Yay ! happy plants, happy gardeners...

I love rain

Sheila, those pictures are gorgeous! I would love to have a wall like the picture from Pomona College. That college has one of the most beatiful campuses around. The houses surrounding the campus are also gorgeous. Beautiful old craftsmen's.

Mellisa, hopefully your rain returns soon. BTW, I just love Barni roses and wish more were available in the US. Do you grow any?

Daisy, you are on crutches? Hope all is better soon.

Kitty, hope your muscles feel better today.

Ash, my plants should be very happy. Can't wait to see the results in spring!

Mel, me too! There are flood and wind warnings everywhere up and down the state, but hopefully nothing will happen.

We are expecting 8-10 inches of snow today in Northern CA near Mt. Shasta but it is raining right now and has been all night. The nearby ski resort picked up 5" of new snow last night. They are a fairly low ski resort with the botton at 5500 feet above sea level and the top at about 6900. They have 58' at the base and 72" at the top where last year at this time they had none. All this snow eventually flows into the Sacramento River (the headwaters being in the town of Mt. Shasta). Great news for California :)

I'm in SanMarcos, S CA and it has rained about 2 1/2 inches so far. That's in just 3 days. It's the most rain in a 3 day period I've seen in years! And it's not finished yet. I'm feeling so thankful!!!! Also I felt well enough to do some planting last week, so everything is off to a good start. I only need to move my Pink Prosperity barrel a few inche's this morning, as I inadverdently set it right at the house drip line. WAY to much water there. But I love this rain. Melissa, what beautiful pics! We would have to travel and go camping to see scenes like that. Lisa. Ps Ingrid hasn't said yet, but I'm sure she's getting what I'm getting. Yeah! For her too

All the wet pictures are Pomona College Claremont , California, east of L.A. I was slow getting them in and Melissa posted in the middle!

Even the Koi are happy. I can hear every plant in the garden singing with joy. Or is that me? :^)

I WISH they were pics of here! Even when it rains, what happens is mainly mud. Our entire province is just one big mud pie. Beautiful, beautiful photos of beautiful, beautiful rain.

I live in Claremont (my home town) and am within walking distance of Pomona College. The rain is wonderful here, must go see the spots in Sheila's pictures since I haven't seen them with water before. Thank you Sheila!

Planted a native plant yesterday, Kraschenninikovia lanata, and even with the recent rains, the ground was only damp around 4 inches down. It is going to take a while for the water to sink into the poor, parched ground.

The koi look positively overjoyed. I'm not far from Lisa and yesterday we had a huge storm that dropped at least 1 1/2 inches and it's raining again. I can't remember the last time I saw this much rain, certainly never here in the last 9 years. More storms are predicted and I'm so happy that the Sierras are getting a good snow covering. I don't know how much this will help the drought but it's certainly helping all plant life and will ultimately benefit the animals too. They're probably miserable now because it's so cold and windy, but I'm happy that the garden is getting lots of rain. We had to put sand bags in some places but are happy to do that. Lots of flooding in the San Diego area, although the county has done quite a bit in expectation of El Nino.

Yes! Here in the Northern SF Bay Area we have been having some rain for the past 2 months, but were still at less than 50% of "normal" YTD. As of 5PM yesterday we suddenly had gotten 2.5 inches in the prior 24 hours, and another storm came in last night which was at least the same amount of rain, and they say there are 3 more storms backed up in the Pacific heading this way. This is how our normal winter weather was for the first 60 years of my life here - I keep having to remind myself that this is NOT unusual at all, it just hasn't happened for 4 years. All of my younger relatives have been out of town every since Christmas - they are all up on the ski slopes.

No flooding to mention, as each storm has moved on quickly, and there have been breaks between them. We don't usually flood unless one of them gets stuck and stays over us instead of moving on. Also, they have been cleaning out the storm drains and creeks for months to get ready. The news folks keep trying to hype this as a horrible emergency, but then they do that with everything. Nice and wet - the trees, plants, birds, and I am happy!

