A low off the west coast has blown enough smoke into the mountains for the air quality here in the San Francisco Bay Area to improve. We are now in the “Moderate range.” If you must, you can work, play and exercise outside. However, today is the 30th day of Spare the Air and our Corvid numbers remain in the dreaded purple range (along with most of California), so nowhere to go. Except your garden, if you have one.
The Red Quill seemed to stop blooming in the thick of it but has now begun again. Is this a hopeful sign?
I do not know. It’s so hard to have any hope. So damn hard.
What will happen when the blooming reaches the tip? Will it remain a stalk of spent buds? We will see.
Saying nothing in particular 
The air is still unhealthy down here in San Diego. I had a lot of trouble breathing yesterday. You could cut the smoke with a knife though most of it is blown in from Los Angeles. Our local fire is 87% contained. Satellite images show California blanketed by smoke with a giant plume extending all the way to Michigan. Fire season lasts through November in Southern California followed by torrential floods when the rain begins. To top it off, there have been 56 earthquakes in the desert east of San Diego in the past thirty days. Welcome to the Golden State.
I had not heard about the earthquakes. Oh boy. I hope your air improves soon.
These are low magnitude quakes (1.5-3.7) that don’t make the news, but still a reminder that the area is a very active fault zone. As for air quality, the weather service says it could take months for the sky to clear. Because this is an annual event, it should give pause to residents of California and those who are thinking of moving here.
Update 9-30-20 … there was a swarm of 80 earthquakes that shook the Imperial Valley south of the Salton Sea in a 4-hour period this afternoon. They were all magnitude 3 or above with the largest being 4.9 …
It is hard to have hope when the smoke has fogged up your brains by now – so sorry, Friend! When we started making the trek from Northern CA to the South, and then East to our new living place in the Austin area, for about 6 hours we saw no blue sky, so depressing and eerie. That was around the 23rd, just in the beginning of the fires. Can’t imagine how it must have be to live in this atmosphere for 3 weeks and longer. Thank heavens, you have a yard! It seems these beautiful flowers are doing better than we, people! Keep your head up high, and believe in hope against hope that eventually things will get better!
Many people have it much worse than me, that’s for sure. This year has just been such a horror show in so many ways.
Portland last Sunday: 477 – like smoking 20 cigarettes if you stayed outside for 8 hours…
Cool that your Rod of Righteousness tuffed out the summer to expose itself fully.
Hopefully that rain they keep promising for Portland will arrive soon. Yes, the Rod of Righteousness has toughed it out – from what I’ve read, it’s a highly poisonous plant! Perhaps it should be the weapon of choice for Girl Pokey. Thanks for the idea.
2020: Filled with disasters, it’s the worst year in many decades.
It sure it!
You guys are really getting hammered this year. Your garden is beautiful. I hope the air improves soon.
Thanks. Today is much better but it all depends on the winds.
Your garden is lovely, all my west coast friends and family are on my mind. My grandchildren are young. 7 and 3 years old. First, they had to home school, then they couldn’t see their friends, then they had to learn to wear masks and now they can’t even play in their yard! Glad to hear air quality is getting better in San Francisco.
It’s really rough on the kids for sure. But this will someday be a distant memory for them while I doubt their elders will ever forget it.
It’s an awful year, praying for you 💜
Thank you Willow.
I guess we are all in uncharted territory. One can only hope that we might just start to treat our planet with respect.
So much is at risk right now. These are deadly times. Hope you are wall in Penzance!
Saw a news item on siberia. They have one fifth of the world’s forest and it’s on fire. Sounds like they’re competing with you guys again. The smoke wars… this is defo an annus horribilis
Oh no. Didn’t they have big fires last year as well? Annus horribilis is right.
I think so. The permafrost is melting to and causing chaos. Terrible
It IS hard but it’s not like we have a choice. At least you have this beautiful garden.
That is true. And I have a mask for the smoky days.
Exactly.
Beautiful flowers! I hope those fires subside soon. It’s awful.
Thank you – we probably won’t be in the clear until the rains come.
In another comment you mentioned horror show – perfect description for it. Though this time, you cannot comfort yourself with the words, “It’s only a movie.” Stay safe.
When you think Armageddon it’s generally civilization wiped out in a big bang… not a long and steady stream of disasters.
Beautiful tough plant.
Y’all need some of the hurricane rain we got. Slow and steady…rained all day, yesterday.
Despite the horrors of fires, I think statistically hurricanes do more damage – so stay safe and good luck!
Maybe so. I haven’t looked at any stats. I did live thru Fran. That one was nasty.
I’m in NC, so, we just caught the rain from the dying tropical storm. We were fine…thanks.
I’ve seen some of the shots of the orange sky around the Golden Gate. Wow.
Oh goodness, I’m so sorry to hear of the situation where you are. Please do stay safe. I’m glad though that you have your beautiful garden. The Red Quill seems to be a good omen for better days. Take courage and have hope.
We really are living one day at a time; one step at a time.
There seems to be no break. It’s one thing after another.
Be well! I hope the fires diminish, and you get a bit of good air.
The Covid is so virile. We had it way down here, even 0 death days, but it’s on the rise again.
I’m sure we are headed for another crack down.
I am sorry to hear of the situation. Please take care!
Happy things are improving with the air quality. Now for the rest of this mess 🙂
One thing after another, hey? What a year.