Thunder!

[pameladean]

For those who don't want to talk politics, I will note that it is raining like stair-rods, truly, and the thunder has sent all the cats out of the open windows and under the bed. The sky is not dark, but the lightning is still dazzling. I am very glad to see all this. I was noticing the other day that those spots in the yard where tulips are coming up were quite dry. Not any more!

I don't think I have any chance of seeing Mercury tonight.

I didn't see it last night, but the Moon and Venus were doing a really lovely dance as they went down the sky together, and at moonset the crescent Moon turned a deep red while Venus remained resolutely white, and so they slipped down past trees and houses and the rim of the turning world, showing one another off.

Pamela

Comments

[laurel]

We had some very loud thunder here this morning that startled both the cats (and me too). Shook the house. Wasn't even all that dark out, just moderately cloudy. Never saw the lightning. Never did rain.

[pameladean]

It's often the other way around -- you get Weather and we get a fringe of it after it's tired.

Pamela

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard a bit of the thunder from inside this downtown office building, but I've just remembered the rugs I left airing out on the line and balcony rail.

[pameladean]

Oh dear.

Pamela

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

For those who don't want to talk politics, I will note that it is raining like stair-rods, truly,

Appreciative of both actually. I hadn't heard that way of putting it before.

and the thunder has sent all the cats out of the open windows and under the bed.

None of my animals seem at all fazed by storms, and I'm afraid I'm the type to sit on the back porch and enjoy watching. As I've gotten older, I can generally tell when they are coming; I get a bit of a headache which seems to dissipate as soon as they break.

We had snow yesterday, and drizzle today, and I'll be relieved when we hit mid-April as the ice storm hit last year about this time and it was a bit of thing. I've gotten used to the snow; but the ice storms are a different sort weather.

The daylilies are poking up here; they always seem to wake up first although they won't of course bloom until June. I don't really grow tulips as they are not reliable for me... although I think there's still a stray half dozen deep purple ones out in the rose garden. Lots of daffodils though and pale pink creeping phlox and beds of Galium Odorata (Sweet Woodruff) and Grape Hyacinth and the well named Glory of the Snow (chionodoxa), and out front lots of Crocus so there's plenty for the children to pick on their way home from school.


I didn't see it last night, but the Moon and Venus were doing a really lovely dance as they went down the sky together, and at moonset the crescent Moon turned a deep red while Venus remained resolutely white, and so they slipped down past trees and houses and the rim of the turning world, showing one another off.

That's a a beautiful image to have, and a lovely piece of writing. Thank you.

We can't generally see too much here (lights) but when it's warm enough we'd pack up blankets and a picnic and head up to the http://www.landisarboretum.org/intro.htm for a Star Party where the local Astronomy club would have their big scopes set up. Sometimes there's a band, and sometimes we just wander around in the dark from scope to scope, and sometimes we just lay back on the blankets amidst the murmuring voices and gaze up at the stars.

[pameladean]

I got "rain like stair-rods" from British mystery novels. 8-)

My daylilies do what yours do. They were four inches high during the last warm spell, got blasted by freezing temperatures, and have come back.

Tulips aren't that reliable for me either, but they're cheap, so I generally replenish them.

I'm repeatedly amazed by how much astronomy one can do right in the middle of the city. Dark-sky sites are far better, though.

Pamela

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I got "rain like stair-rods" from British mystery novels. 8-)

Good to know. ;-)

Daylilies are my failsafe, and some are pretty incredible. I have one that is a pretty indescrible mix of raspberry and orange sherbet, and another that is pale apricot with a nearly buff ruffled edged that catches diamonds after the rains. But the real hook is the attraction to beauty that is also practically indestructible. I don't have a faith but if I did it would circle around that.

Huh.

Huh. Divisions of these should really go to the park with the roses... and something... lavender, I think on the edges. Hmm. Maybe some of the Woodland Anemones too. Thyme, definitely thyme, and then maybe garlic chives.

Thanks. That'll work.

