At last, it's raining in Southern California!
This rain is badly needed. We're facing our third year of drought, and 80% of the State is suffering from the drought. The dry spell we've been having has been affecting California's agriculture; huge farms have gone fallow from lack of water. There has been an ongoing program in Southern California to encourage people to change their landscaping to drought-tolerant ones. This means, green grass has been replaced by gravel and sand; and thirsty plants have been uprooted and replaced by California native plants or even cacti.
Tuesday is when the storm is expected to hit Southern California, but we've already had some rain last night and today. Unfortunately, this storm will not solve our drought problem; but it will help. Also unfortunate is that the landslide-prone areas will have to be prepared.
On another matter, this afternoon, we had a lovely "sunshower," a condition where the sun is shining while it's raining. My friend, Swapna, who grew up in India said when they were children, they used to say the spirits got married during sunshowers.
How charming, I thought. I looked this up and learned that many cultures have folklore about this weather condition, most of them having to do with "marriage." Many are about the wedding of foxes The Philippines also has a story of a wedding, in this case, between "tikbalangs" which is a type of enchanted being.
Wikipedia has an interesting writeup on Sunshowers, including lists of countries and related folklore.
This is all this Monday, as we get ready for our big rain storm tomorrow.
Have a great week!
Read also
Santa Monica, California: Mural on Steward Street "Pico Neighborhood"
Tags: rain, Southern California, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, drought, California
Cecilia
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