Hope For Drought Relief!!

The next couple of days here in Quail will go a long way to determining if many dogwood trees live or die.  While a friend from the other side of Louisa County told me it was the worst mosquito year she can remember that is not a problem here; there is no water here. The north side (and east and west ends) have had inches of rain this month and the world is lush and green - and apparently full of breeding mosquitoes, we have almost none. No water, not mosquitoes!!
Just finishing a book on the building 21st century worldwide water issues - Alex Prud'homme's, The Ripple Effect- was even more troubling reading in a house that catches and filters rain water. And, while a recent check on my tanks reveals quite a bit of water it could use a serious freshening and the entire forest is parched. My trails are almost leaf covered; the earliest I can remember this many leaves giving up on life (usually a hot, August thing). A one two punch of storm systems is headed this way, unfortunately they will likely be spotty and none have hit this spot. Watching storms on radar reminds me of people in a crowd swerving and contorting to miss the crazy, ranting person; oh, we don't want to go that way, oh, miss that spot... Watching trees die is not fun.
The rocking earthquake planet that was yesterday - several quakes in the 5 range - has calmed and is fairly quiet. And, so far, there have been no quakes in Oklahoma, a day no doubt remembered by oil companies in their denial reports, "you can't prove it's salt water injection, 'cause we injected today and there were no quakes". Or maybe they didn't inject... But, it's still early in the day.
The week's volcano list has grown slightly from last week with pretty standard Ring O Fire activity. Piton de la Fournaise off Madagascar has been oozing some lava of late but is not really raging. Nishinoshimo, the new island forming well off Japan's southeast coasts is still fired up and growing although seems to be mostly still underwater.
The slowly growing crescent moon will approach Jupiter tonight, my hope is that will be blocked with storm clouds. The clouds are building, the humidity is sneaking up, the stage is set; come on ya big planet, dump some water on me, today on Earth.

Water: A "Need" for Life on Earth

As the long heat wave continues on the east coast (and elsewhere, I'm sure) walking in the forest Saturday was a dry, scrunchy world that has been July 2017. Storms continue to dump rain all around Quail but all have missed here. Dogwoods are dying, moss paths are brown and brittle; the world is parched, craving a few drops of water.  Sadly, that's all we got Saturday night and again Sunday morning as two more storms skirt here leaving 0.05" of rain each time.  But, what a difference a tenth of an inch makes. The moss is green and spongy, the air is cleaner and cool and pleasant; the desert is gone and it almost feels like a rain forest again; and with 1/10 of an inch.
The air here quickly heated up, more deluges missed to the south last night and life here is hunkering down because, a tenth of an inch is not going to do it for long but it's amazing what a little moisture will do. While I'm in a major drought the flip side of the planet Earth weather coin was taking place just 30 miles to the north and west, the Orange County fair was ended abruptly Saturday when straight line winds tossed tables and ripped down tents; "we'll be back next year" fair sponsors
said.
If you have clear skies tonight, the one day past new moon will be very low in the west, a very thin crescent, and below Mercury and Regulus, the heart of Leo.  Our natural satellite will be above the star/planet combo tomorrow night and just above bright Jupiter this Friday.
Forecasts call for cooler drier weather starting tomorrow for the Old Dominion so get out and watch the moon start another moonthly trip around our planet. When this trip is done, the August new moon will place the moon directly in front of the sun; the Great American Eclipse, when the moon's shadow will race across the US from Oregon to South Carolina. Hope you are somewhere along the shadow path as I plan to be August 21.Until then get out and realize, hot or cold, this is the best planet there is; enjoy today on Earth.

The Breyer dog in the pond; it's good being a water dog!!

Moon & Saturn, Montana Quakes and Belching Volcanoes

It's a cloudy, muggy, summer day here in the east but out west, Montana to be more specific, things are shaking! A 5.8 magnitude quake hit in the mountains of big sky country just after midnight local time and aftershocks continue as I write. The shallow focus quake seems to have done little damage, it was up in the mountains, but was felt for upwards of 100 miles and is just a little reminder, mountain building requires earthquakes. Hope that is not somehow related to that large napping volcano in the corner of the state just to their south.
And, speaking of volcanoes, the Ring of Fire is really belching and spewing this week.  Of the almost two dozen fiery mountains on the USGS-SI list many are not just shaking and showing heat anomalies but erupting gas, ash and lava with warnings increased for locals and air traffic. A surprise eruption in Indonesia injured many in a group of tourists checking out the volcano and a rescue helicopter headed in to help crashed killing all aboard. It's dangerous out there in the eruption zone.
A clear sky tonight will show the waxing gibbous moon just above bright Saturn; will be a lovely pairing if... and that's a big if for this part of the world, the sky is clear. Jupiter will be bright on the other side of the southern sky and the star off to the west (right) of the moon/Saturn show is Antares, the red giant heart of Scorpio. Hope your sky is clear enough to check it out.
It is hard to let a summer day slide by without a mention of weather, and it's typical here in Va., hot and muggy with a good chance of storms. Some of those storms moved slowly and dropped lots and lots of rain yesterday with local streams out of banks and roads covered. While 40 miles away received over 5 inches of rain, here at the tirehouse we got a meager 0.15". It's hit or miss with T-storms and I have mostly been in the miss zone so far in 2017.  Not sure I need 5 inches in a couple of hours but 1 or 2 would help out dry conditions; with clearing to check out the moon and ringed world!
Alas, wishes do little to faze the big planet we ride on. What happens on Earth is because the temperatures and pressures of the rock, air and water of the planet influence and affect each other and are trying to get to some kind of unobtainable point of equilibrium. Go out and influence the world with your presence, today on Earth.