A not so simple gift

My bulb order from Colorblends has arrived! Not only are the bulbs fat and fresh but a bonus gift was included – a rain gauge!

I am fascinated with weather but have never done more than cursory observation. However, noting daily weather details appeals to the technician in me. For several years I happily helped with a southern Oregon phenology, tracking bloom dates for certain representative flowers and trees, and egg deposition and development for particular insects. I was endlessly fascinated with poring over previous years and noting similarities and differences from year to year.

And now my own rain gauge. A simple free gift has me haunting ebay, looking around for barometers, minimum-maximum thermometers, paraphenalia coveted by lovers of climatic minutiae.

But it truly does get worse, if you can imagine. If I record the data in a spreadsheet I can map and graph weather data for my own garden. Do you see where this madness is going? Never mind that weather collection data is readily available for this region, and in vastly more sophisticated form. This would be my own garden! Carried to its unhealthy extreme I could get a GPS unit and locate said rain gauge with excruciating precision. GAWD!

(Taking a deep breath)

I am familiar with the use of weather data for tracking and observing effects on fruit development, disease occurrence and other horticultural concerns. But don’t I get enough of that at work? Why not just smell the flowers when I get home?

Notwithstanding I am grateful for my new gift. Now that the rains have started it will be nice to observe the rain in my own microcosm. I have always been suspect of weather data that bears no resemblance to what I observe outside my window.

But I think I’ll leave prediction to the professionals. Weather prediction has a Delphic quality to it, oracular prophecy borne of divine spark, and certainly not to be trespassed on by a climatic bookkeeper.