Nature Notes ~ 2 Rain

Please ENLARGE, especially the landscapes to
appreciate the datails.



At last, like manna from heaven, the rains came.
So long awaited by the parched land and us.



Nature instantly reasserted itself with everything
bursting into leaf whether it was the right time to do
so or not. All that had survived the drought was doing
its level best to catch up after that long period of leafless
dormancy in summer, Roses are flowering two months
early.

I found this huge European wasp in the sink on a warm day.
European wasps are a rather nasty import here and have a
way of not just stinging once, but pumping their poison into one
repeatedly. This one was over an inch long.



The sustained rain changed the barren landscape
from this,



into the fields of Elyssium almost over night.

These Pansies having barely survived on sink water, were

af last getting a decent shower to wash off the accumulated

dust and give them a much needed wash through with

sparkling clean water.

Here's hoping for good follow up rains as well.

This meme is hosted by Michelle of Rambling Woods,

click on the Nature Notes logo to join in or visit the others.

TODAY'S FLOWERS ~ 24 Flowers in a Bare Winter Garden

Mid-winter and the nights are full of frost
but after years of drought and now a little rain,
it seems not all is lost.



I went out to the garden, to see what I cloud see
I spied a little Almond bud upon an Almond tree




and Crabapples were blooming though winter cold is here




a Pansy and a Hyacinth,





a little Rosebud dear

some Cyclamen

and Snowflakes

Geranium as well

and in the shadehouse corner a Jacob's Ladder fell
like pearls strung on a necklace with tiny flowers strewn

that mingled their sweet perfume

with that of grass new mown

Just when I thought how wonderful

the presents it bestowed

a lone Anemone smiled up

nodded its head and shyly bowed

Precursors of the Spring to come
the welling tide they promise,
but just for now I am content
with what the heav'ns to me have sent.

Click on the red Rose Logo for a world of flowers.

A hug to my friend Luiz Santilli Jr. and the Team he has

enlisted to to give us this joy of sharing flowers.