Lettuce pray for rain.

Despite the lack of rain - for the past three winters - there are plenty of weeds still growing between the rows of vines in Vinoland; mallow, fluvellin, stinking goosefoot, plantain, bristly oxtongue etc.  I wouldn't say they are exactly flourishing, their flowers seem smaller than normal, but they are persisting reasonably well. There are even some California poppies still blooming, but, just like the weeds alongside them, their flowers are also rather diminutive. One weed that seems to be doing even better than all the others is prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola).  But even the flowers of the prickly lettuce seem to be reduced in size this year.
Prickly lettuce, a native of Europe, can grow up to about 6 feet tall, (though I doubt they will in 2015) and they are indeed prickly as they have a row of spiky hairs on the underside of their leaves.  And they can be eaten in a salad (thanks, I'll pass).  But it is the cheery, pale-yellow, chicory-like flower that is the most pleasant feature of  Lactuca serriola.  So delicate looking, but so hardy.  Let's hope for some rain this winter.

Making lemonade.

Yup, California is in desperate need of water as the past three winters have been particularly dry.  Television and radio news agencies are reporting, on a daily basis now, stories about how dire the water shortage is becoming, the need for water conservation and the new restrictions being enforced.  And the fines the average California homeowner will incur if they are caught wasting this precious resource, (neighbours are being encouraged to snitch on one another to the authorities).
The water situation is bad, but there have been worse droughts in California's history.  Of course, there are more people living in California than ever before and with population growth comes the need for more food to be produced.  California needs to eat.

Some little sound bites I have heard on the news include; Agriculture is said to be about 2% of the California economy, but uses some 80% of all the water; It takes one gallon of water to produce one almond; It takes three times as much water to grow one acre of alfalfa (and other forage crops) than it does to grow one acre of rice; California produces more rice than China; Alfalfa production in California is subsidised so that farmers can produce alfalfa cheaply to sell to China for cattle feed.  Now, I don't know how much of what is reported is factual, but stories like these give the average, thirsty California some food for thought.

The rain will come, eventually.  But in the meantime, when life gives you raisins, make Amarone.

Cartoon courtesy of the Napa Valley Register.

Necklace.

Well, here we are on the last day of January and it has not rained once this month.  And I think I can safely predict that it will not rain before midnight tonight.  In fact, we have had no rain since Christmas Eve.  As I write this post the current temperature outside is 79°F.  I was pruning in the Pinot grigio block (which I started today) and I had to come in for a drink of water because I was getting too toasty.  I also made sure that V2 had fresh water in her bowl, but she was too busy off somewhere up the hill digging for gophers (her water bowl will undoubtedly be full of mud later).  Actually, V2 has several water bowls dotted around the property which she very generously shares with some nocturnal visitors to Vinoland.  I know this because I discover fresh new offerings of raccoon and skunk scat each morning when I take V2 for her morning constitutional.
Vinomaker is the person around here responsible for taking care of the avian population, (although it is me who is trying to nurse a house finch back to health at the moment).  I cannot tell you how many pounds of seed the birds go through in a month, but it's a lot.  However, the reward for Vinomaker schlepping all that bird seed around, and making sure that they also have lots of fresh water, is that I get to enjoy some very cheeky feathered friends who are enormously entertaining. 
Necklace, the dark-eyed junco (Junco hyemalis), is definitely my favourite.  A contemporary of Mr. Beakly (may he R.I.P.), Necklace, with his distinctive ring of light coloured feathers, is a feisty little fellow and must wield some authority over his other junco pals as he is always noisily chasing them away from the smorgasbord that Vinoland's deck-railing becomes every morning and afternoon.  Necklace is always the first to appear when the seed is put out and will even sit in a big oak tree above the deck protesting if his next repast does not appear in a timely fashion.  Love it! 
California is in desperate need of rain, as this is the 4th drier than average winter in a row.  (However, this dry spell is nowhere near as bad as the one California was experiencing when I first moved to the US - that particular drought was 7 years long).   I can't help thinking to myself though that if I was stuck indoors due to inclement weather, I'd really be missing some great stuff going on outside.  Just a thought.

Drought's over!

California's drought is not over, but one could be forgiven for thinking it was.  It is now 1 p.m. PST Sunday afternoon and it has been raining steadily, and heavily, since about 11 p.m. Thursday night - a solid 62 hours.  (That's about 61 hours more rain than I would have liked to have fall on me this weekend.)  And the rain didn't come in showers, no, it fell hard, unabated and relentless.  It's still falling now; it's blowing in sheets and visibility is quite poor, (I can't see the range of hills opposite Vinoland).  Yesterday, the news reports were of wind and flood warnings for the entire Bay Area, along with a treacherous-driving condition alert and the possibility of mudslides in hilly areas.  A small creek flood advisory was also issued and, right on cue, Vinoland's small creek breached it's banks...we now have our own rapids.  Lovely.
The photograph shows where the creek passes under the deer fence on the northern end of Vinoland.  The water is only about 24-30 inches deep there, but it is moving quickly and a little further on has flooded a 10' wide flat area - another 7-8 feet and the creek will have reached the Pinot grigio vines.  And to think I was going to start pruning the white grapes this weekend.  The best made plans...

A dry spell?

A really, really long spell.  As of the 17th of January California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency for the state, saying that the state is facing "perhaps the worst drought that California has ever seen since records (began) about 100 years ago."  It has indeed been very dry and warm, 75° F today in Oakville, and we haven't had any measurable rainfall since the 6th of December.  Even so, I think the Governor will find plenty of northern California water to send to the southern end of the state.  Ho hum.
Now whilst I am loving this fantastic, but unseasonable weather, I understand that California is a rather dry place - even on a normal rainfall year - and we do need some rain to fall.  In many vineyards, no doubt, soil moisture content is at an all time low, and warm temperatures could mean an earlier than normal budbreak, especially in some white grape varieties.  Yesterday an owner/management company, of a vineyard on the Oakville Crossroad, decided to take matters into their own hands and water their vineyard.  The sprinklers sprinkled all day, were still sprinkling when I left work, and were still sprinkling when I arrived at work this morning.  The ensuing winter wonderland of icicle-laden grapevines was the result of the overnight temperatures dipping below freezing.  It looked fantastic, but I bet it used up a lot of water.