Yesterday morning an American friend who lives on the other side of Saint-Aignan from us dropped by and brought us the box of garden produce that you see above. She and her husband are master gardeners. They're leaving for a trip to Spain and Portugal tomorrow, and thought we'd enjoy the vegetables. And we will.
In the afternoon, we saw on the weather radar sites on the web that there was a storm cell south of us, moving toward the north. We started hearing thunder but saw no lightning. Just when I said to Walt that I thought the storm had passed by us on the northeast, the botton dropped out. We had 30 or more minutes of heavy rain. We need it, as you know. We sat out on the deck enjoying it until the wind shifted and we started getting wet. You can see the rain falling in the middle picture above if you enlarge it. When it was over we caught sight of the rainbow in the picture on the right.
A couple of hours later,we saw the sunset above, out over the vineyard. I'm so glad August is over and that September is treating us and the landscape better... even though it's been hot (close to 90F) for the past two or three days.
Always enjoy your photography. That is a nice gift from the garden box of veggies your friends so thoughtfully dropped off to you. I have not been gifted a single tomato, or anything for that matter, from friends who faithfully maintain vegetable gardens year after year. I overheard the mailman stay that he had a bountiful harvest of green peppers but tomatos had slipt open from the high temperatures . He was also explaining that he had never seen so many chili peppers and habeneros he makes salsa from. Maybe he will gift some of his regulars who remember him at Christmas with a gift jar of his salsa?. We had torrential rains here a few days ago, 6 inches in 3 hours of rain and a total of 9 inches in the total 12 hours it rained. There were a lot of flooded basements and cellars. Again, while eavesdropping, I heard the Roto Rooter man say roots were the a problem. It seems the trees send out roots that enter even the most minute cracks in the old vitrified clay sewer tiles forcing them to widen the cracks. He removed a "rope" of fine roots that came from a 100 year old oak tree. The rope measured 48 feet long and 6 inches around and it was another 20 feet to the were the feeder roots started from the old oak tree. Have you had any further storm water backups at your Casa? I enjoy your tales of grape growing and harvesting. On my heritage farm in Kentucky we will soon be harvesting 400 acres of soy beans and 600 acres of corn. I am hoping for a little more rain for what might possibly be a record harvest of bushels per acre. The tobacco has required irrigation from the river and my yield my be better than the average farm but the cost of labor is going to high when we do the final accounting. My farm has never contracted with the big buyers. We always sell at the open market auctions and take our chances with the auctions in February. Ken, you and Walt take care and be mindful of your health. Above all be happy!! Adieu.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Woody. Roots are probably causing the blockage in the pipe that is supposed to take rainwater from the roof away from the house. So far Walt hasn't manage to get the plumber's snake to break through the blockage. I'm thinking of pouring some hydrochloric acid down there. If roots are the problem, maybe the acid will dissolve them.
DeleteWow, you could certainly see the rain in the rain photo! We enjoy sitting on the (covered) deck when it rains hard like this, too.
ReplyDeleteThose are lovely veggies. The rain was neat and the rainbow made for a beautiful photo.
ReplyDeleteThanks E.
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