Fire danger is low - at least at present.  Last week, right after I had submitted my report of fire danger as extreme, we drove by the fire station and discovered they had dropped it to high - I guess because it was a little cooler and not windy.  But now we've had an inch of rain this week, and most everything is damp.  Larger fuels are still dry inside, and fire danger could rebound some if things get a chance to dry off.  It got so dry before the rain that the stinging nettles began to turn white.  I've not seen that before.  Soil was cracking, some leaves were dropping.  Ants seemed to die back, but with the rain, their alates appeared, and the flickers were seen feasting yesterday.  Apples, pears, and plums are available for harvesting.  Many blackberries dried up on the vines, but I expect those that were still green may plump out now and become good in a week or two.  Robins and chipmunks were attracted to my garden because I was watering it, and did some damage.  I have a wildlife fence up, but it doesn't block those.  The deer and rabbits also tended to converge on irrigated areas before the rain, but hopefully now will disperse some.  Fishing in the rain was evidently pretty good.  The neighbors fared well at fishing.  Christmas tree farms look fine for the most part.  I don't know if they are irrigated at all.  We had an annoying surge of wildfire smoke before the rains began, but the rain cleared the smoke and stalled the big fire south of us.  But we had about 3 smokey days, and one afternoon, the air quality was  really bad.