Garden Update – Life in Michigan
Here’s a warning to unsuspecting folks who may blindly stumble into confrontation with me today: we lost power at 2:30am and I never went back to sleep. Probably best for others to keep their conversations short and friendly. No complaints today.
Why did we lose power? No idea. Bob and I got out of bed and went outside to look around. No rain. No storms. Nothing. Pulled up Consumer’s Energy, reported the outage, and checked out the map. All of Pennfield Township was out of power, from Capital to North, from Roosevelt to Mud Lake. Weird. They had it back on by 4:00am, but by that point, falling asleep was rather pointless. Later this morning (5am?) storms did roll in.
Anyhow, the rain means I won’t have to water tonight. It hasn’t rained in weeks, it seems. Everything has been so hot and dry. For the past few days, the forecast would call for storms. Yesterday on the way home from work, it did seem like something was building:
But then nothing would happen. And it was hot and quite humid.
I did water everything last night after dinner. Hadn’t seen the oriole in a day or two (maybe the heat keeps them away?) but he was there at the feeder briefly last night.
I keep saying it, but it seems this has been a rather strange year, weather-wise. Whatever, the flowers look fantastic (and the tomatoes and radishes are making good progress).
The outdoor stray-side kennel project started today. That’s right, it’s construction season at the shelter once again. They are starting by taking down the fencing, saving as much as they can. Then the heavy equipment will come in to level everything back there. It will be great when it’s done. It’s going to be a mess in the meanwhile.
Can you believe next week is already the 4th? Once again, I’ve saved my vacation to the very end and I’m off all next week. Rather looking forward to it. No major plans, other than to avoid the airport (next week is the Field of Flight Balloon Festival). Mom and I will be taking a day trip to Bowling Green to meet up with family. That should be a good time.
June 25, 2013
Hearing the air conditioning shut down was what woke me up. My guess is a local substation had some sort of meltdown due to the high energy use of the last few days. It was quite lovely outside at 3am, not exactly the kind of weather one expects during a large power outage. At least power was restored before getting ready for work. The lack of sleep is gonna make for a long day!
I’m glad to see the rain this morning. The last few predicted storms have dissipated over Lake Michigan and that’s not a pattern I like to see repeated too often. I guess it’s matter of perspective but it seems to me spring weather has been fairly normal in southern Michigan this year. Temps slowly ramped up over the course of months, rain has been plentiful without too much flooding and the fireflies returned right on schedule. Speaking of fireflies, I’m always in awe of their bioluminescence displays. We were treated to one of the first shows of the year last weekend when we went for an evening walk to watch the space station fly by. Fireflies are evidence that the universe is truly a wondrous place. Anyway, back to the weather, the mild spring has clearly demonstrated that all the hoo-ha about climate change was wrong. The weather’s fine where I’m standing.
Your garden has done beautifully this year! Once again you’ve enhanced our home life by creating a delightful natural habitat that greets us each time we enter or leave the house. I don’t tell you enough how much I enjoy the garden.
I’m with you on the plans for the 4th. I don’t mean to be a killjoy but how many times can you attend something like the balloon championships before the whole affair becomes more of a log jam than something to look forward to. I wonder if residents of Pamplona ever dread the annual running with the bulls? Are there any long time residents that think my god, I just want to go pick up a bag of pickles and have a cup of tea without the “fun” of a week long stampede?