Mild Friday

All afternoon there was but one cloud in the sky, and that was the vapor trail of a jet. It rolled across the sky like the foam on a wave engulfing a beach. The leaves of the photinia and the English laurel and the new leaves of the oak trees all glittered brightly, drenched by the sunlight. The leaves of the mulberry are too young to have developed their shiny surfaces yet, but their translucence made them glow. Having the windows open hour after hour seemed such a luxury after the long months of winter. Breezes rustled papers and sparkling dust motes danced about. Better still, I hardly sneezed at all. We must be between bursts of pollen.

Most of the days ahead promise to be mild, though Monday could be cool and might even bring a bit more rain. April does not appear to have any intention of being cruel any time soon— at least not here. I wish this computer would follow its example. It has taken almost fifteen minutes to get this entry typed, the characters appear so slowly on the page. Looks as though I won't get it posted before midnight. Goodbye, Friday. Sorry the computer stole your entry and gave it to Saturday.

Dry

I've seen several crickets over the last few days, but so far none are chirping. The night, though mild, is silent. Well, silent as far as crickets go, but there are some frogs croaking. Possibly the crickets are still too young to chirp. The males chirp to find mates, and maybe the young crickets haven't figured out yet what they are supposed to do. Or maybe the females have hatched first. The females have the best of the deal. The chirping of the males can attract the attention of predators, and the silent females are much safer— at least until they find a mate. Once they mate, the males continue to chirp, but much more softly than before, so even when mating the females are in less danger than the unattached males around them.

Anyway. The foxtails are starting to sprout up in large numbers, and I haven't gotten around to pulling up more than a few of them. The ground is beginning to dry out, too, which will make them more difficult to uproot. I'm hoping we do get some rain on Monday, so the ground will soften up again. The odds are that this storm will be another dud, though. We've gotten only the one good rainfall so far this month, and the month is almost half over. The later in the season rain comes, the less likely it is to be vigorous. In fact there might be none at all. This April might have done all the raining it's going to do.

If we don't get any more rain showers this month, at least we'll get a meteor shower. The Lyrids begin on the 16th and peak on the 22nd-23rd. I'm not sure I'll be awake at the peak time, the morning of the 23rd, after the moon sets. I'm not sure I'll even remember they are coming. I have a bad habit of forgetting things at the last minute. If I plan on watching them though, maybe that will bring rain. In a year this dry I'd consider that a fair exchange.