Even after last week’s rain, all it took was the return of Oklahoma’s infamous wind to bring back the wildfires. There were at least 10 brush fires yesterday in the Metro, and it will be windy again today. The Governor is meeting with his fire team this morning to decide whether or not to reinstate the burn ban.
It figures that as soon as I get the chiminea dusted off and set up on the patio, the burn ban may be back. That chim is very heavy, and I dread the yearly chore of rolling it into place with the help of a wheelbarrow. This is actually my second chiminea. My first one was left outside all year long, and all it took was one winter for it to fall apart. The clay is porous, and in the winter rain and snow soak into the clay, and when temperatures fall below 32, the water expands as it freezes and cracks the chim. It was sad to watch it crumble, plus they are not cheap. Even though I told this weather explaination of the dowfall of chim #1 to my wife… she insists that the reason it crumbled was because I was a little aggressive in my fire building, and put in too much wood. According to her, the flames are not to shoot out of the top.
This morning on Eyewitness News Five in the Morning we talked about the cherry blossoms in Washington DC. The trees are in bloom right now, and the video I saw looks great. It was interesting to me to see whether the trees would bloom, and how impressive this year’s show would be. Remember in January, the unusually warm weather across much of the nation…. that warm spell actually caused the cherry trees to bloom way too early (in January!). I am by no means a cherry blossom expert, but it appears as if the January bloom had no bad affect on the spring bloom.
Back in Oklahoma, we are in a springtime weather pattern, so rain is in the forecast. Tuesday night through Thursday we will see several rounds of thunderstorms, including a chance for severe weather overnight Wednesday, and again Thursday afternoon. Hopefully more rain will mean no burn ban…. or one that does not last long.
