greenmother's Journal

Tomorrow it will be 113 degrees. The grass is bright yellow and in some places turning a pale cream color normally only seen in the last month of winter. The leaves are falling off of the trees like it is October and not the first days of August. Today I saw our first fire of the drought over near I-240 and Anderson Road.

Many plants that are watered are still baking in this relentless heat. Some local wildflowers are still managing to bloom. Most are or look like some sort of Sunflower.

And as I passed through central and Southern Oklahoma and Northern Texas, I was shocked. I knew the drought was bad, but to see so many dead and dying trees. Even Willows with their deep and complex root systems all yellowing and browning. The grass dry as winter.

We came back last night and we were on the heels of thunderstorms from north of Dallas to central Oklahoma. And wherever it had rained, instead of the smell of ozone and hot wet pavement, it instead smelled like wet straw in a barn. All that dead, dry grass was wet and making that sharp hay-like scent. It was really strange.

In my yard the trees are dropping their leaves, that are crinkled and brown. It looks like late October with all those leaves on the ground. It's surreal.

Knock on wood we get another night of rain. Some of the plants are trying to perk up a bit. The Vitex is looking a bit better. But it is extremely drought tolerant. Some of the roses look half dead, even the Rugosas. The Chaste Berry [or Vitex] is blooming again. I have never seen it do that twice in one season. I can only assume that the drought has caused this to happen. It's not a whole lot of blooms but some. Which is good. The bees and butterflies are all over this plant when it does bloom. If the temps stay cooler then I can plant some buckwheat and in 30 days have a patch of forage for my bees.

more than likely we have gotten about 2 inches of rain in the past 4 days or so. Trace amounts here and there, and then just shy of 2 inches the other night. Last night, no rain, but it was in the 70s all day long and all night, which was very nice. My vitex is blooming again, I spotted 19 new blooms on this hedge of bushes, which is really unusual. I hope they produce a whole lot of new blooms. The pollinators could really use the extra food. Even annuals like catnip are blooming again which doesn't normally happen if one doesn't pinch the blooms off prior to turning to seed.

Many of the trees look as if they will loose over half their leaves. The leaves are already too far gone and will keep falling. Our backyard is covered with maple leaves. The scrub oaks and pecans did not loose many of their leaves. They seem more drought resistant than the maple.

The grass is starting to green a bit again.

And we need all the rain we can get. I know we haven't even breeched the 3 inch mark, but at this point it's take what you can get!

I should have some cool pictures to upload when that happens. We are all very excited!

Why? I don't know but that means I cannot access photos recently taken or upload any new ones. :(

It's still hot, but temps have dropped a bit at night. Probably due to the loss of vegetation and it's getting to be about that time. But daytime temps are still very high 103-104 on most days. Still very few flowers, and some local wildlife is still MIA. Bullfrogs [that are probably dormant in the mud waiting for cooler temps, and very few night time bugs at all, which accounts for lack of swallows, bats, bullfrogs and many terrestrial toads.