Miss Jo's San Francisco

MISS JO’S COMPLAINING ABOUT THE LONG CALIFORNIA DRY SEASON came to a halt early Saturday morning with a bang.

Called thunder fog, around 4 a.m. a brittle crack and rapid-fire boom ricocheted around San Francisco, including the hills and canyon in Glen Park, which jolted Miss Jo, Jeff and the cats awake. On cue, a quiet shower began– the first rain since April— and kept falling into the next afternoon.

The garden looks relieved from the downpour, as is Miss Jo who gladly retired her gray-watering cans. The cats’ fur is now plush from the rainwater rinse and city houses and buildings no longer look like they need a good bath.

Rare thunder fog—- the clash of listless, end-of-summer fog with warm autumn temperatures— doesn’t always bring rain, and its lightening can spark wild fire.

This time lightening hit two electrical transformers across town from one another, affecting thousands of households, but luckily not the two Js (not this time !).

Showers are usually infrequent until later in the fall, but at least the rainy season has started—- as well as the fall-winter growing season when dormant flowers start to come alive, like Miss Jo’s calla lilies and the many varieties of fuchsia around the City.

Another happy customer from the change in seasons: the year-round back yard hummingbirds.

Photos by Miss Jo