What a great reading list. I'll bookmark it for winter reading, because at this time of the year, I usually am outdoors so much that the only reading I really do is this forum and the news/weather.

Too funny, Dawn, that is what I said. However most of them a shortish articles. So maybe a rainy day.

If only we would have a rainy day! I probably would stay in and read. I'd sure like to see one soon, and it seems unlikely down here. We have had decent rain at some points this year, but as the weather heats up, the rain has started missing us or falling in such tiny amounts that it is measured in hundredths or tenths. That's not a good sign this early in spring.

While the lower end of our garden is still pretty moist, the raised beds that are at the higher end of the garden are so dry that I had to water them yesterday. That made me go look at our overall rainfall as a percentage of normal, and I wasn't happy with what I saw. Granted, we are in much better shape down here than many folks further north and west, but the dry trend is starting to worry me. I was hoping for a long, slow transition from El Nino back to a neutral state, but I'm starting to fear we'll have a quicker (and unwelcome) transition to La Nina conditions. I hate La Nina conditions.

Here's the year-to-date rainfall expressed as a percentage of "normal" rainfall through the same date:

Rainfall Map