Is it just my imagination, or are people — including authorities like the National Weather Service — overly frightened of rain? Take a look at the latest "storm warming," copied from the NWS via the Ventura County Star: …PERIODS OF HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE FOR THE MOUNTAINS THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT… AContinue reading “Rainy weather in SoCal: Overfeared?”
Category Archives: the land
Red sky at morning (on the coast, before today’s storm)
From the often-beautiful photoblog of Veronique du Turenne, taken early this morning along the coast: The supposedly "unrelenting" storms for SoCal this week, which were said to have the potential of as much as 15-20 inches of rain, have so far been quite moderate: two inches in our area today. But tomorrow we have flashContinue reading “Red sky at morning (on the coast, before today’s storm)”
A raindrop’s journey
The Los Angeles Times continues to be devastated by cutbacks, but nonetheless the book section under David Ulin continues to discover great works overlooked in the rush to the obvious bestsellers. Today, perfectly timed for our weather, comes word of a California poet, Don Thompson, who lives in Buttonwillow and writes so quietly that evenContinue reading “A raindrop’s journey”
Only in poetry can we really talk…
…about what the sense of being lost in life –useless — feels like. (And, by the way, it's not all bad.) Here's what I mean, from "Li Po" by Martha Ronk: There is the watery, uneasy feeling, that one has been there before, has encountered that reservoir of emotion, some other year, under one's fingertipsContinue reading “Only in poetry can we really talk…”
Acorns Abundant This Fall: El Nino On the Way?
According to climatologists, it's going to be wet this winter. Experts on El Niño, the well-known global weather circulation pattern that often brings warm winters and heavy rain to the West Coast, recently released a chart showing the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) strengthening across the Pacific. This is good news for those of usContinue reading “Acorns Abundant This Fall: El Nino On the Way?”
Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer
Is urban farming really a sustainable lifestyle? This is a question Novella Carpenter spent ten years of her life trying to figure out in Oakland, California, and it's a question she answers in her new book Farm City. Here's a picture of the writer on her urban farm: The book gets a favorable mention onContinue reading “Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer”
Ansel Adams in Color
Hard to believe, but the great Ansel Adams had no confidence in his color photography, and so in his life published only a handful of the thousands of pictures he took in color. Even the one below (featured in a brief selection of his color work this week in The New Yorker) didn't make theContinue reading “Ansel Adams in Color”
If It Looks like an El Nino, and Feels Like an El Nino…
,,,maybe it is an El Nino. After an unexpected and totally welcome 6.59 inches a couple of weeks ago, the air has been clear, soft, windless and warm…we hit a 97 a week ago, and yesterday 84. The data also look convincing: Here's a graph of warmth spreading along the equator across the Pacific, fromContinue reading “If It Looks like an El Nino, and Feels Like an El Nino…”
Again Falls This Quiet Persistent Rain…
According to the National Weather Service, this huge storm that hit California last night was the biggest precip to reach the state at this time of year in forty years (sorry, I can't reference that, because I can't find/remember where I read it). Hit central CA harder than us in SoCal, but boy was itContinue reading “Again Falls This Quiet Persistent Rain…”
Meteorology — It’s So Not about You
Robert Peake, Ojai's most distinguished poet this century, thinks deeply and writes beautifully about topics that only poetry has the means to bring down to earth. Over the summer I happened to see him read the following, which may be of particular interest to the readers of this site, because this poem dares to suggestContinue reading “Meteorology — It’s So Not about You”
Kit Stolz 