Another Tuesday morning watching the day begin. I have set up a table for my work station that faces our front door, so I can enjoy the night becoming the day. Yesterday we had our first truly cloudy day and even a bit of rain. Amazing how different the air smells with even just a few drops of rain! This morning there is a mix of clouds painting the sky, although, I doubt we will get any more rain. It is a delightful change to the hot sunny days we have had for months. Around us, just about every tomato field has been harvested and disked in. Every day when I drive down our road, I see tractors disking away, kicking up an unbelievable amount of dust - well actually it is top soil. It makes me so sad to watch that precious life provider blow away in the wind. Many of those fields will remain bare until they plant again next season. With every storm and windy day, we will loose more, but at least the bit of rain we had yesterday helped to clear the air. The sky is much brighter this morning.
With greens in the share and our first rainy day I have Nigel's voice in my head telling me how the plants love the rain; "they jump out of the ground!", he would say. The first time he told me that, I thought it was pretty crazy, but every year I would see that it was true. Thinking about this I decided to google it. No big answers popped out at me, a few sites mention the fact that rain water does not contain the minerals that tap or well water would. Some sites talk about coverage and replenishing ground water levels. I suppose both of those answers could play a part, but I suspect there is something more. Maybe one of you knows. If you do please share the answer!