Fall color at my house—and real rain, finally!
While some areas of Davis have quite a bit of fall color—especially the older neighborhoods downtown with their majestic trees—there isn’t much at our house. But I did find a few pops of color over the weekend. It’s a good thing I took these photos then, because the series of storms that began on Sunday has blown a lot of these leaves away.
Bradford pear (Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’) across the street
Leaves from our own Bradford pear on our roof
Leaves from our own Bradford pear on our roof
Hosta ‘Climax’ turning chromium yellow
‘Sunstream’ ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba ‘Sunstream’) and Daphne odora ‘Maejima’
Cut leaf emperor oak (Quercus dentata ‘Pinnatifida’)
Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis), the only tree in our backyard that has real fall color
Chinese pistache (Pistacia chinensis)
Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) showing a bit of fall color as well although it’s more muted
Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)
Japanese maple leaves collecting on shade sails
Japanese maple leaves collecting on shade sails
Japanese maple leaves collecting on shade sails
The real news, however, is that we have finally had a few decent rain storms. They are typical of the Pineapple Express phenomenon that characterizes many of our winters: warm but wet storms originating from the Hawaiian Islands. These storms were conspicuously absent the last two winters, which led to the severe drought we’re currently in.
It’s much too early to say whether this marks a turnaround, but this morning we’ve had several proverbial gullywashers.
Looking across the street
The soil isn’t able to absorb so much rain so quickly
Too much rain for the gutters to handle
The sycamore next door has shed even more leaves since my last post. For now they’re staying put on our neighbor’s side.
So much rain in such a short period, that the storm drains can’t keep up, causing water to puddle everywhere.
All the while, the temperatures are in the high 50s and low 60s.
This is what early winter should be here in the Sacramento Valley!
It's been awhile since I've seen photos of your garden soaked like that Gerhard. Precious rain, and decent amount too has finally arrived there and that's good :) love the Acer leaves on the sail!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're getting rain, just hope it doesn't get too carried away and start doing damage. So how do you clean your shade sails? I'd imagine they can collect a lot of tree litter, dust, etc...
ReplyDeleteDon't start him thinking about cleaning the sails Loree -- they look great with the leaves on them! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the "normal" rain back for you, but aren't there some of your plants that you worry about with this much rain? I seem to remember you had some that really want to stay dry...
All that winter rain and the temperatures "in the high 50s and low 60s". I'm quite jealous. 572 miles to the north its raining too and a whopping 39˚right now.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not bitter.
I'm happy that you finally got some rain and hope that this is the end of your drought! The shots from under the shade sail with the maple leaves on top look like beautiful wallpaper!
ReplyDelete