Fire in the sky…
Anyone remember that Deep Purple song?
It’s not as much fun when you’re living it.
We’ve had forest fires in the area. This was the sky outside my house on the worst day last week:
Note: It’s about 10:30 a.m. NONE of that is cloud cover. It’s all smoke! Behind it sat blue sky, mocking me.
My flowers weren’t impressed. I call this one Ashy Petunia, and it doesn’t look that bad, actually:
There was a big fire in the town next to us, but this smoke and the ash on the petunias was from a fire near a huge lake in our town. People were evacuated, and my parents couldn’t get to their lake cottage for a couple of days. Now, forest fires aren’t uncommon in my neck of the woods, but usually they don’t hit close enough that we need to evacuate. They’re always in the next town, or a nearby community, or another town. So far we’ve been lucky. Considering we live within walking distance of a huge provincial park…I shudder to think what would happen if someone dropped a match or a cigarette butt in that park, or if lightning strikes went crazy. Okay, let’s NOT think about that.
A couple of days after this smoke-filled-sky day, we experienced what I fondly call a Torrential Downpour. You know, the type of rain Oregonians might consider normal. We get about 4 Torrential Downpours a year, and it doesn’t seem to matter how often you clean the gutters, the TDs only happen when the gutters are leaf-clogged! So the gutters can’t handle all the rain, which feels like a see-through shower curtain falling from the sky. Hey, I don’t live in the rain forest. I live in semi-arid country. I’m always surprised by the intensity of these rains.
I’m pleased to report that the blue skies are back. The Torrential Downpour flattened my lobelia, but it seems to be making a comeback.
Ain’t nature grand?
That must have been scary! I’m glad the blue skies are back and your lobelia is making a comeback.
It wasn’t really scary, because the fires were too far away to affect my neighbourhood. But my son has asthma, so that concerned me. Basically, he was tired a whole lot. He’s 18, though, and his asthma has been under control for years. For young children with asthma or older people with lung conditions, I can imagine it was a lot worse.
Wow, scary. Glad you guys are ok for now and that the rain helped a little. Happy too that your lobelia is bouncing back 🙂 Once I start doing boxes and baskets again (next year?), they’ll definitely have lobelia – I love lobelia.
We’re getting the effects from the fires down here too, though nothing like what you have. Still, my eyes are reacting and I’m stuffed up all the time. Glad I don’t have asthma. Hope your son continues to weather it and that we ALL get more rain soon to douse fires and lower overall fire risks. We’re at High here now and have a campfire ban in effect.
The smoke affected my eyes, too, Teresa. Made them sore.
I don’t understand why it can’t rain at night and blaze hot during the day. Just think, no more worrying about watering restrictions.
When I say my lobelia is bouncing back, I guess I should put it in perspective. ALL my lobelia and marigolds are having a rough time this year. The ones in the little garden, not the ones in the pots. I’ve lost at least half of my plants. Don’t know if I can blame this on the dry weather or on the fact that the Evil Entity (ie. feline) used the garden as a litter box last summer until I finally wised up and gave her an outside litter box in the carport. Maybe she contaminated the soil.