The weatherman will predict a nice day and then come the clouds, drizzle or rain. Where we live in the hills, we have a kind of gray canopy overhead many days. I can't complain though given what is happening elsewhere across the globe for weather. If this is the worst we get-- drab and dreary-- we will be lucky.
Most people who have always lived here think it's been the coldest and wettest spring they ever experienced. For people who are native Northwesterners, we do pretty well even with these conditions-- although definitely do whine a lot. Some, who moved here from states with more sunshine, are thinking of moving back.
On the week-end we visited Portland's Japanese Gardens on the hill above downtown and then the Chinese Gardens right in Chinatown. Both were very enjoyable but a challenge to photograph all that green when the light was subdued which means we did not get any prize winning shots, but we loved the day and walking the paths even when it drizzled occasionally.
I'm still doing a lot of writing, did buy some bedding plants but plan to have less plants in pots this summer also. Otherwise I am kind of in a flat mood for ideas to write about here. I will take June as it comes. If something comes to me, I'll write about it. Otherwise, it might be awhile between posts. I have the grandkids coming for one of the weeks which always keeps me busy in a good way.
For those wondering what is going on with this weather, this article might be of interest-- although certainly not reassuring.
13 comments:
Re: the weather, what I have heard is that we are experiencing a particularly strong La Nina effect. La Nina started last year and is ending this year. Some recurrences are subtle, others not so much. This would be one of the less subtle.
Ain't weather grand!?!
I am wary of people saying they have never experienced weather as extreme as this time, I think people's memories are amazingly unreliable in that regard. I don't discount climate change by any means, but I do think extreme weather is not so unusual and we forget quickly.
Maybe a flat time is a fallow time, I'm sure you'll have lots of thoughts of things to say as time goes by.
I wouldn't call ours extreme exactly but just an extension of the kind of weather we might have expected in March or early April. I've lived here all my life and have seen summers that we call 'of the green tomato' for the obvious reason they never turn red. When I hear though about a thousand tornadoes in the United States last year, that's when a blah weather pattern, (out here we have days of a flat gray, rather luminous sky like a canopy over us with rain falling now and then) which is what ours is right now, is okay. It isn't making getting in a garden for summer vegetables particularly good and buying plants is a challenge as the greenhouses had problems with growing good ones also which makes their plants not look as good and they cost more. I am thinking of the kinds of plants though that I might be able to grow that other summers wouldn't make possible. It could all change in a heartbeat as weather's way.
I have been thinking that this long, extended winter might be a result of La Nina. That would be good, because it means it will end. I had been fearing that this weather pattern might be a more long lasting result of climate change. I'm still hopeful that we will see warm weather and plenty of sunshine this summer. I'm planning on summer lasting all the way until November.
It may the La Nina. They said it was going to hit last fall, but it really did not do anything spectacular until late in the winter. So maybe it is just causing changes later in the summer since it started later in the winter.
All I know is we have very full lakes for the first time in 5 years and we cannot take the boat out because it is cold and rainy. I am ready for summer.
We live in SE Washington which is usually warm and dry by the end of April, or used to be. This too is a cold, wet "spring." Last year the peppers rotted on the plant, and the tomato crop was minimal this is worse. Seeds fall dead right after sprouting or wash away in the rain. And the mud, ugh. But truly it's so much better than tornados etc. I too hope it is La Nina but am thinking climate change. The extra wet has meant extra snow too. Or maybe I should build a greenhouse to get things started. Adapt, adapt. Sigh.
here I am in Sacramento, fearing the usual summer heat, but so far it has been overcast, raining and cold. Not a bad transition for me, personally, but it has people up here perplexed and vexed.
Sounds as if La Nina is indeed responsible for this strangeness.
You will find your muse amongst the grandkids and the raindrops. Til then, I'll have to be satisfied with your thoughtful comments on my posts. I need my drops of Rain in Tucson - which has been cooler this spring, too. We'd gladly take some of your rain if you could send it over our direction.
a/b
"it's been the coldest and wettest spring they ever experienced." Same here....and the mosquitoes!
I'm thinking I might start building canoes for a living... thinking we all might need them just to get from the Coast Range foothills into Corvallis.
It certainly appears that more warming in the Gulf is causing more tornadoes. But then if you are Conservative, tornadoes are caused by god's punishment, not climatic conditions.
Hey Robert, I am conservative and I don't think tornadoes are God's punishment.
That would be like somebody saying all "progressives" are atheists.
I think you mean all religious fanatics.
The westher is certainly worrisome. And I don't understand anyone not getting that we have a Big Problem. I know our weather here in Los Angeles has been very strange, too.....
Those are Beautiful plictures, Rsin....! Love the Waterfall, in particular.
I understand being in a kind of flat state---I think I'm right behind you, in a way. Part of it for me is not feeling very well.....I guess all we can do is go with the flow....!
One of the women on my writer's list lives in western MA and they got tornados yesterday. It does have to be a bummer to have your weather stay winter-like for so long. I know my family and friends in WA say they are really ready for something else. I'll be up there in late June and again in early August so I hope the sun comes out by then.
I've been to the Portland gardens once many years ago. I'm sure I would appreciate them more now. Thinking of you.
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