Life goes on. And so does the rain, which is a very good thing. Even Boo the Cat was out and playing in it early this morning. If this rain keeps up as predicted, there is a good chance we will reach 'normal' levels of rainfall for this year. That won't cure the drought, but it will put a damper on it.
There's a good chance that we will see a revival of the North/South water wars; again. It's been this way since the mid-1800's and until Southern California has a reservoir of some sort on every inch of vacant land, the Northerners will claim that Southern Californians don't really deserve the water from the north; that they will only waste it!
But this year might turn out to be different. The governor has already declared mandatory rationing and he has done it in the middle of the winter… while it's raining. That's a very good sign that some people are taking it seriously.
Perhaps this will be the year that people become aware of just how costly it is to own a green lawn. I certainly hope so; I'm a long time foe of grass and would love to see it eliminated from the landscape. Plain and simple, it's not natural to have your own private meadow that needs tons of water to stay green.
But, it's so much a part of our culture, I think it will take a disaster, such as the severe drought we are expecting, before people will change. At our last house, we had replaced all of the lawns with drought resistant plants for ground cover. We had drip irrigation to all of it. When we decided to sell, the realtor mentioned that the lack of a lawn was a possible liability. It wasn't, but that's another story. And after we sold the house, the new owners ripped out all of our landscaping and put grass back in its place. Sigh.
Here in the frigid north (:-) of Toronto, we have lots of sun and minus a million degrees, but no rain, lucky you.
ReplyDeleteIn my neighbourhood, the Portuguese part of town, front yards are tiny and some of them are actually miniature lawns of carefully tended grass. The rest are a glorious mix of vegetable gardens, flowers, religious statuary (what can I say, it's a Portuguese thing), parked bicycles, garbage and recycling bins, shrubbery and raked gravel or patio stones, and even just plain weeds (definitely not a Portuguese thing). It makes for wonderful evening walks enjoying the variety of sights from one yard to the next. Even the little clipped lawns look nice, as a novel contrast.
Pictures? I would love to see some. I suppose one must wait till spring though...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of pictures, I've been watching the Toronto weather via 'a daily dose of imagery'. The photos make you appreciate 40 degree weather!
Here in Canada, the warmest it gets at this time of year is Vancouver/Victoria BC. But it rains all winter there! I gave up on that after 15 years of it, I'll take the cold if it means sunny skies. Although by March I'll be rethinking that statement ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh, it's March.
Yeah, I really should take some photos of the neighbourhood yards, I'll see if I have some old ones, but I have a feeling I don't.