We Have Rain! and Lots of Produce, too.

It has been raining since yesterday.  We should get at least 2 inches by the time the storm moves out on Sunday.  This is a very warm rain for February, it was 58 at 6:00 AM.  Hoping we don't have any flooding or mudslides!

I took the photos below on Wednesday.  Also picked a big batch of lettuces and onions before the rain started yesterday.  Lots of flowers blooming which I added to my salad.

Calendula

for my salad, Calendula, Nasturtiums, Oxalis and Salad Burnet

Arugula

2nd planting of Lacinato Kale

one of several Giant Mustard

Speckles Lettuce, one of our favorites this year.

Loquat tree is loaded with fruit, these should be ready in May.

Raised bed planted with lacinato kale, ruby and bright lights swiss chard.  Seedling of radish, collard greens, beets and carrots.

Tatsoi, beets and collard green sprouts (I think)

More Speckles lettuce and Lolla Rossa lettuce

Leaf lettuce that bolted in the heat. I will let this go to seed head and then save the seeds.

More Tatsoi, most have shot up seed heads so I may need to plant out more seedlings now that the rains have come. 

Onions and swiss chard I pulled from the bed along the driveway

Little Gem Romaine and Lolla Rossa lettuce from the bed along the driveway

Misty Morning Rainy Day

We have a nice light rain falling.  Fall comes late in Southern California, when most of the US are enjoying the changing leaf color, we are just beginning to see them here.  Our Liquid Amber trees are starting to show the reds and yellows on the leaves.  I looked outside early this morning and they are falling with the light rain, covering the PATIO with a soft, golden carpet.  It's a good day for soup!

Joyful Rain

The clouds rejoice, merrily they pour

The waves teem, to meet the shore

Trees sway, with the whistling wind,

Birds dance, they happily sing

Pitter-patter, on the roof,

Clitter-clatter, the horse's hoof

The gush that flows down the drain,

comes clad in her blue gown, Rain

Full of joy, her mood, upbeat

Watching her, it's just a treat

Coming along, with a bouncy gait

Like she had with us a date

In our hearts she rings a bell

Whose story she brings to tell

We are happy, the mood is gay,

All our gloom, lost today

Our worries, with the rain flow

Our lives fill, with a fain glow

O Rain, may you bring Joy always

May your memories enliven our days

Vishnu Sampoorn

"Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own." William Wordsworth

This line came to mind when I walked around the garden yesterday.  It was cold and wet to me, but so many of my plants looked happy.  The raised bed winter veggie gardens are thriving. I did need to cover them with plastic one night last week as the forecast was for 32 degrees; so very cold for us.  I am happy to report that it only went down to 34! Our area rarely has a temperature below 40 in the winter months and most nights range 42 and higher.

Mother nature on a rainy day....

Portulacaria afra (small leaf jade) bent by the wind and heavy rainfall.

Euryops chrysanthemoides

Our rose arbor blew down one day last week.  This is the second rose arbor I have lost to wind in this location. I think it is time for a new location.

Huddling together to keep warm on the Mexican patio.

Hiding out under the eaves. An Aloe plicatilis (Fan Aloe) and Aloe Vera, the medicinal plant we all use when injured in the garden.   Also a  Cleistocactus winteri forma cristata (the funny looking cacti in the back, left) and a Senecio rowleyanus (String of Pearls).

More huddling for warmth. Some of my geraniums and a few more succulents; a Plumeria, too.  I have two Christmas cacti that have been blooming since early November, that's one on the table with the pink buds.

Borage plant looking very happy. But..

the succulents are having a tough time.

Leaves have all fallen from the Liquid Amber Trees.

Mushrooms growing on an old Silver Dollar Eucalyptus stump.

One of four raised veggie beds.  This one includes green onions, red onions, yellow onions, sorrel, mesclun mix.

This bed has onions again, watercress, spinach, leaf lettuce, radicchio, oak leaf lettuce and endive.

Beets, Swiss Chard red and green and also Bright Lights chard

This bed of onions really got pounded with the rain.

That's it for me, my feet are getting wet, I am going inside!  Note to self...do not wear your leather Nike shoes on a rainy day in the garden.