Weekend Walkabout: Orchids in the Storm

This last week, I've been visiting with family. We've had some extremely weird cloud formations and storms here on the Family Sand Dune:

Cool, scary cloud....

Do you see a smiley face, sort of a demented Muppet in this one?? I kinda do....

This one's just pretty. My orchids are calmly blooming in all this:

The top is a Guartonia (so I am told), the bottom is a natural Phal, no dye! The Guartonia needs a lot more sun than the Phal, so they normally are not together, but for the portrait, I stuck them next to each other. Have a wonderful weekend!

It's the Quiet Ones You Have to Watch Out For....

So They (meaning people with way more education in meteorology than I have) said it was going to be a Very Quiet Hurricane Season this year. Hmmph.

This blob, perched outside my eastern window, is probably going to be christened Ana in a couple of days....

Soon-to-be-named TS Ana? MR, 5-2015

And before she's even named, and nearly a month before the official start of Hurricane Season, she has the discourtesy to dump 10cm rain on my newly seeded herb garden! No gentle rain, just a big wall of water poured out of the heavens onto my little seeds. So the herb patch is all flooded out and when it dries up, I'll just do it all over. Hmph.

Interestingly, about 24 hours before "Ana-to-be" flooded my garden, all the snakes who live out there were out of their burrows, their heads held high and sniffing the air. Then they all made for higher ground, or, since we have no higher ground here, the old wooden fence and the lawn furniture. Seems they have more education in meteorology than humans do. Always pay attention to your snakes!

An Alert Southern Corn Snake

 
But here's a lovely flower photo (an orchid of course, they're blooming all over the house right now) to make it all better.

More On The Expanding Tropics....

Here's a brief article about how the tropics are expanding as we add more energy to our atmosphere and oceans in the form of heat:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27408964

If you used to be subtropical, you're probably tropical today!

The Sun Comes Out On Fridays....

Hurray for weekends without hurricanes or tropical storms! We all came through just fine, and TS Andrea is now roiling around somewhere near Virginia. Lost some more bits from the roof, but it'll be repaired next week. A few seriously leaning palm trees, but my Russian Sunflowers made it through the winds and rain:

Sunny as a Babytoes!

I'm writing up my "Lessons from Lithops" post and it will be here soon. In the meantime, happy Friday!