20 July 03

Four Fat Drops

jackrabbit1.jpg It’s been hot over the weekend, hot enough almost to persuade us to just give it up with the self-righteousness and turn on the airconditioning… But the blue mud dauber wasps are living in the outdoor fan unit, hopefully polishing off the black widows, and we don’t want to interrupt them. We sneak into movie theatres to see films that are far too young for us in an attempt to keep cool. (Yesterday we finally saw Finding Nemo.)

The predicted thunderstorm never really happened-we got a few huge drops (cuatro gotas gordas, in Spanish) which never amount to anything, don’t cool the place down, and certainly don’t get rid of the dust that blows off the new-plouged fields. One crop’s done, another needs to go in. We saw our first tomato truck yesterday-barrelling down the road with an articulated load of romas. The ones on the bottom inevitably get flattened, despite being bred not to, and cover the roads in a red film which is lethal come the first rain.

Above are a jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) and Western scrub-jay (Aphelocoma californica) through our kitchen window doing their best to stay out of the heat.

Posted by at 05:42 PM in Nature and Place | Link |
  1. i didn’t even see ‘una gota’..... ;-) you were lucky to see ‘cuatro’! i promised myself i wouldn’t complaint about the weather, but it is too darn hot! uff!!

    — Fernanda    20. July 2003, 18:55    Link
  2. Un poco mas de cuatro gotas gordas at 3 a.m. this morning. Did the skies open, albeit briefly, over your way? Here in our corner of Davis, we were awakened to a torrent and rushed out to put away some tools and grout that have been out for a tiling project. As soon as all was inside, everything stopped: the moon remained large and calm and night prevailed as if nothing had happened. I thought I was in a Michigan summer shower for a moment.

    — virginia    21. July 2003, 05:01    Link
  3. I love the tomato truck!

    We had a rumbler here last night – the kind of thunderstorm that never really breaks loose into crashes, but goes on and on in deep waves of rumbling sound. This morning the hollyhocks and mallow are pretty flat, but between some sun and some twine we’ll get everything back to more-or-less vertical.

    You know, we almost never see rabbits here anymore. I know some of this is habitat destruction, but I also wonder if there’s been a decline in population for other reasons.

    — beth    22. July 2003, 08:22    Link
  4. Oh! Just realised I’m not looking at a butterfly! We are lucky to have a cooling breeze here and a couple of overcast days. It’s consistently hot here this summer. For England! Hardly any rain. A flash or two of lightning – like your cuatro gotas gordas – not amounting to much!

    — Coup de Vent    22. July 2003, 08:25    Link

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