First rain in six months

For once the weather forecast was right. It started to rain in the middle of the night—for the first time in six months—and the world looked different when I got up this morning: cleaner, greener and somehow more vibrant than yesterday. I’m not sure how long this much awaited blessing of the clouds will last (it’s sunny right now and the sky is back to our default blue) but at least the plants in our garden look less dusty and a bit perkier, too.

All the photos below were taken this morning when everything was still wet.

View of the northeast corner of the backyard from my home office window

Backyard patio

Tropical bed in the front yard

Flagstone path from the driveway to the front door. The culms of the Alphonse Karr bamboo on the right were so heavy with moisture that I had to duck to walk through.

The ornamental grasses along the sidewalk in front of the house were almost horizontal

Miscanthus sinensis ‘Dixieland’

Pennisetum orientale ‘Karly Rose’

Hammock frame in the backyard. Colors, especially greens and browns, were particularly vibrant.

Leaves from the bay trees

Farfugium japonicum ‘Argenteum’

Abutilon ‘Souvenir de Bonn’

Jade plant (Crassula ovata) getting ready to bloom

Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’

Agave ghiesbreghtii

My rotting spiral aloe (Aloe polyphylla). See this post for more detail. The purple stain in the center looks almost alien.

Washington navel oranges

Agave funkiana ‘Blue Haze’

Aloe capitata var. quartziticola. Notice the dust that has washed off the leaves.

Aloe maculata × cameronii

Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’

Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’

I was surprised to see how much it had rained overnight

Our new 55-gallon rain barrel is almost half full—that should be enough for hand watering until the next rain storm