waiting for the rain…

It hasn’t rained in almost a year, and it would appear that most of the plants in the desert are dead. When you look out the studio windows, you see the desert in all shades of brown with leafless gnarled, tangled sticks, sparse and bare except for the green of the cardón cactus. But, what has amazed me about this landscape is that if you look closer, you will see signs of life everywhere. There may not be enough energy in a plant to put out leaves and photosynthesize but it might throw out some flowers for the pollinators. Sometimes the flowers are very short lived, wilting in the summer heat but they are there and getting their seeds ready for when the rains do come.

Last week we were overrun by ants that were carrying all their eggs to higher ground, trying to nest in our kitchen and furniture. They weren’t looking for the crumbs on the counter or the drip down the side of the honey jar, they somehow knew that it is the season of the rains and they needed to find a better spot to hide out their next generation. Life in the desert is a lesson in patience and opportunity, you see it in the birds, plants and mammals and I find it fascinating to watch.

Just this morning we got a light sprinkling of the first rain of the season – it was hardly enough to even be called rain, but in the desert every drop counts. As the season progresses, the storms off the ocean will inevitability come closer to land and the afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains will spill out to our area. We will be inundated with water, and for a time it will feel like way too much water. But it only lasts for a small period of time and the desert will soak up enough to last through the whole next year. Stay tuned as we watch the desert come alive again and turn from brown to vibrant green, until then, we wait for the rain.