Jackie

I thought the thread title brought back a memory....

Anybody else remember memorizing this one decades ago?
It's raining.....the poem

60 years ago in Primary School, the first version......those were the days!

Yes, I learned the first version in nursery school also.

I read an article about children's chants once - many of them are very old. "Ring around the Rosy" is about the Black Plague! Investigators started a new chant in a school in England, and within 3 days it was in the US, Canada, and Australia, and no adults were involved - it moved strictly via the kids!

Jackie

Here in my part of Silicon Valley we've had a bit over 2 1/2 inches in the past few days. We are very happy, as you can imagine.

That is except for one of my terriers. I have taken to calling him "Mr Dainty Paws" because he does not want to step on that icky wet ground.

I'd like to chime in on this. Today was our second day of what was basically all-day rain -- steady, soaking rain. It's softening up the ground for me ... I'm already picturing February, my new roses arriving, and me heading out there with the shovel for some relatively effortless digging.

Some of my HTs stil have buds, but the rest will be ready for pruning in a week or two, I think. The very cold air we had last week has had an effect.

Can you imagine the wildflowers this spring?? It'll be a bonanza.

You guys in Cal must have stolen all our rain! We got an unusually wet September and October but it has been too dry since. Could you please ask your El Ninjo to stop messing up with our much needed winter rains?

Nik, after four years of drought and almost no rain during your wet September and October, I think we have dibs on this rain. Maybe you can borrow some rain from England; I'm sure they'd be glad to give it away. While this rain is absolutely wonderful, there is no guarantee at all that we won't be back to minimal precipitation in the coming years. Usually an El Nino is followed by quite a few La Ninas, so every drop is precious. I just want it to stop for a little while during the day so I can see how the garden is doing.

OT Has anyone given any though to how the internet is bringing people together. In the above 6 posting people from 3 countries are communicating as if they were talking to each other over the back fence. AND they ain’t close to each other…. lol

Toolbelt, that is what I love most about this forum. I learn so much from everyone no matter where they are located and we all have a love for gardening and roses. I love seeing what everyone posts.

The internet and English (or sort of in my case) I should add.

Most of us here in the states can’t be retrained so other country folks make allowances for us and speak English….lol Hey, we are about the only, if not the only country that still uses the English system of measurement. Feet, yards, miles, we know, cm, kilometer….duh We tried it but gave up. We did start using the No Turn signal signs that have a slash through them but for years had words under the sign explaining the meaning of the sign…. We do drive on the Right side of the road, ozmelodye…..:-)))))

Yes, I find it hysterical that in the early 1960s, when I was in Jr. High, (age 13 ish), our science teacher told us that the entire US would certainly be switching to the metric system soon, period. Unfortunately, he spent a lot of time explaining and forcing us to memorize the awkward, ridiculous conversion formulas. That is not the way to do it, obviously - they should have just started using metric (with some number equivalents for a period on things like speed limit signs, etc). Instead, there was a general citizens revolt against it, and I guess since the US market is so large, manufacturers in the US and in the rest of the world have kept manufacturing "English system" products for us ever since. (Luckily, our currency went decimal at the time of the Revolution!).

I used to have to purchase measuring cups at garage sales, as all of the new ones had the metric measurements on the front. I don't have to do that anymore - about 25 years ago they gave up, and now the front (if you are right handed) side has cups, pints, etc. I do cook a LOT, and I have a lot of old family recipes which I am very glad I never had to convert!

There is one area where they use metric which I think has really hurt the govt's attempts to get people to eat more healthily. On the mandated food ingredients labels where it shows amounts of sodium, fat, sugar, etc. they use metric. There has been a lot of shouting lately about how much sugar is in soft drinks. Ha! The label gives sugar content in mgs. No one in this country (except scientists) has the vaguest idea how big a mg is. If they showed the sugar content in tsp or tbl, I assure you that mothers would recoil in horror to see that the soft drink contained, say 15 tsps of sugar! But they don't, so no one has any idea.

