Just More Complaining, Plus Photos

I will not be giving an update on the vegetable garden today. I went out there with such high hopes, expecting to find bright green leaves and flowers and fruit weighing down the vines after the wonderful inch of rain. Instead, I found mosquitoes. Really? I have to put up with stinging scorpions, poisonous spiders, poisonous snakes, poisonous lizards, killer molds, infectious soil fungi, pollution, drought, and ethically retarded politicians. Now I have to deal with mosquitoes too? So unfair.

Plus, the rain is over already. 



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I didn’t even get around to pulling out my purple rain boots. Since it was so hot, we just splashed around in flip-flops.  

I looked around for any signs that the rain helped us out. Some of the native plants responded cautiously.  

The Texas Ranger (Leucophyllum frutescens) was willing to put out a few of its brilliant purple flowers, but not the full display, perhaps sensing that that the rainstorm was already coming to an end.

I initially thought these bright green seedlings were baby mesquites, since the trees drop hundreds of these long, tan pods full of seeds.

However, it turns out that mesquite seeds need to be digested by animals before they can germinate.

It's more likely that the little green plantlets are actually from the seeds of a Baja Red Fairy Duster (Calliandra californica).  

The seed pods of this unusual plant pop open and the seeds fly out in all directions, with the result that I now have six of them after only planting one. It's a favorite of bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds.

I tried to get some shots of one my little hummingbird friends, but they were blurry as usual. I like to think he was going after the mosquitoes. They do eat a lot of bugs in flight, as well as snatching them from leaves and spiderwebs.   

Of course my two guardians followed me closely, ever alert to danger (or snacks).

So that's it. Of course we still have August, which is the traditional month for rain, so I will try to remain optimistic.

Katrina

Cargo Shorts

car·go noun \ˈkär-(ˌ)gō\
Definition: the goods or merchandise conveyed in a ship, airplane, or vehicle : freight
Origin: Spanish, load, charge, from cargar to load, from Late Latin carricare
First Known Use: 1657
Synonyms: burden, load, draft, freight, haul, lading, loading, payload, weight

My heavy-duty, garden-worthy, cargo shorts are finished.

I probably won’t be hauling freight in them, but they should be able to take a beating in the garden. The fabric is a piece of olive stretch twill I picked up somewhere. It has fade marks along the folds and a few flaws, but for this project, looks definitely don’t matter.

On the other hand, durability is important, so the seams are flat-felled, the pockets are topstitched and edge-stitched, and I used heavy-duty snaps instead of buttons.

I cut the shorts length as in View A but added the side leg pockets and omitted the cuff. I also left off the belt loops. The back is plain with no pockets as in View C above, although you could easily put a patch pocket or another cargo pocket there.

The fabric was kind of a pain because it was so spongy and thick. I had to use binder clips to squash the mitered pocket corners flat. Eventually they got flat but not very square. 

I decided that two layers of twill would make the flaps and facings too thick, so I used some cotton scraps for facings.

I tried three different-sized hole punches and an awl to create a hole for the snaps before I remembered I had the Crop-A-Dile. It punched the perfect hole through all the layers so I could slip the snap in and hammer it together.

Lots of tools required (My tools. That hammer is not allowed to leave my room.)

I’m pleased with the shorts but don’t plan to make another pair in the foreseeable future. Not sure whether it was the amount of time spent staring at olive drab or the tiresome fiddling with layers of stubborn fabric, but I’ve lost my interest in utility clothing for a while!

Time to venture outside and see if any of the plants are still alive.

Katrina

Propitious Precipitation

Good news! The disappearance of our desert city has been postponed for at least another week. We were just moments away from drying up and blowing away with the next dust storm, but our so-called rainy season came through with actual rain this year. There have been so many years when we have waited and waited, but not gotten more than a few drops. Last night we went over one inch for the year to date rainfall, which is cause for celebration.

As usual, I was transfixed by the sounds and smells created by the water. It’s so rare to see these sights that I took some photos to remind myself next time we go into an eight-month (or three-year) dry spell.

Water spilling off the roof

The temperatures have only dropped slightly, to around 100 (38 C), but the rain itself is cool and there is the psychological cooling effect of the gray clouds above rather than the burning sun. It’s a nice break for us.

Raindrop patterns in the pool

While the standard definition of a desert is an arid place than receives less than 10 inches of rain per year, the Sonoran Desert has a wide geographic range and can receive between 3 and 15 inches depending on the altitude, latitude, proximity of mountains, oceans, and other features.

Phoenix is located in a section of the desert called the Lower Colorado River Valley. While this lovely name conjures images of verdant meadows with birds chirping in willow trees as the river rushes by, the reality is that it is second only to Death Valley as the hottest, driest place in North America.

I hope we’ll get to enjoy rain for the rest of July and throughout August. It would be a big help to the desert wildlife and plants, as well as the humans. Maybe the waterlogged citizens of England can send their rain our way!

Katrina

Serving Up Delicious Spam

Fellow bloggers, do you ever read your spam comments? Some of mine are suitable for framing. 


“I am not much of an internet reader to be honest.”

• That's okay, as long as you keep up with the important stuff.

“I am no longer certain where you are getting your info.”

• It implies that at some point he/she was certain where I was getting my info.

“Electricity strolling, jogging, operating, and leaping are large influence actions.”

• This is definitely a topic for a future blog post.

“That is good to know they are like that, many a time you get no response to these problems with other sites.”

• Indeed.

“Tiffany Jewelry is a day-to-day offering, and was developed in and amongst the fertile lands of what is acknowledged nowadays as Pakistan.”

• This is the kind of priceless insider information that makes blogging worthwhile.

“When these were put on, the bride turned to the groom and began laughing at how he looked.”

• I wish I had been there.

“The posts are very short for novices. May you please prolong them from subsequent time?”

• An historic moment: the first time anyone has ever asked me to write more rather than less. 

 “My husband and I are currently following the Fat Loss 4 Idiots Diet.”

• Next you can try the Guaranteed Six-Figure Income 4 Slackers Plan.

“Your website is excellent but with images and clips, this website could be one of the greatest in its field.” 

• I can reach for the stars! 

 “The best and stylish purses are usually in great need amongst all teams of ladies.”

• Forget the jerseys, get team purses! 

 “That is really fascinating. You’re an excessively skilled blogger.”

• Hear that, Napoleon Dynamite? I’ve got skills. Excessive  skills.

 Oh, the joy that spam can bring.

 

Have you had any inspiring spam recently?

 

Katrina