It's That Time of Year Again ...

An ex-Aster made it through the summer & is celebrating fall!

Summer's hellatious temperatures and fiendish humidity levels have finally given way to the kind of weather that makes living in south central Texas not merely bearable but a real pleasure.  Even the normally cranky HG has mellowed and has yet to remind me that we're liable to go back into the 90s at least once more before fall weather settles in for a stay on our corner of Katy.  She's so blissed out by the need for a light jacket in the early morning, when we sit in the garden for our first jolt of java, that she scares me a little.  She gets over it, though.

The white cardinal vine is not very mannerly but because it's host to hummingbirds and pollinators, I'm allowing it free run of the back fence.

While the temperatures have moderated, the drought is still a real and present danger.  While strong thunderstorms rolled through the greater Houston area Thursday evening, and Katy was drenched,  the rain apparently did little more than refresh foliage.  Over an inch of rain fell in the course of several hours, but only the mulch was moist in my gardens: the soil below remained dry.    Even more depressing was hearing predictions from a state climatologist that this drought could last until 2020.  To think of the devastation this year being repeated for another nine summers is heartbreaking. Even one more summer like that of 2011 could mean a vastly different landscape for much of Texas, and especially for Houston.  Houston has always been a city of trees: according to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, 660 million trees grace the eight-county area of and surrounding greater Houston. An estimate in that article puts losses at 10 percent. 66 million trees gone ... mind-boggling.

The Texas Olive (Cordia boissieri) is just starting to bloom.  Why haven't I grown you before?

Well, shoot, I didn't start this post with the intention to spread a message of gloom and doom - that's the HG's domain.  You'd think she'd clouted me in the head and taken over this post, much as certain garden fairies in Indiana are wont to do!  I wanted to celebrate the change in the weather, not continue my lamentations about how much awful I've had to suffer through.  I do occasionally feel the need to justify all the whinging I've inflicted upon my readers about the weather. More than that, though, I want those of y'all outside of Texas to understand the larger reality behind my  own petty complaints.  I also write to remind myself how fortunate I am that my own gardens continue to bring beauty and inspiration to me and to others. 

Amen and Damn Skippy!