CHICOT PARK ARBORETUM

We read a forbidding weather report and the day dawned dark and cloudy. This squirrel outside our window didn’t seem to mind a bit.

We blogged, showered and breakfasted and got to the arboretum just as it opened. It is part of the park. The first raindrops had already started.

Inside, good displays, pictures of plants identified. Braille leaves like these and bird and animal sounds. Great stuff for kids and big kids. We took the trail maps and chose the shortest one.

I finely learned that this flower is a carolina jasmine. A woody, twisty vine.

The woods are gray and drab during the winter, but you get to see the “bones” of the forest.

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Bright, shiny leaves against the forest gray, draw the eye. A swamp magnolia.

White patches of christmas lichen. Named so because you can also find it in pink, turquoise, green and yellow. Sometimes on the same tree.

More of it on this dead branch.

A toothache tree. So called because of the swelling bumps that develop on the bark. Double click to enlarge.

The swamp has  more mature cypress than Sam Houston Jones State Park, and less light on this moody day. The rain is stronger.


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The rain chased us home.

Shortly after we settled in, the skies dumped and obliterated the air, the ground, everything. It poured, hailed, and quickly flooded the area around us. We gave up on the idea of hauling our clothes to the laundry. We stayed in all day and read, edited pictures,  uploaded albums and took care of on-line chores. Not without jumping once in a while at a gunshot loud thunder-clap. It rained so hard,  several times I felt the ceiling inside the closets because I feared they must be leaking. Thankfully not.

TORRENTIAL RAIN.

And Then The Rains Came Down…Ah, Uh.  I know there is a song with those words but I couldn’t find it. Oh, well, I’ve always wanted an opportunity to use the weather words “torrential downpour”. That is what we had. The drain on my walkway is overwhelmed and can’t drain off the water fast enough. The river flowing in front of my guest quarters isn’t all that visible from the picture but I was ready to get out the row-boat.


This is what it looks like up close.


And, the waterfall from the roof where it overwhelmed the gutters.


Not exactly scenic. Science says, we’ll be getting more of this kind of aberrant storm with climate change. The Southland is going to get pretty crowded. I COULD be in 77 degree weather watching the deer and squirrels in Texas with Jim. Am I turning into a weather wimp?



Actually, there is real danger here because huge, heavy oak trees, especially if they are leaning, can topple when the ground gets too saturated all at once. I had some major trimming done when I returned home in July and am thankful all of my trees held firm.

STORMING TO MODESTO

Karen and I battled a horrific storm all the way to Modesto Toyota to pick up my Prius with its newly installed battery pack.  The winds and blinding rain made it a slow, careful drive.  It was still raining as we pulled in. And, then the bad news. We drove all that way and my car needs a relay switch and won’t be ready for two or three days. Guess what?  We called and were told the car was ready. I was not a happy camper.


The rain abated somewhat as we headed home.


At one point we had to move to the turn lane because the driving lane was completely flooded. The old truck is high off the ground, but it is never safe to drive through deep water. We estimated the depth at seven to 12 inches in some places.


We decided to seize the day and pulled into a Mexican restaurant, Michoachan. The atmosphere and the food were just right. Cheerful and delicious. Wonderful old pictures on the walls, except they are under glass and none of them turned out very well. This one of Pancho Villa was decent and reminded me of our stop in Columbia, New Mexico earlier this year where we enjoyed the Cabalgata. Especially Mexico’s nearby county sheriff dressed like Pancho Villa with his  marvelous saddle horn in his image.

It is interesting that the picture does not load with the correct pixelation, but it loaded fine in the blog of March 10th of this year if you want to visit the Cabalgata in full.