A Drink Of Water

That's all they wanted.

And the blue asters have begun to open in numbers.

Soon all the remaining colors will be mixed with blue.

It was a stingy drink, but it was enough. Sadly it looks like another full week of dry is in store. I hope it was enough to last until the next drink comes along.

Before Blessed Rain

I woke up to cloudy and a promising diagnosis. Will today be the day? Will it finally rain?

Cloudy makes for good picture taking of the Tall Flower Meadow waiting the arrival of a wave of blue asters.

The asters have been arriving in a state of dry hesitation, a few here and there, others looking parched to forget it dead brown.

Joe Pye is fading. That is to be expected no matter the moisture conditions. The fade works well with the blue.

Will it rain enough for the asters to rehydrate and finish the show?

I wait as the clouds roll by.

First there was mist.

Sprinkles followed. I will be needing more than that. It is still bone dry beneath the trees.

An hour later it was raining enough to roll off the roof and make sound. Better.

And so it continued for another six hours, a gentle rain perfect for letting the cracked earth relearn how to absorb a foreign substance.

Bless the rain. Let there be asters.

The Primary Suspect

My lower back has been on the edge of a sudden painful contraction all week. I thought it best that I should rest a spell. Sitting for long periods is the absolute worst thing I can do though. That means I need to get up and go for a walk.

So I wandered off into the cool crispy air on a beautiful sun shiny day without a hint of rain in the sky.

The new bloom spikes of the tall grasses are looking exceptional in the lower angle beams of a powerful baking sun.

The Lush is an able competitor for the deepening drought. It is getting close to a month with nothing but fog and spit.

I had an agenda for my walk other than flower gawking. In all the cow commotion of late, a few instances stood out in that no one ever claimed the cows to my knowledge and I had called all the cow people I know. I was going on a cow reconnaissance mission to solve the mystery of the unclaimed cows. My suspicions had been growing about a possible feral colony living in the property just over the county line.

There is an old road that runs the ridge top and county line. It was cleared of debris and regraded about two years ago making it quite pleasant for a walk in the woods on a crispy, pre-autumn day. I began at the beginning where the old road connects to the scenic byway about one hundred feet past Bulbarella's driveway.

I saw evidence of cow from the very beginning. I started walking and kept going with each new cow pie I saw. The further I went the stronger the cow signs became. I was walking a well eaten path and this just did not seem plausible for one escape event.

A mile and a quarter later I made it to the pasture. There were abundant signs of cow outside the saddest looking fence you can imagine. As I looked around it became quite clear that the cows had been out of the pasture and grazing the mountain for weeks if not all summer.

Now who do I call? The last person I knew who was renting this pasture died of the swine flu; an appropriate end in many people's minds. It will take some detective work to find out who these loose cows belong to and I have to hope it isn't intentional letting them out to graze the entire mountain top.

My new winter chore is to finally replace the long gone barbed wire fence along the property and county line that is the most frequent place for illegal crossings. But that will only keep them out from one direction of the compass. We have open borders on the other three sides. I just don't want to run that much fence over this kind of terrain.

It must be the drought. The worse the pasture and outside forage got, the further they had to graze and wander until they made it all the way to the scenic byway. There is no water up there so they had to go back home for that.

I live up where the cows roam free. And chickens. And pigs. What's next, goats? There are a lot of goats in these parts.

It better rain some decent rain tomorrow. That is the last chance before another full week of dry according to the current diagnosis. I want all my local pastures fresh and green.

I Saw Falling Water

Mid-afternoon I looked up from my work to take in the view. The sky was looking dark and funny. At the next stop an hour later I looked up and saw a wall of water falling from the sky. Out beyond yonder past the mountain where I live was no longer visible. Could it be?

I drove home through fallen water and the roads were wet headed up the mountain. Could it be? Not really. All I got was spit. The desiccation continues.

Sunday is the last best chance for falling water before another week of dry sets in. At least the desiccation of dry is partially similar to fall color.

The asters are trying. The Frost Aster seems less affected and more drought tolerant than the shade loving Blue Wood Aster.

It is looking quite normal while the Blue Wood Asters that are attempting to bloom looked stunted in the petal department.

I better get some rain on Sunday even though it is too late for the departed. This can't be good for my baby trees and shrubberies.

It looks somewhat like the New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae, but it is paler and more pinky than the average. I'll need to look closer, but at a glance the leaves looked smaller. I don't think my asters always stick to their own kind. There are bound to be hybrids mixed in with the Lush.

