In Dry Spots And Drizzle

It was not raining when I woke up. That was a surprise. The plan was for rain all day with a flood warning. The radar did indicate an imminent arrival. There wasn't much time for me to be nice before the mail was delivered.

I got busy moving wheelbarrow loads gravel all the way up to the top of my driveway to fill in the deep rut in front of my mailbox. A couple of years ago I cemented in the rut that was forming where my gravel driveway met the road. The torrent of water that left the road in heavy rains at my driveway then proceeded to dig a hole in front of the mailbox with an auto assist no doubt.

All that water dug a trench about twenty feet long in front of the mailbox before hopping back on the highway, running eighty feet down the road then exiting again where it dug a big gully below my property line. Not my gully. I didn't care.

I do hope all that gravel stays put. Some adjustments were made to aid that possibility.

Water is the real problem. The decrepit highway has lost any pitch it once had. Add in a snowplow building grit and gravel berms along the edges every winter and escape routes for water become concentrated.

I did some trenching to direct water from above into the culvert under my driveway and cut a big drain hole in the dirt berm below the fence by the mailbox. That could run a significantly larger amount of water through the garden. In hard downpours, I already had a river running from the culvert beneath the driveway.

We are under a flood warning. I will find out soon enough if the trenching worked and if the gravel will stay put. I did get a thank you note from the mail carrier. That makes me less annoyed by the whole thing.

I was one load short of satisfaction when the rain began. Hours later it tapered down to a drizzle. I added one more wheelbarrow full and went for a short stroll in the garden.

My first planted Yucca filamentosa are getting big. They don't get taller, just fuller.

The cracked pots become more of a focal point in the barren time. This slow wet descent into winter has been very good for the grasses. They are standing tall and bleaching out nicely.

I still have green in the Great Lawn and some of the paths to go with the color from the evergreens of the under garden.

The winter leaf of the native orchid, Putty Root, Aplectrum hyemale has arrived. This orchid is very abundant in the wild cultivated gardens. It blooms in mid-summer after the leaf has withered away making it a bit hard to find in the Lush. I know where to look now.

One heiau becoming is outlined in the leaf litter.

Creation waits for the first defining snow. All that moss growing on the rocks has the effect of absorbing it into what little vegetation remains in the winter. It is a natural process I am trying to make peace with. I don't want Creation to disappear into a future discovery until after I am gone.