How'd It Get to Be August So Soon?

Pastures are toasted, there have been cigarette fires on the median strips, and our "lawn" is a brown dust bowl. Apparently, we've skipped May, June, and July, opted not to pass "Go," and landed straight in August.

BAD climate! Naughty, naughty climate!

Here's NOAA's assessment of our current state of drought (we're at the pink cross of dismay, a hop, skip, and a jump away from the maroon tide of doom):



And thanks to that bitch La Niña, it doesn't look like things are going to improve till fall at the earliest.

But it is not all dust and ashes here at Chez M. This picture nicely captures a number of new developments, positive and otherwise.

1. This is one of the few blooming roses left in the yard, newcomer 'Hot Cocoa,' a modern grandiflora that is a weird nifty combination of orange, pink, brown, and purple.
2. We just added some Mexican feathergrass to the grass-n-roses bed.
3. One of our lawn's many dead patches. It's so dead in the back yard that bare dirt is exposed.
4. We really need to buy a gate to hide the working area of the yard. Ah, money. Why aren't you made of rubber?
5. We added some more metal edging to the grass-n-roses bed, so it's looking slightly less disreputable. Still need about 11 more pieces :-(
6. Lotus 'Mrs. Perry D. Slocum' is back! Yay lotus!
7. New dwarf lotus 'Momo Botan' is having a rather slow start. Hang in there, little buddy.
8. We got the waterfall going! We need a bigger pump! And we need to hide the tubing!
9. Half the lights around the pond stopped working, and installing new light bulbs doesn't help. WTF??

Here's a closeup of 'Hot Cocoa'--the color's not exactly right, but you can kind of get the idea.

A couple more newbie roses: 'Red Fountain' and 'Wedding Cake.' And the watering system that gives them hope of survival despite La Niña.


The full list of new roses is:

1. Puerto Rico
2. Marchesa Bochella
3. Zepherine Drouhin
4. Mystery whitish rose with small flowers
5. Green rose
6. Wedding Cake
7. Hot Cocoa
8. Perle d'Or
9. Chestnut rose

Also on the list of good things, it's Crinum powellii season. We've got them all over the place, and they're helping to fill in the void left at the end of Peak Rose. Here they're trying to eat our back stoop.