Creosote and Sage

After three days of mild weather and overcast skies, it finally rained yesterday. I couldn't enjoy the rain as I was indoors most of the day, at the high school during the day and the college at night and the city library inbetween doing more research. But everytime I went outside to flit from one place to another, wafts of wet creosote and sage would tickle my nostrils.

I love desert rains. They make the mountains here come to life and everything in it sings, prances, darts, slithers, pounces with delight. Rains here bring out the "wild" in wildlife. The smell of creosote and sage is the kind of smell that Yankee Candle Company can't replicate. It's the kind of smell I yearned for when I lived back East.

We needed this rain.

The mountains were hidden from view these last few days, and if it weren't for the mild weather and the smell of creosote and sage, I could imagine being back in Chicagoland where I'd pretend low-lying cumulus clouds were snow-capped mountains. But I don't want to pretend today, as the high in Chicagoland today was only in the upper 20s. Brr.

I didn't get called in to sub today and that was fine with me as I've been exhausted lately. I actually slept in until 6:30am today and then went outside to garden between soft drizzles. I had been neglecting the back garden for too long. I did very little research today; I just enjoyed the rain, the dogs and the hidden mountains shrouded in fog.

Tall Fescue grass that I planted a month ago and placed under clear plastic (to increase the heat for germination and to keep the birds away) has germinated. So yes, planting grass in the high desert in the winter IS possible. In another five weeks I can start my vegetable garden again.

Tomorrow I have another Rain Water Harvesting class in town. Our neighbors across the street are finally moving into their new home in town and my Canon Rebel xTi replacement body arrived from Adorama (Best on-line source for camera gear). It's a refurbished model but it looks and performs like new. It looks so new I'm determined to keep it at home on hikes and to take my Canon A560 instead. I opted to replace the camera body after determining that the sensor inside had been damaged (no wonder my autofocus and flash weren't working!). I'll eventually get the camera fixed and cleaned and give it to my son before he moves to Boston next summer.