A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener...

Thoreau may have waxed poetic about the rain, but personally, I find it annoying and inconvenient. I have acclimated to the normally sunny Southern California weather and am having trouble dealing with our current deluge. I don't know how folks living in the Pacific Northwest do it. I'm not sure I'd survive.

It's true that the rain does make the grass greener. In fact, it produces grass in our back yard, which spends a good part of the year being brown and dusty.

This photo of our sweet Cosette was taken in November of 2006, before the rainy season. Notice the "yard" behind her (and Rusty and Little Guy!) Pretty desolate.

I took this photo yesterday during a brief break in the rain after convincing Little Guy to take a potty break. I imagine that once this rain is done, we'll have twice as much green back there as we do right now. Luckily, I cut it a few days ago as it was growing pretty well from some other recent rain. The dogs and I will be thrilled when the storms are gone though, just as Cosette always was. Damn, I miss her.

Welcome To The Jungle

Sorry Mom, but this post is not about Guns N' Roses.

Upon further observation and research, it seems this is an Annual Sowthistle, not a mutant dandelion. Darn.

This time of the year that we actually have some growth in our back yard. The rainy season. It's pretty brown the rest of the time because not only am I lazy, but I don't feel like wasting the water it would need to flourish. What ends up growing is just a little bit of grass and lots of weeds like clover and dandelions. The guinea pigs don't complain as they love clover and dandelion leaves.

So now that we've we've had some rain, a good portion of the back yard is fairly green. Yes, it is still mostly weeds, but it looks pretty. The dandelions have gone NUTS and are taking over!

What really caught my attention and inspired me to grab the camera was what I will henceforth call The Biggest Dandelion Ever. I spotted what looked like a baby tree pushing up through the ground. I looked closer and recognized the yellow flower blooming on top and the distinctive leaves. The thickness of the stalk and height of the plant was impressive, so in order to get some perspective, I made Rusty sit by it. He has a good sit-stay, but was nonplussed and kind of annoyed.

Seriously, have you ever seen a dandelion that big?