Beth at “I Should Be Folding Laundry” picked “Summer” to be
the photo challenge of the week.
Ugh. Here in Tennessee that is
becoming a curse word.
My AC went on 20 March; several days of the low 80s, my
house had warmed up to the point it wasn’t comfortable. Of course it didn’t stay on since that date…
but it was turned on. NOT a good sign. On 20 May we hit 90 F for the first
time. Uff-da.
And on 28 June it hit 100 F (106 F to be precise) for the
first time… and the high did not come below 100 F for the next TEN days!!!
Now rain. As of
Saturday night we have had 1.30 inches of rain for July. This actually is pretty close to the
‘average’ for this part of TN for the entire month of July (our driest month). HOWEVER – last month we had .33 inches of
rain: yes, one third of an inch, when
the average is 3.94 inches. And that third
of an inch was in the first half of the month.
Not another drop between 12 June and 4 July.
And the preceding months haven’t been any better. In May we got 2.73” and the average is 4.88”. Back to January it hasn’t been good in the
precip department. From the beginning of
the year to 1 July we have received 13.82 inches of rain (none in snow this
year). The average should be 25.48
inches.
Yep… we are in a deficit of 11.66 inches of moisture halfway
thru the year.
So what does this have to do with a photography challenge?
My yard in this summer…
I have no grass left.
I’m not worried about it as it’s just ‘pasture grass’ and will come back
when it finally gets some moisture. That’s
one good thing about having a cruddy lawn!
But for now, it’s bad.
It crunches as you walk across it.
There are cracks opening up in the ground.
Deep cracks…
To keep my small trees, shrubs, veggies, and rose bushes
alive I am ‘bucket watering’ them. It
seems to be working. Might be ugly but
not as ugly as dead plants!
But even with the watering, the sun is still scorching the
leaves on some of them. There’s nothing
I can do about that (tho I am considering moving the patio umbrella out next to
this one Japanese maple that seems to be suffering the most).
It’s not good folks… it’s just plain ol’ miserable.
I am SO ready for autumn...
(Last night a storm coming in along a cool front dropped 2.5o inches of rain according to my rain gauge. Fantastic!)
Hey, your lawn looks familiar...maybe coz mine looks EXACTLY THE SAME. Brown crunchy stuff that used to be rich red clay and vibrant shoots of grass. That rain last night was so wonderful, I went out on the porch to listen to it, to feel the slight breeze, and to watch the incredible light show it brought. My flowers have been suffering - watering every day, yet some petals and entire branches have just wilted and died. Even the ones on the porch. Thank goodness for the "cool front" this week!
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting post. I feel for you. We, too, have been in a hot, dry spell but not as bad as yours. My grass is crunchy as well and it seems like I'm constantly watering the flowers. But, the impressive thing about your post is how well your photos showed everything that you talked about. They may not have been beautiful but they were very well done and definitely said 'This Summer' to me. Great post!
ReplyDeleteYikes! Hope the heat subsides soon. My mom is in East Texas and goes through the same thing almost every year.
ReplyDeleteOh wow...and I thought we had it bad. Our yard is brown and our lilacs are now started to turn brown.
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