Weather... well, weird

Okay, the weird weather just continues, unrelenting. Since July we have had practically no rain. The current severe dry spell has come along after nearly continuous rains through April, May, June, and July. For all of August, we got 2 mm of precip. That's hardly a trace — less than a tenth of an inch.

 Sunset, Tuesday 04 Sept. 2012, at Saint-Aignan

I have to admit that the dry weather has been great for our tomato crop. A lot of the first tomatoes were misshapen, blemished, or even diseased. But the later ones have been beautiful. We now have enough already picked to make another big batch of sauce for the winter. And the tomato plants are still loaded down with fruit. The beans have nearly quit producing, but the squash plants look fantastic.

Rhubarb, collard greens, Swiss chard, and basil in the garden in September —
weeds are not a problem given the dry conditions.

Anyway, when will the weather become "normal" again? A few days of sun (not weeks but days) and then a few days of rain (not weeks or months, but days) would be a nice pattern, and would be normal for this climate. But what is normal any more? September has been bone dry so far.

I got the other rosemary bush pruned back.

Weather reports say we are supposed to have temperatures climbing into the mid-80s F over the next four or five days (that's between 28 and 30 ºC). And no moisture. Luckily, Walt is really diligent when it comes to watering the garden. The grass in the back yard is completely parched, but we've never watered that. It will come back next spring, if we are lucky.