The Goldenrods are the loudest element in the meadow now.

Snakeroot, Boneset and Ironweed blend in.

Rain please, steady and gently. I want my asters.

Bone Dry Bloom Day

I have not heard otherwise so this must be the Mad Cow Moon we are currently having. The last loose cow sighting was yesterday afternoon when three black cows walked by Bulbarella's kitchen window headed to the back forty. They could have been the same three I saw on Monday. It has been non-stop cows for weeks.

It is getting scary dry out there. All these cows must be looking for greener pasture. Please somebody, make it stop. I'm really beginning to think a feral cow colony has set up camp on the mountain ridge that forms the county line and they wander out to the byway now and again before heading back in for cover.

Lucky for me cows are picky eaters and my tall blooming grasses are not on the menu.

Damn cows!

It is scary dry now with only a small chance of rain over the weekend, then next week is looking bone dry again. I have never seen this mountain this dry. We are approaching drop dead dry if this keeps up.

We will have to enjoy the flowers for Bloom Day while we still have them.

Most of the tall Miscanthus are in bloom. This one in more shade is the last to spike.

My new Aromatic Aster, Symphyotrichum oblongifolium is looking good. Being a new plant is has gotten a drink from me every now and again. I saw great big patches of these in Asheville on the stroll that had not bloomed yet. That gives me hope that it will like it here and multiply.

The Angelica gigas along the shores of our tiny brook enjoy a soil with a bit more moisture. Even that is drying up.

Drought, sun and hot in September have set the fade of the earlier bloomers of the Tall Flower Meadow in motion. All the asters which normally would be well under way by now are holding back. This year I may not get the breath taking overlap when the color blue sweeps through the meadow.

I found one full spray of the Blue Wood Aster, Symphyotrichum cordifolium.

There is quite a bit of the shade tolerant, Solidago caesia, my favorite Goldenrod.

The way things are going I figure it is a long way off, but the Frost Aster, Symphyotrichum pilosum, is blooming anyway.

Along with the White Snakeroot, Ageratina altissima, which is quite late this year. I consider it an August bloomer.

It's never the same from year to year.

A bit of Ironweed blooms with the yellow of the Goldenrod.

The Ironweed is self sowing and becoming more abundant.

It's scary dry out there and the Tall Flower Meadow continues to bloom. I think my aster display will be a bit muted if it ever gets going.

My least favorite Goldenrod, the thuggish Solidago canadenisis, is in full bloom. It's pretty, but it's a beast. It is time to start culling it.

The earth is cracked.
The leaves are falling.
The sky is bare of rain.

A Mad Cow Moon is rising.
Feral cows are running wild.
Except for the one that plowed through the roadside vegetable garden taking out a few tomatoes last month, I have been lucky. The Lush is not to their liking. They don't eat flowers. Praise be.

On another cloudless day, the bright morning sun lights up a drying meadow. I will enjoy its bounty before the crushing invasive of tree trimmers, winter snows or its total desiccation by drought, whichever comes first. It will return to the earth.

There is bounty everywhere and you can find much more at Bloom Day headquarters at May Dreams Gardens.

Fog Is Water

And one can hope that drought stressed plants are capable of reverse transpiration and can suck up water through the leaves, otherwise they will have to wait until the dew drops for a drink. At the least there were a couple of hours of respite from the ongoing desiccation.

Fog makes a fine cloaking device for loose cows too. Cow farmer number two was up on the byway this morning looking for his still missing cows.

"The utility company dropped stuff all over my fence and busted it. I called and had a few words with them."

"I had a few words with them too. Come back in November. You are not squashing my garden now."

I think my neighbor across the byway called and had a few words with them as well. This morning I noticed they must have come back on Monday and picked up and chipped most of the giant mess they left along one side of his driveway.

Fog or not I am on the lookout for more loose cows.

The crispiness continues and I am beginning to resign myself to a new experience for the end of season Tall Flower Meadow. It's never the same from year to year. I just haven't done super dry yet. That's all.

I managed to delay the gardens being pressed back into the earth closer to the regular time. That was a major accomplishment. I will learn to be content with dry and perky.

There isn't much difference in look between freeze dried and drought dry. One process is just slower and more random then the other.

Can you see a cow in there?

I asked the universe for rain, not cows. Today I got fog and invisible cows. I'm halfway there.