Life in a Wet Year

[e_moon60]

It's not wet now--things are drying up rapidly--but the frequent soaking (and sometimes flooding) rains have really made a difference to our summer after five years of stark drought.  The creek is running.   Fish fry are back--tiny almost glass-transparent minnows a half inch to an inch and a half long are swimming happily in the shallows.

Comments

[gifted]

Interesting, thanks for sharing; I'm glad your big bluestem is thriving. :D

[pameladean]

Hooray for your big bluestem!

We generally have to go to the St. Croix River (boundary between Minnesota and Wisconsin, and the upper reaches are protected to varying degrees) to see American rubyspots. They are very fancy indeed.

One of the things I like about whirligig beetles is that if you see a shadow below them in shallow water, it's not their shadow, but rather the shadow of the surface tension.

P.

[saare_snowqueen]

The return of life after drought makes the heart sing. So happy for you and for Texas. Now if only California......

[e_moon60]

I know...it's so sad about California. Because of the way weather works, we and California never seem to have good rain years at the same time.

Karen

[saare_snowqueen]

I don't do anything that makes it easy for me to be anonymous, but I'm equally sad that California and Texas can't seem to coordinate our droughts (and that's not me being sarcastic -- it's me being very genuine about the fact that the North-Pacific Gyre and the North Atlantic Gyre, as influenced by the climatic conditions in the Gulf of Mexico don't ever seem to bring "peaceful, happy conditions" to one and all).

I DO have one bit of good news... We've had several days of "July gloom" now -- which So Cal "just doesn't do...".

We've got brown grass as dry as dust, reservoirs perilously empty, endangered fish stock being "rescued" to live and breed elsewhere, and we've not had a raindrop for eons, but at least we're not scorching under a typical July sun....

So thank you for the flower pics. Every time I see a flower, I feel like the sun is finally shining on my particular patch of paradise.

[seekerval]

Always a pleasure to watch Nature prosper. Weather has been much gentler this spring and summer in several areas. Our June this year was the best weather-wise since the misty memories of my childhood. (And we know how "reliable" those memories can be...)

[sheff_dogs]

And the rains have made a difference because of the work you have done so the water hasn't all run straight off, it's impressive.

[e_moon60]

Definitely the check-dams and gabions have helped, as has grazing relief. I need to repair some dams now, in fact...lot of picking up rocks and moving them where they're needed. Unfortunately, that interferes with the paying work, words on the page.