And The Sun Came Out!

That was a crazy storm last night! The temperature dropped 15 degrees in an hour and it rained and hailed and thundered and lightning was in the distance. Fortunately it wasn't a bad storm, just exciting for our dry summer. I might have mentioned before that western Oregon has a temperate, or Mediterranean climate. The winters are relatively mild and rainy, and the summers are, well, relatively mild and sunny with no rain. This summer has been really hot, so yesterday's surprise storm was a gift. The gardens and creatures are all basking in damp soil today!

After the storm had gone by, I noticed these really interesting clouds (see extra). From the University of Illinois:

"Mammatus are pouch-like cloud structures and a rare example of clouds in sinking air. Sometimes very ominous in appearance, mammatus clouds are harmless. Mammatus are usually seen after the worst of a thunderstorm has passed."


I don't think I've ever seen these before.

A relatively quiet day - my grandson had a birthday party and my son apparently is sick so they stayed away. I've had enough grandkid germs this month ;-)

Tomorrow is the last full day of teaching of my summer Plant ID class! The following week we'll have the final Plant ID test and go to see a fabulous garden created with climate-appropriate plants.

I took my iPhone and Moment Macro lens out to the deck garden this afternoon. The Zinnia was the best pick I got, although I'm getting better at taking bee pics with it. They must be getting used to me hanging around.