Blessings

Last night it rained, so wonderful.  It looked like it was going to clear up today, so we went for a drive.  After about an hour, it started raining again!  Yippee!  I took these photos from car in the parking lot of Goodwin's, a market in Crestline. 

On my computer I could see the rain in this photo and the one below.  I hope you can, too.  AND...it  snowed today!!!  Not enough to stick, but enough for me to get the first snow of the season on my face and hands.  Beautiful autumn leaves, the forest soaked by rain, and a tiny bit of snow.  Blessings, so many blessings.

A Quote For Monday

"The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.  You go to bed in one kind of world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?"  J. B. Priestly

We got a dusting of snow day/night before yesterday.  It's gone now, but the weather people are predicting a little more for this Wednesday.  I wonder if we'll ever have a real snowstorm (three or four feet over a couple of days) again.  We used to get those kind of storms three or four times a winter, in between snowfalls of just a couple of inches.  I miss them.

Keeping Promises

This storm really kept its promises!  We got over six inches of rain, which made the creek very happy.  If the storms will keep coming like this, soon those rocks will be under water and the lakes will fill back up.  This was a typical Southern California storm: Howling gale force winds and rain coming down in buckets in a very short period of time.

Sadly, in some areas where there were fires in the previous five years, there were mudslides and some homes were damaged.  Thankfully, no one was hurt.

It's snowing here now. :) :) :)  It's supposed to snow lightly all night, but I don't know if it will last through tomorrow since it's supposed to be partly sunny with a high of 40 F.  If I get up early enough, I'll try to get some photos. 

Five hundred feet up the mountain in Big Bear, six inches of fresh powder fell, which is great for the ski resort and the merchants of Big Bear.  We mountain folk depend on tourists and skiers to keep our economy healthy.  These past three years of drought have made our economy pretty unhealthy and, more importantly to me, the forest is really suffering from the dry conditions.  So, here's hoping that we get lots more rain and snow this winter!

(Added at11:05 p.m. - I was just watching the news.  There was a tornado in
South Los Angeles!!!  Not a big one, thank goodness, but it did some damage.  Too weird...)

A Quote for Monday

"November comes and November goes,
With the last red berries and the first white snows. 
With night coming early and dawn coming late,
And ice in the bucket and frost by the gate.
The fires burn and the kettles sing,
And earth sinks to rest until next Spring."  Clyde Watson, from "Father Fox's Penny Rhymes"
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A few days ago we had our first snow.  It was just a dusting, melting quickly and then turning to rain.  We got one and a quarter inches of rain!  But today?  Today it's back to climate change insanity.  It's cold, but very dry, with high winds and extremely low humidity.  That puts us at high risk for wildfires, so all of Southern California is under a Red Flag Warning. 

During the rain/snow storm I checked the humidity levels: Even though it was pouring down rain in buckets, the humidity was only 82 percent!  Apparently, when it's been so dry for so long, it takes an extended period of wet weather to bring the humidity up to 100 percent.

I'm still putting up Christmas decorations, trying like mad to get it all done before Thanksgiving.  Well, except for the dining room; I leave the autumn things up in there until after Thanksgiving dinner is over.  It just feels strange to me to eat Thanksgiving food from Christmas plates in a room that's decorated for Christmas.  I'll try and post some pictures of how the decorating is coming along tomorrow...if I haven't fallen off the ladder!  It seems like the older I get, the higher and more wobbly the ladder is, even though the ladder hasn't changed...