Ironically, then, a month of extremes will end up with an average temperature around 55 degrees, within a few tenths of normal levels. via SciGuy: Houston Chronicle.
The first half of last month was the coldest on record in the last century. While the last half is the second warmest on record. Nothing like living through the extremes to end up just average…Yesterday, we topped 80° in the protected yard out back…Again.
Today, after a half a month of early summer temperatures, the sun rose over a gorgeous spring morning. The temperature has moderated all the way down to 50°. For the first time in a long time I have the back door open with the cool morning air flowing into the house. Birdsong is coming in with the cool fresh air…Even they seem happier with the spring-like day we are being blessed with.
Single Iris Bloom
The iris above grows in a bed around a crepe myrtle behind our house. Each spring it surprises us with it’s vibrant colors before any other plants begin to bloom. I noticed it this past weekend as it brought the colors of the sky down to our dreary garden.
Before we modernized this old house with new plumbing a few years back, our kitchen sink drained into a ditch on the border of our property. Many years ago as I drove home to Pasadena (before we moved to Alvin) I came across a ditch filled with Louisiana Iris’s. I stopped and pulled up a few and planted them in the front bed of our new home. They flourished and I shared a few with my Mom. Mom has a reason to love Iris’s, her mother loved them enough to name my mom Iris.
When we moved to the country I didn’t have the foresight to dig any up to bring out here but, shortly after we moved in my Mom was clearing a bed and gave me a box full of old clumps. I threw a few of them into the kitchen ditch where they thrived in the constant moisture. For years they were a mass of blue each spring. They continued to put on a show for a while after the kitchen sink quit watering them on a daily basis. But…A few years of drought did them in. Now that spot in our landscape is just a low spot that holds water when we have a heavy rain…This little iris is all that is left of it’s wilder, more aggressive cousins from years past.
Time for my second cup of coffee….