Jackie

Sorry I got so far OT, but I do find it amusing. Re rain, we have had 3 1/2 inches here in the 48 hrs ending yesterday at 5PM. However, we are still only 2/3rds of our "normal year to date" number, so I hope this continues for a long time.

Jackie

Jacqueline, your science teacher must have been using the same textbook as mine. My parents were from Europe and loved the metric system, but I was agin it from the start.

Rain is predicted again (50% chance) for Saturday afternoon. I just had an email from ARE telling me my order is on its way. All's right with the world.

Toolbelt, you got me, but at least we, the UK and Japan drive on the CORRECT side of the road:-D Melodye

Of course there's only one SYSTEM, the metric. The other one is just a hodgepodge of traditional measuring methods having been standardised (somewhat). But if it suits you it's fine by me (as long as I don't live there...) lol lol

The correct side of the road is the one which helps one avoid crashing onto oncoming traffic..

You are correct, Nik. I have conversion tables on little magnetic squares all over the top of my refrigerator - NOT to convert between metric & the "English" measurements, but to convert among all of the different English measurements! (i.e., if you are quadrupling a recipe, how many tbls in a cup? etc).

A while ago they tried to put speed limit signs in KPH where I live (btw, how did time being expressed in seconds & minutes & hours & weeks & months escape being decimalized by the metric system?), with also the MPH equivalent, but it caused mass confusion, including in the courts, where the judges agreed that those signs abrogated any speeding tickets, as they were too confusing, so they gave up. I have not seen a sign like that in over 15 years.

Jackie

Do american car speedometers not have kph and mph on them then? Essentially all cars do here, (ok there are some European imports that only have kph, but not many) as part of the slow shift towards metric only. I have dtiven in the US but I honestly can't remember!

Our rainfall totals weren't as high as surrounding areas (we are always lower) but I was happy with what we got as every drop is precious to the garden. Right now, the weeds look far happier than the roses, which in the cold and the wind, look downright miserable.

I used the metric system as a child and well into my 20s. In school we too did conversions and I think these are just mathematical exercises unless students can be made to realize what distances or amounts the converted measurements represent.

I didn't have any difficulty when I first came to the U.S. in adjusting to a different system of measurements. The easiest was the mile - I learnt very quickly how much distance this was. Gallons, cups, pounds and ounces were also easy. I found quart a little harder to visualize as an amount - I should have bought milk in quart cartons than by the gallon, I guess!

I still can't gauge how much distance something given in yards is, though; I need to convert to feet first. For areas given in sq. yards, I reach for the calculator!

Jo

Speedometers have both but we ignore the kph one as if it's not there.... remember, we are hard to retrain.... lol But think about it, most countries are made up of people who speak the same language. We on the other hand have so many people here with languages that could be spoken that all we would be doing is learning a new language. ie. China Town, Little Italy... on and on it could go.

Go two drops of rain today.....

Our cars do have both systems listed on the speedometer, the English system (miles) in large print and the metric in small print below that.

The only thing that converted in daily life was soft drinks. We buy Coke in liters. Everything else is in quarts and gallons.

I sort of understand meters because they are a little bit more than a yard, and I sew so I think about yard frequently; and also kilometers because they are a little bit more than half a mile and I hike regularly. The rest of the metric system is a murky wasteland to my brain. One of my daughters is a nurse, and she gets the part of the metric system that is useful in doses of drugs. My husband is an engineer and he gets the whole thing. I don't know anyone who really understands the metric system who does not have a specific reason to do so.

Back to rainfall, we ended up with 2 3/4" of rain. Not bad at all.

So Rosefolly, how many mm of rain did you say you got?

Yards and quarts are the easiest for me since they are almost, but not quite, the same to meters and liters. A gallon I consider to be 4 liters and I don't care if it is just a bit less. A foot I consider 1/3 of a meter and it's good enough for me just for the purposes of casual communication with you guys across the pond. Tsp is 5ml and Tbsp is 15ml for all intents and purposes unless you're talking about medication... Weights are tough but where the nightmare begins is with inches and fractions of them. If one is into pipes, screws, bolts and the like and starts mixing up metric and US, that way lies insanity.. You need to replace some screw but it's not 6mm neither is it 7... what is it? A US screw!

