Drought scenes: Pasture

Since the rain, we've found ourselves looking out at the grass for signs of greening. It's foolish, maybe, since by now all the benefit of the rain has been used up, but I'm glad we still hope. And I just found a flower bud on one of the ragged, exhausted zinnias this morning.

Still, headed down to the low ground where the pond lies, the pasture appears to be burnt to a crisp. The summer grass never really grew, and instead masses of English plantains sprang up, with their tough, tall stalks topped by little puffy flower heads. Now even the plantains are dried and brown.



Further up the hills, it's less weedy but still looks kind of like our mental image of California in the summer... not what this area should look like.