What a weekend: torrential rain

We had torrential rains over the weekend: many separate waves of severe thunderstorms delivered 1.75 inches of rain on both Saturday and Sunday. These heavy rains came on top of almost 2 inches of rain earlier in the week.

Flood waters rushing down from the tree farm behind us

We had flooding, as we always do during heavy rain events. Fortunately, although torrents run through the low area of our property right around the house, the house itself sits on a hill, and we don't get flooding into the basement.

Looking down the hill from the house -
the garden hose is a bit redundant, don't you think?

The ground is saturated. Thankfully, the agricultural tile drainage system that my father advised us to put it when we bought this acreage worked its magic as usual. Our property dries out quickly after heavy rain and flooding. We are indebted to his foresight. It was the first thing he said we should do, and we had it installed in the first season - before laying out any lawn and garden areas.

The creek flooding its banks on Sunday afternoon

It has been difficult to get enough time between storms to cut the grass, which is growing gang-busters because of all the moisture and the cool temperatures we have had all month.

(I was going to write: "the cool temperatures we have enjoyed all month," but I know that most people have been complaining about the weather. After all the drought we have endured for almost a decade, I don't dare complain about this weather, even if it is excessive. Besides, John and I prefer cool weather to sweltering heat.)

The creek flooded up to the top of the bridge at the road

The only damage here: a lightning strike that fried our telephone line, and we are still without phone service 24 hours later. (On the bright side: at least the usual plague of telemarketers can't get through.) A couple of weeks ago, the electronic controls of our range hood were ruined in a thunderstorm, and that prompted a costly repair.

The bottom part of our east field on Saturday afternoon:
we had just as much flooding the next day

We were lucky to have so little damage. Sadly, in the city of Hamilton there is major flooding of many homes and cars that were swamped by sudden flood waters. A local expressway had to be closed because of heavy flooding, and we got caught in the resulting traffic jam while on the way to visit friends in Stoney Creek on Sunday evening.*

Flood waters creeping up toward our meadow on Sunday

Today is sunny and lovely, with a good wind to help dry things up, but more showers are in the forecast. Amazingly, this July hasn't been as wet as last July, but there are a few days left for it to catch up. The big problem over the past week and the weekend: there just wasn't enough time to dry out between storms.

*It turned out that Stoney Creek got almost 5 inches of rain on Sunday afternoon alone - on top of heavy rain in the days before, which had already saturated the soil. (That's more rain in one afternoon than the average precipation for the entire month of July.)

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

Did we ever get rain today!

I had been hoping for rain to give us some relief from a dry couple of weeks, and our current heat wave. Well, it rained, and how!

Creek banks flooding onto our property

Our little bridge across the creek under water

This was the scene following two and a quarter inches of torrential rain (and a bit of hail) that came down during the lunch hour. As always, the creek flooded and the lowest part of our property near the road is under water. By evening, it should be cleared, unless we get another thunderstorm.

The storm brought so much rain in such a short time that a road near us washed out in an area where they had just added a culvert and some gravel, but hadn't yet replaced the black-top paving. No damage here, but the petunias in my containers have been flattened. A small price to pay for much-needed rain, and they will perk up again.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

Favorite sign of spring: redwing blackbirds

They're back! Today's wonderful sound: the trill of the red-winged blackbirds. The green fuse is igniting. But first, we have to get through another couple of days of rain. We're under a heavy rainfall warning - again.

Thanks to dobak at flickr for bird photo.

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

Wet fall means fleeting color

It's been a lovely year for producing fall color, but not so great for keeping it long. The trees pictured above, Red Sunset maples, now have only about a third of their leaves left.

I can't remember a wetter, colder, more blowy October. In the eight seasons since we started our garden here, fall weather has usually been warm and too dry.

Not this year. We've had weeks of rain. Just last week (on my birthday, as it happened) three inches of rain fell in one day, when the ground was already saturated. Some present! May and June's weeks of drought are now a distant memory.