.. are the only ones to fall in this entire month. 
I love watching Patrick Ryan demonstrate his method for baguettes. He's a professional baker from Ireland with a very soothing voice. The dough can be used the day it is made, or chilled in the fridge for a day which is really convenient. So I made his baguettes two days in a row. I am also trying to develop my own bread recipe as well. For years I have been trialling a dough that takes a couple of days to make, with a simple mixture of dark rye flour, water and a pinch of yeast that sits on the counter over night to get things started. Then the next morning you add some of the dough from the previous batch as well as more flour, water, yeast and salt. Each step is followed by rest time, so the flavour builds gradually. In the past I regarded bread baking as a pleasant hobby, but now with the price of bread at the store I view it as a big money saver that tastes wonderful too.
With summer rains every little bit helps. I had a plastic cup out on the deck to gage our rainfall, and it looks like we got about 1 1/2". The rain fell gently for more than 24 hours, with the occasional heavy downpour. I may just get out there and water some more today, to take advantage of the improved percolation. It will be a good day for fertilizing too.That coastal sprinkle made it to here but it looks to be just the lightest of a sprinkle and well less than 1/10th of an inch. Briefly, now and then, stopping shortly after dark. Those drops of rain
Still, it was nice to have the cool down right at what would have been been the hottest part of the day. And, some areas to the south are still experiencing some rain and that may make a difference to the fire conditions.
Steve
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A difficult month for the plants.
The average daily temperature has been over 7.5⁰f (4⁰C) above normal. We have had "more normal" during the last few days but it will be above above 90⁰f (32⁰C) this afternoon and then jumping above 100f (38C) again to start off August.
Our little precipitation experience a few days ago amounted to 1/100th of an inch. Spotted up the car but, hey, I didn't have that problem any other day in July. Nope. That 1/100th inch was the sum total for the entire 31 days.
There have been wildfires nearby. The "Columbia Basin fire" was (is) only a few miles away. I wonder how they came up with that name – the Columbia Basin is more than 60,000 square miles. I believe that the firefighters kept the fire contained within 300 acres. Several more close fires but the air has been moving just right so that air quality has not been bad for this one neighborhood
Steve
