NOW IT''S PERSONAL

This year California is experiencing an El Nino weather pattern. This means the ocean water in the southern part of the state is warmer which causes the jet stream to drop south from it's usual haunts up around Oregon and Washington state, down to the San Francisco Bay Area. So we have been having a very cool and rainy spring. By late May were are normally well into the high 70 - low 80 degree days; wearing our flip flops and capris and enjoying our patio time before the heat of the summer days sets in.

Instead, we are having rain, rain, wind, clouds and 60 degree temperatures. I dispare for having any tomatoes this year but I know we need the rain because we have had several seasons of drought. But today - the weather made it personal, and I am really unhappy.

I have my mosaic craft area set up on a outdoor deck. During a short period of milder weather, I untarped part of the work bench so I could grout a pot I finished at the end of the fall. I wanted to plant it because I had already bought the special kind of lavender I like and that's what I wanted to plant in the pot.

So the pot was grouted and sealed and I was just giving it a few days to cure before planting it. The wind must have whipped up the tarp and knocked it off the bench -

To get all those half marbles to set in place on the rounded pot took so much time. It is hard to see in the photo (because it is so darned cloudy) but the marbles are all iridescent and the glass tile is purple with metallic streaks, so it is a very fanciful look, different from anything I have made before.

So, it's feeling very personal, this El Nino.