Monday, September 12, 2011

parley view parsnip

My Monday post about what is going on around my home.
Early morning storm front passing over Tucson, coming in from the South heading northeast. Thunder and lighting and some big fat rain drops. I am looking southeast in this photo. It smells so good, sage, dust and ozone, perfect !
Meanwhile on the West side of my home all was calm, blue skies and some early morning clouds. The monsoon season in Tucson is filled with inconsistency. Pouring rain in some area, hail possible and then bright blue skies in another. So Tucson and so fractured, Love it !

Our weather this year has been so strange. The much needed winter rains never came, just three small storms, we depend on these rains to replenish our water table. Then we had two evening of a hard freeze, I lost several fruit trees. So sad, no blooms this spring and no fruit this winter.
Now our summer monsoon looks like what we should have had in the winter.
An early morning rainstorm is just not a summer possibility. If you didn't know what month this is and looked out the window you would swear that it is winter.
Monsoon rain storms build up in the afternoon, Thunderheads, huge Cumulus clouds flat on the bottom billowing up in the sky to 25,000 feet high, looking like whipped cream, slowing moving over the Tucson Valley trailing a rain storm below them. Not thunder, lighting and rain in the morning.

That said, we desert people appreciate our rain whenever it comes. I have been known to go outside and stand in the rain or sit under my covered porch and enjoy the sounds and wonderful smells of the rain. That too is so Tucson !

wet. . . parsnip
music. . . From The Morning, Nick Drake.
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12 comments:

  1. Wonderful. I love the smell of rain on dry earth.

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  2. sarge always sits on the terrace in the rain too, he loves to hear it. always has!

    smiles, bee
    xoxoxoxoxo

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  3. The desert rain smell is one of my favorites! Saw the giant cloud of dust rolling into Phoenix last night on our way into a restaurant, could taste the dust in the in the air. It was gone by the time we got out and I don't think we had any rain. I'd love a good rain storm to roll in :)

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  4. 'So Tucson and so fractured' - lovely phrase, and super photographs.

    Quite excited here as we actually have some dramatic weather, as opposed to the usual dreich and drear rain all day, for a change. Tail-end of Hurricane Katia is upon us, my love is the sound of the high wind in the leaf-full trees. Positively Bronte!

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  5. Freezing weather in Tucson! I didn't think it was possible. I'm sorry about your fruit trees.

    Stormy skies always give me a strange feeling, I don't know whether it's pleasant or unpleasant!

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  6. "Sage, dust, and ozone" --oh I can smell it! We don't get much of that here but I've experienced it and it's wonderful. So strange about the weather this year. Our summer was so long in coming but it arrived in mid-August and it's hanging on. Everyone is rushing about trying to fit in all their summer time doings. Soon enough we'll have rain again.

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  7. Beautiful shots, Parsnip. We appear to be having your storm clouds here too....

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  8. I feel deprived. I haven't experienced that intriguing sounding smell. I'll have a quick sniff of my dried sage and imagine the rest.

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  9. We've had a stormy couple of days here in our desert. We're fully 20 degrees cooler than usual and have had some remarkable lights and sounds in the skies. Sunday I was leaving an event and got pelted with hail. It felt like a rock hitting my ear. Also got soaked to the skin. A person wouldn't believe how much a pair of size 6 jeans weighs when completely wet! If I hadn't been wearing a belt, I'd have lost my britches.

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  10. Hmmmm..... I love the sound of the thunder in the afternoon!

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  11. Oh yes, the smell of rain in the desert is wonderful! Looks like you have a great place to watch the sky.

    The horses on my blog belong to the forest service at Sabino Canyon.

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  12. I love the smell of the English countryside after summer rain, especially when it has been dry for days. It is such a fresh earthy smell of wet grass and clean air.

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