Weekly Observations
Jun 12 - 18, 2005
This week began as hot and dry as the last. Walking along Camino Real
in La Floresta, that beautiful divided boulevard where the horse rentals
are ... I noticed that nearly every tree had half a dozen shed insect
skins clutching the bark. These look to be cicada-nymph skins so I assume they
are the 'rainbirds' (as the gringos call them), chicharra or cigarras
in Spanish, that always serenade us just before the rains come.
Also noticed that the dodder (stringy orange-yellow parasitic plant
of the genus Cuscuta that infects trees in this area) had dried
out and looks dead on the trees in the center of boulevard, but on trees
that get watered regularly in nearby yards it is still the usual healthy
tangle. It will be interesting to see if the dodder revives when the trees
do, or if it has really died-out.
And on Wednesday, June 15th, at 9:40 PM, the rains came (at last!) A
good thunderstorm that lasted until after 11:00 PM and probably dropped
about an inch of rain. The next day was hot again, but not quite as hot
as it has been -- mid-90°s F. instead of upper 90°s F., and clouds
gathered again in the evening. It rained after midnight, and my make-shift
rain gauge (a bucket) caught about half an inch of rain. Friday night it
rained again, a couple small thunderstorms moved in around 8 PM, then it
rained lightly until sometime after we went to sleep at 1:00 AM. Saturday night
it just sprinkled.
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