The theme: drought

Look what the heat, drought, and a flea beetle infestation have done to our kale crop. I guess it's not a good idea to plant Red Russian Kale, which must love cold weather, in our climate. We are still hoping that the roots of the kale will send up new growth when and if we ever get any rain.

The back yard will take a while to recover. We are being told or at least asked not to water any plants, not to wash cars, not to run sprinklers. We've never watered much anyway, except for the vegetable garden and potted plants.

Here's Tasha on one of our walks in the vineyard. By the way, under AOC rules in France, vineyards can't ever be watered or irrigated. The vines have deep roots, so they stay green. Sometimes the bunches of grapes on them get sunburned, however.

Here's what happens when you have to quit watering potted plants. These little "hens and chicks" are very drought-tolerant and hardy. They will survive. Anyway, I have so many of them...

I took this picture not at high noon, not at sunset, but at sunrise a couple of days ago. The sun has been blazing hot for weeks and weeks now. And we've had no significant rain since the first half of June. There are tentative predictions that we might get a little bit of rain in two or three days.