Central California is getting some much-needed rain!!! Still won't make a dent in the drought, but the snow in the Sierras is simply breath-taking. My kids will be thanking El Nino this weekend when we venture up to the big snow.

We have been having a bit of rain here in the North SF Bay Area (so far 6 inches here since last July - most of that in the past 2 months - still only half of our "normal" YTD), but according to the weather folks, this is NOT because of El Nino. It has been cold (for us) in December, and has indeed snowed in the mountains. Most of our storms so far have come in from the North. The weather people keep saying that the actual El Nino storms will come in from way further South (seriously impacting Southern Cal, which seems to have trouble dealing with any rain whatever), and will be warmer. They say it is supposed to start in "early Jan". I am just hoping that they have not scared it away with all of their constant hyping about it.

Jackie

Apparently not Jackie since the big rains are supposed to begin Sunday and last through to Thursday so I guess that's our introduction to El Nino. It's anybody's guess what happen's after that, but Marloren's account seems to indicate that it can soon be too much of a good thing. Of course they need rain like a hole in the head and we desperately need it, but that's not to say it will be comfortable on a personal basis. However, no more griping considering how much it would take to actually affect this drought (I'm not going to say impact, even though so many people use that word incorrectly now as a verb, which is one of my pet peeves, right along with "Myself and John went to the store". ) Okay, rant over. Can't help it, majored in English Lit.

Said to be peaking here with a slide into normalcy resulting in a La Nina winter next year. But they won't have a high degree of certainty about next winter until May or June.

Heavens, Marlorena - 20'! That must be a worry. In Sydney it's unseasonably cool, but I'm loving it. Perfect day yesterday, sunny, mid 70's with a breeze, and I mowed all three terraces.

Ingrid, my pet peeve is the way the younger generation (including my children!) here say 'should of' when they mean 'should've'.

Marlorena, hope that flood wall keeps doing its job for you and that the storms will soon be over. My thoughts are with all who have been affected by the terrible floods? My daughter in Japan hates the monsoon season because she has to keep washing internal walls to get rid of the mould that forms, but that is during hot and steamy summer...I guess (hope) that your green algae is external only. I hate winter, but do have the pleasure of receiving and planting my bareroot roses during the season, so I can understand your wish to cheer yourself up. Have you chosen the roses yet?

I hope the New Year brings kinder conditions for us all.

In east Tennessee, most twenty something males today were out in cargo shorts and it was only 58 F today. High temps in the 60s and 70s have the cats shedding, and some mass plantings of Pink KnockOut today were in bloom in Knoxville. WInter Jasmine in full bloom all over the area. OK, about rain....12.4 " in my rain gauge in my back yard since the first of December.

(From our time in New Orleans, living one block from the Mississippi, the standard spray for assorted algae on buildings (and slow moving pets) to a quart of water add a couple of drops of dish detergent and a Tablespoon or three of bleach. Spray lightly, let set for about five minutes and rinse off with a hose. For light algae, that should be enough, increase the bleach as needed. The detergent is both a spreader and helps it adhere.)

We've had some rain here. Very welcome. Enough so that the parched ground hasn't dried out within a day or so like earlier this year. But not El Nino yet. Thanks for the heads up Ingrid. I hadn't checked the weather report for next week. Seems like a good time to get pot ghetto roses planted so they can take advantage of all the moisture to spread their roots. Haven't decided on spots for them yet. Have Schoener's Nutkana, Kazanlik, Dupontii, Madame Plantier, Suzanne, R. pomifera, some of my own seedlings (one from President Dutailly plus multiple from R. primula and R. fedschenkoana), and R. stellata mirifica (may not be quite big enough to plant out yet).

ozmelodye...

...re the algae, yes it's external and someone told me about using the bleach method highlighted by stillanntn above, but what I use is a product originally from New Zealand called 'Wet and Forget'... it's not cheap, but all you do is mix 1 part to 5 parts water and use a garden sprayer, like you would spray your roses, and I spray all over the green, and after 3 hours it's all gone... however, I'm not sure yet how long it will stay away for... but it's very good stuff for this treatment... it can be used on all sorts of surfaces, including fences, caravans, boats, painted surfaces, walls etc....

...I should add, they claim it's used on the Sydney Opera House...

...I'll get around to doing it when the weather clears up, it's terrible here right now, we've just had another major storm with lashing rain.... I'm going outside with torch to check there's no damage or temporary flooding...

...as for the 3 roses, I'd like to get them for my greenhouse to go with those I already have in there, just a few Tea roses... I don't know which ones as yet.... but they won't be for the garden proper so to speak.... if my greenhouse is still standing that is....

I live in the north central area of the US so El Nino not as big an event here as it is in California. It was predicted that El Nino would give us warmer than normal winter temps & below average snow fall, so far both predictions are spot on.

It's been very wet here in my neck of the woods for the past couple of months. November's rain fall was 11.86 inch's. December's rain fall was 12.65 inch's. Plus this has been the warmest December ever on record here in GA. Yeah, we've been stuck in the "pineapple express" for a while now.

We have had some welcome rain here but not enough to make a dent....yet. Wonder how the folks in the south are doing. Too bad they can't ship train cars of rain/water to us.