July Daily Weather,Part II Have some lemonade!

Howdy all,
We were getting a little long for those poor souls that still have dial-up.
Everyone's garden are a poppin now and this is a good place for you to let us know what your weather is and show is your gardens.
84.7 °F / 29 °C
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 47%
Dew Point: 62 °F / 17 °C
Wind: 0.0 mph / 0 km/hfrom the SSE
Wind Gust: 5.8 mph / 9 km/h
Pressure: 29.80 in / 1009.0 hPa (Falling)
Heat Index: 85 °F / 30 °C
Visibility: 8.0 miles / 12.9 kilometers
UV: 12 out of 16
Clouds: Scattered Clouds 3500 ft / 1066 m
(Above Ground Level)
Elevation: 37 ft / 11 m
Although they didn't predict showers this afternoon I believe the pressure falling might signal a shower.
Here is how my point is planted;
Sidney

Wow. Pretty collection.

Beautiful, Sidney! I love all the different types of coleus!
I couldn't access Gary's website either, Sharon. Do you have it checked for public viewing?

Sidney: Beautiful coleus, as always!
EB: Love your "in progress" garden.

Marsue: The purple flower is Lisianthus. And may I say, you're looking lovely! I have some of Kiska's
"icycles" hanging in my kitchen window.
Sharon: Callibrachoa are often tagged "Mini Petunia". The also tag them for full sun, but if you ever try
them, I highly recommend some shade. Glad to here Gary's home.

Rann: Beautiful photo of Tálknafjörður. Hope you get your "getaway" soon! (You, too Sharon!)

Yesterday was very sticky. Don't know what the humidity was, but it felt like 90%. Much better today and it was wonderfully cool early this morning at 69F! of course, now it's 88, on the way to 93 or so. No rain in the forecast, but I'm still blissed over the 1.5" during the week. :)

Here are my pups, helping me spot birds at the feeders this morning.
Deb

Try this link....hmmm
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/garyrandolph

That link above worked for me, Sharon. I signed Gary's guestbook, too.

Sharon, I'll try to sign Gary's guestbook tomorrow.
Thank you all for such nice words. Greta pictures everyone! It's been very hot these days and we had to work so hard in cleaning the yard of the concrete pieces ...now it's done and clean. We have begun moving in , a few boxes a time.
This is our yard now.
Hugs,
Adina

E_B, forgot to answer you : yes, I've lived in this building since I was 3 !
I took this picture yesterday morning. They have many sunflower fields next to the village we are going to move in and they are blooming .

A closer look.

Just beautiful, Adina! What a sight! LOL

Sharon, the link worked. Thanks.

Rann, I wish that I could send you some sunny days. We get around 330 a year. I'd be willing to share some.

Adina, I love the sunflowers.

It's that time of year when the weather is the same day after day after day after day.

Van Nuys, California (Airport)
Updated: 1:51 PM PDT on July 13, 2008
90 °F / 32 °C
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 31%
Dew Point: 56 °F / 13 °C
Wind: 10 mph / 17 km/h / 4.6 m/s from the SSE
Pressure: 29.90 in / 1012 hPa (Falling)
Heat Index: 88 °F / 31 °C
Visibility: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV: 10 out of 16
Clouds: Few 9000 ft / 2743 m
Scattered Clouds 18000 ft / 5486 m
(Above Ground Level)


Today we went to Solstice Canyon park. It was closed last fall after the fire and reopened a couple weeks ago. I was curious to see what had changed. I knew that the TRW buildings had burned down. They were just small office buildings and hadn't been used by TRW in years but last year it looked like someone was living in one of them. (Probably because of the high cost of housing around here, if a park property comes with inhabitable buildings, they are used for ranger residences.)

Here is an oak tree that was not affected by the fire. It was very impressive in real life.

Here is a creek with water in it. I suppose it sounds redundant that I call it a creek with water in it, but we have a lot of creeks around here with no water in them. The fire must have come through here with a vengence. A lot of these trees appear to be dead. The sycamores and oaks weathered the fire all right, but the alders didn't.

Now for something a little different. This is what remains of the Keller House. It is old. It seems that I read something somewhere that said that it was built in the 1860s, but I can't find any information now. Anyway, this house had been used as a ranger residence and burned down last fall. It seems that everything in the Santa Monica Mountains will end in fire some day.

Obviously a lot of debris had to have been removed after the fire, but notice that they left the skillets on the fireplace mantle.

This would have been the front of the house.

Here are some of the remains of Tropical Terrace. This was a house that was built in the 1950s and burned down in 1983. It appears to have been a huge, sprawling house with rooms on different levels and various terraces. Some of the landscaping plants are still alive, as you can see here. It fascinates me how these plants have survived without human assistance. The kitchen and the garage had been intact but they burned down last fall.

The house had a lot of fireplaces.

The flowers on the right are some kind of ginger.

The area on the left is where the kitchen was. The things that look like window openings are little alcoves. The stove was in one of them. The stonework in the foreground appears to have been part of pond.

sycamores and oaks

What peaceful place that must have been.

Wow, Kelli... The remains of that house with the stonework and all of the plants is beautiful! What a shame it burned down - twice.

