ME II: pouring rain + work

· Maine Event

Today started off cloudy with hints of fog. We awoke quite early and after enough coffee and breakfast wandered out to see our favorite morning haunts: the Clark Street Community Garden, the Harbor Park, Summer Street, Danforth Street, May Street, and the curvaceous Spruce Street. Then I made my way through thousands of emails and had meetings until 7pm Eastern. Hopefully, that is just a one-off event and I can stop at a more reasonable hour for dinner. Around 3pm it started raining with intermittent downpours. It's downright magical. Now it's dark and rainy and while we usually walk in the evening I think we will stay in. Tomorrow promises to be dry and cloudy. We and the larger community here are grateful for the rain because this part of Maine is currently in a 'severe drought' with a rainfall deficit of 7.3 inches since January. We have gotten a little more than three-quarters of an inch in the last hour. The average is about 50 inches annually, not counting snow. On our early morning walk, we noticed everywhere the plants looked dry and brown and less vibrant and healthy. Also, the community garden was underplanted for August. Strangely, it was obviously dry even though this seems so wet in comparison to California.

view down a sidewalk with bricks for the sidewalks
This is the beginning of our walk to the community garden. Nothing special just our view.
Sign that reads Clark Street Community Garden Portland Public Services
Clark Street Community Garden
squash plants trailing out of a high box in a garden
Beautiful squash plant...
garden scene with vegetables and echinacea
View of the garden with vegetables planted, the other half is empty right now. Perhaps summer veggies were just harvested. I find food growing so lush and comforting.
highway bridge with thin fog
One of the views from Habor View Memorial Park - note the thin fog as the storm is arriving.
view of the islands with trees, roofs and vintage street lights in the view with fog
Looking the other way from Habor View Memorial Park are the foggy islands and some industry.
black cat sitting on a brick walkway
There are more dogs as the pandemic goes on here in Portland but it's still a Cat Town.
rainy view of a school playground
Rainy afternoon looking at the school playground across the way.
rain in the headlights of a car at night
Rain in the evening. In the last 6 hours, we've had 1.75 inches of rain. I'm not sure what the storm total will be but they think it will stop at midnight.

I'm looking forward to the Wednesday farmers market. One lovely thing about Maine is that many things open at 7am so I can run errands then before starting work.

Have a peaceful evening!

Love, Tawnia

Short bird list today

  1. Rock Pigeon
  2. House Sparrow
  3. Herring Gull
  4. Gray Catbird