Btw, don't think all is simple and standardised over here either. If you go to a hardware shop to buy a rachet and sockets you are provided with a selection of 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4" etc rachets but metric sockets in mm... I always have to pause and think which is thicker 1/2 or 3/8 lol lol..

The American system is so inaccurate and nonsensical that scientists use only the metric system anywhere in the world, including the US. It's also easy to learn if taught correctly because it's logical. Why for instance should the freezing point of water be 32 degrees; is it not much more logical for it to be 0 degrees? Oh well, maybe we'll catch up with the rest of the world at some point.

Rosefolly got about 70 mm of rain.

Ingrid, I totally agree with you. Nonsensical is the word. Wasn't the yard based on some king's arm length? I believe the inch was based on the width of a man's thumb. It was also the maximum stick thickness that a husband could use in beating his wife (rule of thumb).

...in recent times, we often get given both types of weight, measurements and temps, which has enabled some of us, most I hope, to adapt. For instance, I know that 10cm = 4 inches, so when I see a rose reaches a height of 90cm, then that's 36'' or 3 foot.... I can easily work that one out....

..same with mm... we are told that 25mm of rain is equal to 1 inch, so I know that Rosefolly's 70mm is just under 3 inches...

...I have learnt so much on these forums about the way people in different countries use English terms and I'm still adapting to this. A couple of examples would be already seen here.... a meter to you is a metre to me... a meter to me is something entirely different, it's an apparatus usually stuck in a cupboard or some out of the way place, maybe outside attached to the house, where we take 'meter readings' to send to our energy suppliers, so they bill us every 3 months for electricity, water, etc..

...which makes me ask the question, just what do you call our version of meter..?

...my other struggle, and it still takes me by surprise is the way temps are written. Here we usually get both again, often interchangeably, but usually starting with Centigrade then the Fahrenheit temp is offered, sometimes in brackets...or the other way around... so when you speak of your night time temps being say 10 degrees and it's freezing cold, I'm thinking....?? what? that's 50 Fahrenheit...and that's cold!!.... then I think again and realise my mistake.... I often get caught out with this... my fault, not yours...

...it's fun, but whilst I have 'Cup' measuring spoons in my kitchen, I've absolutely no idea what they convert to in pounds and ounces and have never bothered to find out... if I see a recipe stating 1 Cup of this and half a Cup of that,... I have to ignore that receipe and look for something else..... I'm afraid that one just does my head in...so to speak...

Marlorena, both meter and metre come from the same greek word metron 'μέτρον' which roughly meant measure (in all its senses) and is supposedly of proto-indoeuropean origin. So the distinction in British English (and Can, Aus I think) seems quite arbitrary although apparently 'metre' seems closer to the original greek word.

In reality the two terms, while stemming from Greek, may have come to the English language through different routes (more recent metre directly from modern French while meter seems much older probably coming into Old English from medieval French or directly from Latin) hence the variation.

The same difference applies for the term as applied in music and poetry. I believe the Americans also use meter for the measuring devices.

Similarly with center and centre were both stem from the same greek word kentron (κέντρον) originally having meant a sting, a prickle or a sharp point.

Meter

The problem with the US or 'English' systems is not that the base unit is arbitrary (most units are in some sense, there's no real reason for the mtr to be as long as it is) but that they are not uniform decimal systems.

The funny thing is that since the 1950s the yard is formally defined with respect to the mtr, thus a foot and an inch are also defined with respect to it... So you can't have your inches if we don't have our centimeters first lol lol

Just to answer your question, Marlorena, we used to have meter readers who came by the house to "read" on an outside device how much electricity had been used. Now I think they do it all long-distance with computers.

