered many while picking blackberries. Denyse says she has never seen them this tall like almost up to my shoulder! I am 5'8" Luckily their sting is not that potent now.