\nDateline: 2006<\/strong>
\nCloud cover most of the week kept highs in the tolerable low 90s and provided occasional scattered showers. The result was very muggy. However, I’m thankful that it wasn’t as hot as last year given that on Thursday (7\/6) we were without electricity the entire day while our service box and meter were being changed over to a new system.<\/p>\n
An electrical storm competed with fireworks but didn’t rain them out. We had light rain for a few minutes almost every day this week. It wasn’t the drenching we needed but it was refreshing and it filled up my rain barrels. I didn’t resort to the hosepipe once.<\/p>\n
Almost nothing is flowering–only the plumbago, the cleome, the wild ruellia, and the Turk’s cap. None of them make much of a floral impact. At least the garden looks green for the moment. I know that<\/strong> won’t last long.<\/p>\n First flower: Malva sylvestris ‘Zebrina’ (7\/2). The garden, if it can be called that, is a bit of a disaster right now. What isn’t shrivelled brown is sunburned. The squirrels keep stealing the tomatoes. (This is the first year they’ve ever done it; I think they’re thirsty.) The only thing that’s blooming is the plumbago and the Tecoma stans (just barely).<\/p>\n Although I often compare our summers to winters in the north, the major difference is that the plants don’t go dormant to prepare. They just get zapped. Last year at this time we had an unusual amount of rain and I returned to a jungle. This year I’ve returned to a desert…except that the humidity is 33%. On the bright side, we seem to have less mosquitoes than usual.<\/p>\n
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\nDateline: 2005<\/strong>
\n104! Today’s high breaks the 1956 record of 102 degrees. Last week I was wandering about San Francisco in a sweater and a windbreaker and not missing Austin one single bit.<\/p>\n
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