What follows the rain?
Eleven inches (28cm) of rain this month in St. Louis (officially), with at least 9" (23cm) of it coming in the last four days. What follows heavy rains in late December?
Well, two things. The first is fungus, or at least fungal blooms. My wife noticed these crazy orange/reddish things from the window.
They're stinkhorn mushrooms of some kind, although these have been flattened by rain.
I found them in several places in my yard this morning, but the biggest concentration is in the spot visible from the window.
This appears to be one that's still emerging:
Too wet and too cold for me to hang around looking at these for very long, which brings me to the second thing that follows rain in December: Ice!
Buckets, containers, wheelbarrows, all full of water, all with a thin and geometric coating of crystals.
Thin but beautiful ice.
There will be much more of this in the next few days as temperatures plunge -- lows in the mid-to-low 20's F later this week -- but this is a nice way to ease into it.
At least there's no more rain forecast for the next few days. I'll have to get outside and dig up some elephant ear tubers and canna rhizomes very soon, as it seems like it will be cold enough to damage them...
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Wow, you've had almost as much rain as we have here in Portland! (a record for us, is it for you?) I had some of those stinkhorns show up over the summer, in one of my bamboo tanks, Lila smelled them way before I saw them.
Such vibrant red/orange amidst the browns of the sleeping perennials. I've never seen these in my garden but they are sure cool. Ice crystals are pretty and interesting but make me dream of living in a warmer climate. Although, who'd want to stay inside and decorate for the holidays where it's warm outside in the winter?