Nik, you would just love working over here as a Carpenter. We have boards that are not the size given. Such as a 2x4 is actually a 1 1/2 x 3 1/2. When they first started building they used an actual 2x4 but the sissies didn't like getting splinters in their fingers so they planed off each side of the board so it was smooth. The 1 inch thickness boards are 3/4 inch but the width looses 1/2 inch. Do you have the same problem?? Such as a 5 cm board being 4.5cm???

That's pretty funny, toolbelt, and reminds that 1,2,3,etc, gallon nursery pots are not really full gallons, but smaller, for some reason. Why is that? More to ponder during this boring winter. Diane

Marlorena, since we have had solar panels installed our electricity meter is read remotely by computer, but 'the gasman cometh' still to read the gas meter. With apologies to Flanders and Swan. Melodye

..thanks for the various replies to my queries here.... from what I now deduce, in the U.S. they use a single spelling of meter to cover both, whereas here we use two spellings, metre for distance and meter for our energy supply needs... there is no way for instance, I would refer to my meter box as a metre box...

...I think, if I was learning English as a foreign language, I might prefer to use the American spellings, as it seems they're a little less complicated...

...I'm not sure we have long distance readings via computer here as yet, maybe in some places, - I think this is a great idea - but we tend to take our own readings and pass them over either by phone or internet, but once a year they send someone out to do a manual reading, just in case we're cheating... it's been this way for many years as far as we are concerned here, and after living in different areas of the country...

..Melodye above reminds me that 'gas' is another area of confusion.... we would never use gas to refer to the petrol we put in our cars [autos?].... once again, more simplified maybe but confusing for me, in the U.S. they use gas to refer to different things...

'Petrol prices ' has a nice ring to it, but it isn't so so good when one gets to the pump and then has to pay! Melodye

Yes indeed, 'petrol' seems to be much more expensive than when sold as 'gas(oline)'... lol lol Petrol is 'benzene' round these parts and it tends to be even more expensive..

How many Americans know that in the US there are 'regular' feet and inches and 'survey' ones which are ever so slightly different?

My DH is a retired contractor, and he says that he thinks for practical building inches/feet/yards is an easier system, because the numbers are all functions of 2 and 3 (ie 12 inches in a foot, three feet in a yard, etc). He says it is easy to make the numbers come out as integers when you are calculating slopes for a roof, etc. He points out that 12 is the only number which comes out as an integer when multiplied by the square root of 2. I don't completely understand what he is talking about, as it has been a long time since I took trigonometry, but he says that you can use string to do measurements and divisions if you have to, because you can divide any distance by 2 or by 3 by folding the string. He thinks that the Romans used this system, and could build without having educated builders, or computers, or even accurate measuring sticks.

Jackie

Your DH is quite right. In fact all these measuring systems, as well as the time and year divisions, are remnants of ancient duodecimal (a.k.a dozenal) numeric systems much older than the Roman civilization going back to the neolithic age. The convenience stems from the fact that twelve has many integer factors (1,2,3,4,6). However what was practically convenient to the neolithic man is not necessarily the best for us 'moderns', especially since we have adopted the decimal numeric system since a very long time ago....

My husband is a land surveyor and I worked in soils on grading sites so we are well aware of the tenths and huindreds and thousandths of a foot that are used. I always found it easier to write 10.5 feet for 10 feet 6 inches anyway :). Some of the govenmental surveying has gone to meters but I was also raised when they tried to convert Americans to metric. It is very useful in science and I can get my head around most of them but I still like the measurement you learn by rote, like 43,560 square feet in an acre. And a kilometer is just too darn short for anything useful except running where you can make your distances sound longer in metric ;)

I collect old cook books, and frequently make recipes which are in them. I love the old old common sense measuring which is in them:

"butter the size of an egg" (naturally they were putting the butter between two paddles and shaping it - but how big were their eggs?)

"Hot", "warm", and "cool" oven, which was decided by how long it took a piece of paper to turn what color.

My all time favorite, which is also in recipes I got from my Mother, was "cook it until it is done"

Jackie

Along those lines I got a set of measuring spoons for my daughter that had "Pinch" "Dash" and some other measurements like that. I thought they were cute.