It’s been so dry here lately, everyone is suffering. Water restrictions in most towns and counties are the norm. I think we are about 12″ down for the year on our water table, that’s not good at all. My Silver Maple tree that was planted two years ago is suffering terribly. I am torn between watering it to save it, and saving the water in our well should the dryness continue. She (yes, it’s a she……don’t ask my why, but I can reassure you, this tree is a she), but, she’s so dry, I can hear her pain as her leaves wither away. I think today I’ll give in and give her a deep watering. 
I hope it’s not too late, but I’m afraid if I go much longer without watering her, she’ll suffer irreparable damage. It hurts my soul every time I feel her cries, but the choices are not easy….water the tree, save the water for future use? We so desperately need rain. Did you notice the little conifer behind her is a lost cause? It’s always struggled in the soil there and this year was too much, one day it was green, but small still, the next day is was totally brown.
But, in spite of the dryness, there is hope of rain. This morning I saw something I hadn’t seen for quite a while, in the sunrise there were CLOUDS! Yes, CLOUDS!!!!! There is a chance of rain this evening, and I will be glad to see it materialize. And the clouds made the sunrise so full of depth and glow. I had to run in from what I was doing to take a few pictures.
And a few minutes later:
And to those of you who know I am not an early riser and are asking “what were YOU doing up so early?!” Well, I was dye painting scarves of course. If I move the dye painting away from the covered porch and out into the open yard, surely that will insure rain, won’t it?
These scarves look very dark now, but experience has taught me that most of the color will wash out when I rinse these. I’ve used deep orange, bright yellow, golden yellow, chocolate brown and maroon on the two fall colored ones. The spring one is bright green, deep yellow and baby pink! I can’t wait to see them rinsed!
In a future post I’ll show you what they turned out like. They may succeed, they may fail, but I’ll still show you. If they succeed terrific, if they fail, well let’s hope that someone can learn from my failures and succeed in their own attempts. Oh and I’ll post a picture of the Lincoln Quilters raffle quilt that I returned yesterday. But for now, I really do need another cup of coffee!
The scarves are beautiful! I can’t wait to see them done. Do you have a way to collect your laundry or bath water? When I lived in Virginia Beach (permanent water restrictions) and had new landscaping I captured my laundry water to water the plants. It worked great and was plenty of water to keep all of my trees and plants happy. You could even scoop out dish water into buckets. It’s a hassle but it could be a possible short term solution and ease your mind about using “fresh” water. Your postcard arrived and I LOVE it! I’ve got to get mine done this weekend.
Oh Judy! You’re being so creative. I love the scarves and I love the pictures too. I’m glad you gave that poor sweet girl a drink of water. I feel so bad for the trees at this time of year.
Linda
Those scarves are gorgeous. But, oh the pictures of the sunrise. Just glorious.
About conserving water> You can actually capture any water from the shower, bath, etc and use it to flush your toilet. My DIL did that all the time in the Czech Republic. It was a real nuisance, but it worked. She had buckets of bath water sitting next to to the toilet and used that water during flushing. Toilets and showers are notorious water users.
We are so lucky here. Water is abundant, and we have our own well. Still, I believe in being good stewards of our land. Not sure I’m ready to have buckets of dirty water sitting in the bathroom, though.
Those scarves are beautiful. And I am relieved to know that other people have a lot of the dye rinse out too 🙂 Our trees took a hit this year too. Hopefully the good roots will sustain it until next year.
Love the pictures of both the sunrise and the scarves-in-progress. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
judy… i don’t know if this will help or not but we were having 3 digit temps for over a month here in idaho…we are on water rations also…our plants and trees were all drying up…my husband installed a drip irrigation system…very easy to install…very inexpensive total cost was $40.00…and our trees and plants look as if they have been freshly planted…it is on a timer and it goes on for 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night…here they don’t care if you water by drip irrigation every day as long as it isn’t a sprinkler system…the water goes directly to the roots of the trees and plants…it sure made a world of difference for our plants…the lawn however is another story as we can only water it 3 times a week…hope this helps…lyn
ps…we bought ours at lowes but any garden center or home supply store should have them…
Spectacular!!! I love sky pictures and how it constantly changes.