The first storm since spring came through Tuesday night. It was cool enough for a bit of snow on the summits of the Diablo Range, including Mount Hamilton, east of the Santa Clara Valley. The fire season is now over. More storms are forecast. More will continue through the remainder of winter and into spring. Even chaparral climates eventually get a seasonal ration of rain.
1. An inch and a half of rain is generous for a first storm. It is more than 10% of what my garden in town got annually. This side of the Santa Cruz Mountains gets about three times as much.
2. My reflection in the rain caught in this ‘tote’ is not as artistic as it was in the green bucket last year. I tried. A flash would have added interest. I do not really know how the camera works.
3. Cyclamen, even the common florists’ type, deserve more than to be grown as cool season annuals, and then discarded in spring. I can rant about that later. For now, they sure are pretty.
4. After the rain, even a close up of this seriously abused juniper is pretty. It was recycled from one site into another, only to be removed again. It is now canned and waiting for a new home.
5. Storms are messy. There was not much wind with this storm. Nonetheless, rotten limbs get heavier and softer as they get soaked by rain. This one broke apart more as I dragged it away.
6. What is worse than runoff from the road washing away some of the yellow birch foliage dislodged by rain, is that it likely took away some of the amaryllis seed tossed out here earlier.
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/
Tony Tomeo 
It is good to know fire season is over and the rains have come. It is hard to imagine so little rain. My area had 25″ in May and 30″ in September and that was all in a matter of hours.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is a chaparral climate. All the rain happens around winter. That is why we are so reliant on irrigation, both for agriculture and for gardening.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad the rain came for you. Lovely cyclamen, you are quite right, they are worthy garden residents.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, they are pretty. I just wish we could leave them as perennials and plant warm season annuals over them next year. That is how I would do it in my own garden. I know they would not come back uniformly the following autumn, but I wold not expect them to either.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice, amazing how little rain plants can thrive on. Glad you are out of fire season, our hurricane season is over as well. While juniper is not a favorite of mine – i love the photo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Climate is variable here because of the mountains. We get quite a bit of rain in season here on the ‘outer’ side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. My former neighborhood on the rain shadow side, just a few miles away, gets less than half, and usually less than a third. The average annual rainfall there is only about one foot. It is more like three feet here. Also, the air is more arid there, which is why redwoods do not naturally venture into the Santa Clara Valley. They want the coastal fog that comes just over the mountains, but rarely goes any farther. What all our climates have in common though is that all the rain falls in season, with none through summer. We get two or three times the volume of rain that San Jose gets, but there are no more rainy days here than there. Rain in San Jose is mostly rather light. I really miss the Santa Clara Valley, even if the weather is relatively boring.
LikeLiked by 1 person
NICE! I have learned not to complain about the weather. We clean up branches and limbs after wind, snow, and ice. We rake or mulch the leaves when they fall. Mow when the grass grows. Get muddy after it rains. Make snowmen when it snows (sometimes). I feed over 100 head of cows in rain, snow, ice, and mud in the heat of the summer and cold in the winter. It isn’t fun but someone has to do it. 🙂 Rain is truly an amazing and wonderful gift even though sometimes we wonder if it will ever stop or even when it will come. It always does. Great six! I didn’t do one this week… Too cold and windy. Not complaining, though.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you. I happen to live in one of the most excellent climates in the World, . . . along with millions of people who have migrated here from climates that were very unlikely as pleasant. I find their complaining of the weather to be insulting. The climate here used to be considered to be an asset, and the main reason the Santa Clara Valley was formerly occupied by vast orchards. Those who complain the most rarely come outside anyway. They mostly work in their ‘tech’ industry. I still believe that if they hate being her so much, they should go back to where they came from. There are plenty of us who would still enjoy the weather without them.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well put.
LikeLiked by 1 person