Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Life in the Rainforest

Redwood trees on the golf course
Redwoods on the golf course across from my house.
I love living in a temperate rainforest. We live at the southern tip of the west coast's temperate rainforest. Temperate Rainforests are less well known than their tropical counterparts!Our dominant trees are Coastal Redwoods. We normally get around 60 inches of rain a year -- the highest year I've lived through was 111 but people died from the rain that year and we'd rather not do that again, thank you! (Mudslides are not our friends!) This year, to date, we have had 12.5 inches (our rainfall year starts in October). This is upsettingly low for the end of January which is usually one of our wettest months.

{Interesting historical record of Boulder Creek rainfall totals}

So, bottom line as pleased as we were to get a couple of days of rain, it's not enough. We need days on end of rain. Usually by this time of year, we are complaining about the mold on the windows and counting the mushrooms growing in the yard, not worrying about dry skin and wondering if we should turn the sprinklers back on. It's a wild year, alright.

In other news, we got our game table yesterday. It's wonderful. Of course, now we have to move lamps, make cushions for the chairs, figure out what this means for the rest of the living room but it's all good.

new game table
Look, Gage is dealing us up a hand of Crazy Eights!

7 comments:

robin andrea said...

I always forget that Boulder Creek gets so much more rain than Santa Cruz. I think the yearly average for Santa Cruz is only 20 inches. I've read that the winter El Nino conditions will take hold for a while which should bring plenty more rain to you. I hope it is just enough, and certainly not too much.

The table looks cool, and your windows are grand.

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

That is an amazing total average rainfall! I had no idea.

Love that game table and your chairs are pretty cool too.

Mary said...

Thanks, Liza. I learned something about rainforests today! Those windows must give you a breathtaking view. Nice game table!

Anonymous said...

That must be amazing to live in the rainforest like this! BTW: love your sunroom but mold on all those windows! o my!

Susan Gets Native said...

The game table rocks.
And your windows! You must go through gallons of Windex a year.

Bring on the rain! Liza's redwoods need a drink!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the compliments. The game table is lovely and I'm thrilled. It's actually in our living room which has that amazing view of the golf course (and the garbage cans which I had sort of stopped seeing until I looked in the picture -- gotta do something about that!!!).

Windex? Ha! I don't do windows. Seriously, I don't wash them that often. Here's what you haven't through of . . . golf course . . . windows. . . see what I mean? Crash! Oh no a broken window! In two years, we've replaced 3 windshields. Seriously! These windows have plexiglass "storm" windows that go over them all -- it stops the golf balls and also keeps the windows fairly clean.

Oh, and Mon@arch -- the mold is only on the back windows and dark front windows. Although when I repainted, I did use mold inhibitor in the paint. :)

Life in the redwoods!

Anonymous said...

Love the coastal redwoods! Thanks for the lesson on temperate rainforests! I have only heard about tropical rainforests.
Love your game table and all of your windows!