Is This The Most Miserable Spring?

Not sure I have ever complained about rain at home (Of course, I know.  I do!)

It was so great to get home and see all the rhody's getting ready to bloom and the pink dogwood attracting lookie-loos to it's beauty.

And even by this date in early May, 2 rhody's haven't bloomed and 2 are past.

And by May 21st, more blossoms

May was clean up the gardens month....we did that between rain showers....

By mid-May we've had over 200% our monthly normal rainfall.

Our rain doesn't come all at once but in recent years it comes fast.

On the list: 6" gutters to replace the 4" - as 6" size will handle the heavy rain better.

Continuing along....

Oh, look, by the end of the month we were just 210% above average.

By the end of the month, many many blossoms are now on the ground (still colorful). 

 Knocked off by heavy rain.

A week into June - all blossoms gone and another 1/2" of rain.  

Boo hiss

We are happy to proclaim that by next week the temps might rise to above 60 for most days.  Maybe even get to 70.  Or maybe not. 

Oh, yes, the wonderful 3 day weekend in May.  Campers heading to the ocean.  It rained.  

As a child I remember the Memorial Day weekend where we 6 sat in the tent and tried not to touch the fabric and have it start leaking.  We did this EVERY Memorial Day weekend as I remember.  Came home, re-raised the tent to let it dry in a week or so.

Weather Forecasting For Dummies

For those not experienced in reading northwest weather, give this a try:  

The white cloudy looking things in the forecast are clouds! ..sometimes we have one cloud covering the whole sky and sometimes we have two.  

The yellow half circles are supposed to portray the sun peeking out - it might on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.  

The 3 little blue drip marks indicate the percentage change that it will probably rain. Notice every day has a drip mark and a percentage.  Yup - most likely!  The little blue rain drops indicate the chance of rain.  This figure changes on the hour so that by news time the weatherman called it correctly.  

Maximum temperature reached in May was 65.  And 9 days of rain.  The temps month were average for March - oops.  Not average for May.  But we have no tornadoes or hurricanes (at the moment)

May showers bring drowned June flowers.

(My rant for the day , Laurie)

I'm not the only one feeling this way.  

Click the link to Seattle's Weather Blog

Is This The Most Miserable Spring

HOME TO GREEN and WET - THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME

 

We made it home.  Looks like our average mileage was 30 miles a day.  Well, that wasn’t quite so.  We have to admit to a stop or two for a night or two. 

 Two -- no Three -- no Four great events.  Ah, heck, Five great events.

 1)  Number one was stopping at the Garden Grove Elks to be near my OLD brother who turned 60 or as he states his fifty-tenth birthday that week.  What we hadn’t allowed for was sitting at a place breaking heat records of 106!  In April!  We all kept masks on and even received some more masks from Glen’s girl.  We had a nice dinner outside.  

We gave him a yodeling pickle which was on his must have list  :o) 

Everybody happy.

 

2)  Before we got out of the LA area we stopped to have breakfast with an RV'ing buddy, Howard.  He shared a bunch of avocadoes from his different trees.  Great to taste the difference.  Store bought DO NOT taste as same.

 

Enjoyed a couple nights at Harvest Host golf courses.  Nice to be where it is green!  Central California has some spectacular gardeners.  Lots of color and many rose trees.  

Pretty sure rose trees won’t bloom at home but they were so pretty.  Usually lining the entrance walkway.  Different colors and perfectly trimmed.

 3) Easter weekend we spent at the Lodi Elks after a stop at Les Schwab for a new battery – they had it on hand and it worked great.  AND they had on hand 4 tires for the RV which were on the “things to be done this summer” list.  So we got them installed.

One of our greater goals of traveling through California was to be able to buy fuel for under $5/gallon.  Terrible price but we made it.  Most expensive was $4.999 but still….

Had read that this year was the earliest dates for commercial crabbers in Newport, OR so that is where we headed.  Got a fresh crab in Florence, OR but held out for Newport to pick up some canned or frozen…..Guess I needed to have read the crab news a bit better.  Yes, Newport fishery was able to open early.  But by December 15^th, they had caught 87% of their harvest and all the crab pots were back on the docks by the time we got there.  

We found one crab for sale that looked pretty unhealthy so we passed.

 

4) Fish Tales and Marionberry French Toast.  Anytime we or friend Kay pass through Newport, had to enjoy.  It was still as good.  Yes, you can go back!

 

5) Through Tillamook with a tasty stop at the Tillamook Dairy.  A tour and pack of curds.  Hooray. 

AKA SQUEEKY CHEESE

Highway 101 has had a lot of improvements to mostly control slides.  We mostly traveled through rain from Ukiah, CA north.  Not too much traffic but saw this one truck that climbed over the guard rail and turned upside down.  

Thankfully no one was hurt.  We wondered how the tow trucks would manage to get the engine and cab and the trailer back over the rail.  

As we worked our way through Oregon we found signs of too much rain, flooding, fallen trees, slides.  Laurie gave up driving and handed Dean the wheel when the speed limit was 50 and the road shoulder had fallen.  Argh!!

For the most part we stayed in nice Elks RV lots.  But when we got to SW Washington we had a hard time finding anywhere to park.  A favorite stop before was a county park in Pacific County along our route.  Parks expected to be open weren’t, so we ended up at a boat launch.  Nice and quiet, water view, and in the morning a parade of Corvettes :o) on their way to a parade in Long Beach.

And then we were home and it was dry for a day.  Got the RV washed.  Still unpacking.  Lots of green in the garden …. Some people call them weeds but that’s their problem.  :o) 

Lucky us – forecast was for ¾” of rain – and so far we’ve had less than half an inch.  I’ve included a few weather charts show that in spite of our griping – no, it isn’t still snowing or freezing.  

Yes, we are supposed to be in the 70 degree range but we are very happy when we hit the high-50’s.  And, all in all, we love where we live.  Rain, sun, rain, clear skies, rain – you get the idea.