The wet stuff means a warm up for Menlo Park

After shivering through successive frosty mornings last week, rain this morning brought with it higher temperatures. Emails InMenlo weather watcher Bill Russ: “.15″ to report for this morning’s rain. This brings my season-to-date total to 6.8″. We came into calendar 2015 with over 10 inches and then no rain, in my backyard, for the first 36 days of the year.”

The accompanying photo shows frost on the vines at Portola Vineyards (before the rain came!). Writes Debbie Lehmann about the dormant vineyard in the winery’s newsletter: “In the winter it’s often sunny, the air crisp and cool. I like walking down the rows on chilly mornings, when the ground is still covered in crystals of frost.

“I like the sturdiness of the wooden canes, that just last spring were supple green vines that I could tear off with the push of a finger. I like how they turn charcoal black and harden, closing their tendrils on the wire trellis and holding on for good.

“I like how the frost forms sharp spiral patterns on dry fallen leaves, and how the grass crunches under my feet when I walk down the rows. And how the smell of bay leaves hangs in the air, and how it’s quiet enough to hear each call of each bird.”

Photo courtesy of Portola Vineyards