Sunday, June 21, 2009

Guava Delight…

When I sold my home a few months ago, the plan was to move right into a new one. Then… the plan changed a bit, and I’d move into a rental for a few months… and subsequently the plan changed again… the temporary abode appeared to be more long term.

But, boy did I luck out when I found this little gem where I am currently hanging my hat. Said hat hangs in a guesthouse atop a 2.5 acre guava grove.

Now, I’ve long lived in avocado country. And, at one time, we also produced a strong amount of citrus: lemons, oranges, and limes. When the high cost of water and development made it harder to grow these more “delicate crops”, growers started planting strawberries, kiwis, and grapes. These all do very well here. We even have some macadamia groves.

But I never realized we have some guava groves. I thought guavas grew in Hawaii and other warm paradise-like places. Turns out, they’re actually native to Mexico and Central America. They do grow in Hawaii, but they “immigrated” there.

They’re a lovely looking, small tree. When I first moved here in March, there were just brown leaves. Then in April, they became covered with lovely new green ones. I am still not quite sure what a guava looks like when it’s growing, but I kinda think I am seeing some small white flowers coming out. For those who want to know more about this exotic fruit: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/guava.html

As for me: I am enjoying the view.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

Wimpy…Wimpy…Wimpy…

And nope. Hefty, hefty, hefty ain’t gonna come next. I’m talking about how we SoCal-ians deal with weather.

On Wednesday, we had “some weather”: lightning, hail, a bit of wind, a spot of rain. It lasted pretty much the entire day, but was not at all constant. It’d lightning/thunder a bit. Then just be cloudy. Hail a minute or two. Then be cloudy. Pour down rain for about two minutes. Then the sun would come out. It was a strange day, yes.

However, the weather was the only thing on the news Wednesday. Nothing in the world happened but weird weather in SoCal apparently. Yes, there were a few spot fires from the lightning. And sadly, a couple of people actually got hit by strikes and lost their lives (of course, standing outside in a lightning storm is never a smart thing…).

Thursday was back to normal weather-wise. However, again, there was no news but the big storm the day before… and the prediction of more of the same for Friday.

Friday dawned in typical June-gloom fashion… normal weather… however, the big news stories were still about the weather on Wednesday… with predictions of rain on Saturday.

You got it! No rain Saturday… it was a most lovely day. However, all the news stations ran stories about all the lost pets from the lightning on Wednesday.

I guess when one has 360 days of sunshine, moderate temps; the same thing day-in, day-out (okay… not really 360 days…) any change is a big deal. And with so much continual coverage about the “big weather”, at least the newsfolks learned that those flash-flash-boom-booms are not spelled “lightening”….