Archive for the ‘Weather’ Category

Der Pinguin ist kaput

March 14, 2023

Today’s sad news, an outcome of dramatic high winds that battered and, eventually, smashed my plastic patio plant penguin, the 2-ft b&w sentinel that stood guard by my back door for some years, and before that watched over various very large potted plants.

I’m waiting for the winds to die down to assemble the pieces and put them in the trash.  Then, in a few days we’re supposed to have more rainstorms, floods, and mudslides.

It seems that I have only one photo of the decedent, one that doesn’t show them to best advantage.

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Posted in My life, Penguins, Weather | 1 Comment »

Pretty in pink 2018

February 5, 2018

First, the recent cymbidium report. Last week’s new orchid blooms were these pretty pink ones:

(#1)

I posted a photo of this plant last year, under the title “Pretty in pink”. But last year it had only a couple flower stems, while this year it has many; and last year it bloomed a full month later than this year.

At this point my plant report veers briefly into a weather report, after which I return to plants, in particular a remarkable succulent — sometimes called evil genius — that blooms at the beginning of a warm season, and is now flourishing in the Arizona Cactus Garden at Stanford.

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Posted in Language and plants, Names, Weather | 3 Comments »

Lake Cachuma

April 4, 2015

(About weather/climate, rather than language.)

Caught on local public radio a little while back, a story about Lake Cachuma (in Santa Barbara County), saying that the water level in the lake had dropped by 60 feet in a fairly short period of time, to only 20% of capacity. We’re in a serious drought, and it’s being accentuated by warming (which increases evaporation from the lake).

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