Moving Water, Having Fun

Here's what happens when we were testing with the hose to add water to the garden basin. Looks like it just rained, but not on day this taken, April 4. This was last week, and recent cold weather and rain have added to the lower rain garden basin, to be shown next.

My "raingarden" is not actually the same as what may be pictured in recent articles about this concept. What I have is more of a drainage system with a swale at the upper side, pictured here, and another swale at the lower level, with drainage channels running in between.

Basically all this is more like the playing with sand and water at the beach that I did as a kid. We'd work on rerouting the stream channel that ran into Puget Sound near our house, using beach rocks, logs, and the sand. Now its dirtier, and there's an actual purpose to it other than just having fun. But when I'm out there and the rain is pouring down and I'm poking at the little blockages in the drainage patterns, removing sticks and leaves with the bamboo garden stake I just grabbed, not bothering to change shoes after getting home from some meeting or other, well, what else but fun?

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Spring in January 2010

Been so warm outside these days, really feels like spring. Grass is starting to grow, daffodils are up a few inches or more in places, primroses blooming and for sale at all the groceries, weeds growing, and we hear they are worried about getting enough snow for the Olympics next month up the road in Vancouver, B.C. And no, this warm winter in the Puget Sound Convergence Zone has nothing to do with Global Warming, or as we should call it, Global Climate Change. What I don't understand at all is why so many people who have learned to read and write and supposedly understand what they read have decided not to use their abilities to discern what scientists keep telling us. The glaciers are melting, that's a fact. But don't take my word for it, or the National Geographic's word for it. Go read for yourself. Ok, so now we just call it Global Change. Not just climate, or maybe not even climate, and certainly nothing to do with the weather. Changes in the global envir...

Spring in the Rain Garden

Now that I'm making sure my plastic will be finally laid in the landfill, after being cast out of the recycling facilty if it does not meet the requirements, or after being recycled into park bench or decking material, and what's left goes in the landfill to stay forever, now that that's all figured out, I can focus back on my little rain garden project. Just visited a yard where the drainage is a real problem, lawn all squishy and mossy. But here we live on a hill, near the top at nearly 500 ft so we don't get drainage from above, except of course from the up the cul de sac to our east. A river of storm water runs along the front of the curb, and if I could just figure out a way to channel it into the yard, I'd really be in business. But back to the drainage from the roof of our split-level, and the channeling into this little swale. Here's a new picture of the daffodils and a few plantings. The red twigs were just stuck in as cuttings to root, but those...

What is The Convergence Zone?

The Convergence Zone is, for me, a place where things come together. Where I put down thoughts and jottings as I like for whoever may be interested, relating to living here where we are in the middle of the Puget Sound Convergence Zone. As a weather feature of the Puget Sound region, this zone is remarkable as a place where weather systems collide and create storm conditions: Heavy rain, storm, wind, hail, snow, thunder, lightening, and so on. The following is adaped from the KOMO TV explanation: The Puget Sound Convergence Zone occurs when there is a northwest flow in the upper atmosphere, and unstable air. Frequently following a storm system, northwest winds blow stronger and can collide with the Olympic Mountains. Part of the air flow is then deflected east down the Strait of Juan de Fuca toward Puget Sound, while the other part is deflected down the western side of the Olympic mountains. When the northern air flow reaches the Cascade Mountains, it is forced to the south. Meanwhi...

The Convergence Zone

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