[pameladean]

I haven't seen this language recently, but for some years the White Flower Farm catalog remarked, "Move daylilies any time. They are the toughest plants we know."

I mostly have the orange ones with the deep-orange or outright-red stripes in the center. I've also got two that were given to me as "yellow" but in fact are huge fancy ruffled peach and yellow things. I did kill a real yellow one, with lovely fragrance, by siting it too near the bird feeder.

I love their leaves even when there is no flower in sight. David keeps reminding me that their buds are the lily buds of Chinese cuisine, but I can't bear to sacrifice a single bloom, even though they are so copious.

Pamela

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen this language recently, but for some years the White Flower Farm catalog remarked, "Move daylilies any time. They are the toughest plants we know."

You can although I've had a friend loose a bunch of passalongs by leaving them in a bucket of water for a week. Poor kid. Friend of the family breeds these so I have quite a few... I'm afraid a dream of mine is to actually get more space. I'm may parlay the park thing. Course I have to figure out how to really work with big space first.

Have you ever seen the Old House Gardens catalogue? They are really out of my price range but I enjoy looking.

I mostly have the orange ones with the deep-orange or outright-red stripes in the center. I've also got two that were given to me as "yellow" but in fact are huge fancy ruffled peach and yellow things. I did kill a real yellow one, with lovely fragrance, by siting it too near the bird feeder.

Huh. Is there sunflower seed in your mix? I think that most of the ones with scent are yellow (my memory's not the best so bear that in mind.)

I love their leaves even when there is no flower in sight. David keeps reminding me that their buds are the lily buds of Chinese cuisine, but I can't bear to sacrifice a single bloom, even though they are so copious.

I've never tried this either batterdipped and fried, I think. And the tubers are edible also. I like this about the roses too. I have bags of dried petals about for baths and popourri. And the hips you know. Complicated. Multi-level.

Cloud cover...

[porphyrin.livejournal.com]

Cloud cover is too thick to see ANYTHING.

Well, except clouds. I was happy to hear the thunder: four booms in quick succession.

Happier to hear the sound of rain on the roof and to see the lightning. This is much better than snow!

Re: Cloud cover...

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Even I will second that: this is much better than snow, for late March. To everything, turn turn turn, but it is thunder and lightning's turn. We didn't get them at all in the Bay Area. Bliss.

Re: Cloud cover...

[pameladean]

I've been in the Bay Area twice and seen two thunderstorms. Everybody remarked in awe at the first one, in September, so that must have been ususual. The other, in February, which scared me to death, was simply categorized as a "winter storm." When the Bay Bridge -- the Bay Bridge! It's RED! -- looks like the ghostly white ribs of a ruined cathedral because the rain is so fierce, that is one hell of a storm. I will admit, however, that the thunder and lightning didn't happen in the Bay Area, but in the Napa Valley.

Pamela

Re: Cloud cover...

[pameladean]

Agh! Agh! Bridge dyslexia. Golden Gate Bridge, I meant to say.

Pamela

Re: Cloud cover...

[pameladean]

Like Mrissa, I agree, FOR THE TIME OF YEAR. Rain in December is just wrong. In March, yes, that's dandy.

Pamela

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

I was walking home in that rain, from the Wedge -- a bit over sixteen blocks.

I would gladly have given my share of the rain to your tulips.

[pameladean]

Stupid bus strike.

I hope nothing non-dryable got too wet.

Pamela

Rain, rain, go away

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Only a couple of free newspapers, easily available.

[pyrzqxgl.livejournal.com]

After the hotter-than-many-summer-days weather earlier this month that ominously broke at least six heat records, the pouring rain finally returned to Santa Cruz this afternoon. No thunder and lightning, though.

[pameladean]

I almost made it to Santa Cruz in February, but not quite. We spent some time in the Santa Cruz Mountains, mostly gawping at trees.

Pamela

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Funny thing is, I was checking the weather map to see what would be happening yesterday in southern Michigan and saw that Minneapolis was getting pounded. Good to know the weather map doesn't lie. :)

[pameladean]

It only lies when you're not looking. 8-)

Pamela