It's been raining steadily for the last 12 hours-- over an inch already, which is a record amount for this September day. It's warmish out and the bedroom window was open last night, so I kept waking to the pleasant and unfamiliar sound. It has been months since we had measurable rain in Seattle and the ground is parched.
The concord grapes are starting to smell good when we walk by, which means they're almost ripe. My friend at the museum told me how she makes delicious grape juice concentrate with hers, but I don't have the freezer space to store all the containers. I could make jelly, but that always seems like more trouble than it's worth. Anyway, there are many more than we could possibly use so maybe I'll leave a box outside the front gate and let people help themselves. The only problem is the large number of dogs that are walked by, all doing their business. You get the picture.
In wine country, rain at harvest time causes many sleepless nights, because the fruit sucks up water which dilutes the carefully managed sugar content. We heard on the news that the Washington harvest this year is spectacular. The hot, sunny summer east of the Cascades has brought a record 230,000 tons of wine grapes. That is a good thing, except they're ripening so rapidly the wineries are struggling to keep up with the bounty.
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