Adina, as usual, your photos are gorgeous! I'm excited for you about finally moving into your new house!

Rann, we have to go a long way to get to a quiet serene place like that... :-) Houston has 2.2 million people (not including the suburbs, which are numerous and growing), and is sprawled out over 600+ square miles (1,600 km²). It takes a long time to get to the city limits, to say nothing of the country, and we're not in the center of town. Someday I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to live in the country again, but for right now it's not worth it to lose 3+ hours everyday with my dh that he would spend commuting to work in horrible traffic if we lived outside the city limits.

Could someone give me a link to Kiska's site? I love the photos of her glasswork. :-)

Sharon, I'll visit Gary's site. Thanks for posting it!

Thank you all for leaving encouraging words for Gary. He is thrilled to have so many people visit.
Sidney – Your “point” is gorgeous!
Adina – Wow! All those sunflowers are a sight – just beautifull!
Kelli – You have a lot of places to go sightseeing/hiking. Thank you for sharing with us. I can’t believe the same place burned twice. It’s amazing to what is left over.
Marylyn – Its glasscraftbyjackie.esty.com

73.6 °F / 23.1 °C
Scattered Clouds
Humidity: 86%
Dew Point: 69 °F / 21 °C
Wind: 0.0 mph / 0 km/h
Wind Gust: 0.0 mph / 0 km/h
Pressure: 29.83 in / 1010.0 hPa (Steady)
Heat Index: 73 °F / 23 °C
Visibility: 5.0 miles / 8.0 kilometers
UV: 0 out of 16
Clouds: Scattered Clouds 20000 ft / 6096 m

Today
Patchy fog in the morning. Partly cloudy with slight chance of showers and thunderstorms in the morning...then mostly cloudy with showers and thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. High 88. South winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.

Both of my Brugmansias are budding!

Heavy overcast to the point of keeping the morning dim, 71° everything is wet from a storm last night, It was not enough to Puddle in the drive so I may still need to water later.

Sharon, can you please make Kiska's site a link? I tried to go there and it took me somewhere different. :~)

Here you go!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5962035

Deb: your pups are adorable! Thanks for the compliment--LOL!
Adina: how exciting! You are moving and you also have a yard that is a "clean slate"--just think of the flowers you can plant there! That field of sunflowers is beautiful--do they grow them to sell the seeds?
Kelli: once again you have taken us along on another of your interesting hikes. I so enjoy learning about the different trees and flowers, etc. in your area and the photos of the burned-out houses are a reminder that the "wood, hay and stubble" will be burned up but what is built on the "rock" remains.

It was cooler yesterday due to an overcast sky and a "cool" front but today we are back to our July weather pattern: Hot and sunny
Today:
Sunny
High 89°F
Precip 10%
Wind: NE 6 mph
Max. Humidity: 49%
UV Index: 10+ Extreme
Sunrise: 6:05 AM CT
Avg. High: 91°F
Record High: 107°F (1980)
Tonight:
Clear
Overnight Low 64°F
Precip 10%
Wind: NE 4 mph
Max. Humidity: 71%
Sunset: 8:22 PM CT
Avg. Low: 69°F
Record Low: 58°F (1967)

Velvet toreador

Good morning, everyone.

Mau, Velvet T. is very pretty. Was it you that got Disneyland? If it is, how is it doing?

Sharon, thanks for the link. Yippee, on the brugs budding!

73°F with 94º for later. Gee, I wonder if it'll warm up this year at all?
Feels like: 73°F

Barometer: 29.9 in
Dewpoint: 34°
Humidity: 23%
Visibility: 10 miles
Wind: 8 mph SSE
Sunrise: 6:08 AM
Sunset: 8:57 PM
UV Index: 1 Low

Good morning, Celia. No, I didn't get Disneyland I went looking for one back in February. We came home with a dozen roses from HD that day but they didn't have Disneyland. I'm going to try to get one for next season. Monty says "PUHLEEZ, I'm a guy! No roses in the hair!" LOL How come your UV index is so low--you are much closer to the sun than I am!!????

kwanjin, That cat does not look any happier than the "hillbilly" cats here - careful when handling!

86° bright blue skies.

LOL Monty is a good sport, though. He sat there until it fell off on it's own.

Our UV Index is funny; I don't get how it works. We should all be on fire by now.

My Iceberg is history. (sniff)

You had an Iceberg? IN Utah? What are the GPS cord? This I gotta see! If your cat needs lessons on how to be a proper "hillbilly" send it on down & my cats will teach it quickly.

ROTFLOL Dyson!!!

Yeah, me too, Dyson!!

Celia, your last pic wouldn't enlarge. I really can't tell what Monty is into--but it looks like he has an awful lot of paperwork to tend to! LOL

He was going through the files for us.

files? all the hillbilly cats go through are flys maybe I need new cats,

Ahh, Dyson, you are just too, too funny!!!
Celia, you are going to have to give Monty a vacation--he is working far too hard!! LOL

LOL! - Monty are they picking onyou? Come on down to Auntie Sharon's! I'll give your lots of snurffles and belly kisses!

He says he's ready for belly rubs!!!

Ahh, the life of a cat!!