Summer's Almost Over...

SC -- if you don't like to celebrate your birthday, do like I do. I celebrate anniversaries of birthdays past. Not too long ago I celebrated the silver jubilee of my 40th birthday. It was a blast.

Yeah, we can be a bit on the flaky side, but it's all good as long as we're having fun ;-)

I do pamper myself on my birthday for sure. I just don't like how the numbers keep going up, lol.

I think I better start holding my dominion :-)

Next time the sun comes by i'm gonna lasso it. Summer over my ass.

That's sheer brilliance-- I'm gonna start doing that soon...very soon

Autumn is now well and truly here ... I actually like it, but I'm still not over my grief and incredulity that summer is actually over - and I'm dreading the winter to come.

Ah yes,

Autumn definately kicked in here last Thursday.

On Thursday the high was 106F (41C), on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it only got up to between 90 and 92 (32-33C).

I need to find my earmuffs.

Harrumph.

Huh?

No comprendo, mi amigo.

Its 22C here .. and I was being glad with that.

I've been uncharacteristically grumpy about fall -- usually I like it, and even like winter until February or so. But this year it brings dread of a repeat of the Season of Sickness from last year, and I'm casting a jaundiced eye on everything fall.

Still winning me over. We've had several of those perfect deep blue skies (never so blue in the summer) with warm sun but cool breezes. Still lots of green, and flowers, but some leaves starting to turn, and everything feels a shade cleaner.

Oh God, I would LOVE it to be that temperature here!

It is supposed to be cooking down soon, getting down to 20-22C at night.

We get freezes here only a few times year, going down to -6 to -1 at night, warming up to 4 to 10 during the day.

That's the time of year I live for.

I'm sure you wouldn't like it as hot as 41C, would you?
Some people love the heat, not me, I'm too fair skinned.

We've been having near-record heat. It's been in the upper 80s for a few days and is supposed to continue through tomorrow. Wednesday's high is forecast to only be 57 so I'm going to enjoy the warmth while it lasts. Northern WI is supposed to get snow this week. Ugh.

Weather here in San Diego is perfect as always but I do notice that the days are shorter, ugh. I love daylight savings time.

Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885)
October's Bright Blue Weather

O SUNS and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,
Belated, thriftless vagrant,
And Golden-Rod is dying fast,
And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight
To save them for the morning,
And chestnuts fall from satin burrs
Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie
In piles like jewels shining,
And redder still on old stone walls
Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things
Their white-winged seeds are sowing,
And in the fields, still green and fair,
Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,
In idle golden freighting,
Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush
Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,
By twos and twos together,
And count like misers, hour by hour,
October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,
Count all your boasts together,
Love loveth best of all the year
October's bright blue weather.



Last chance for gardening chores....last chance....last chance....

Oh Noddy today and yesterday I am so tired. The aches and pains of fall gardening (I am so out of shape). But all this planting, pruning, and planning pays off in the spring.

Love poetry

Joanne--

I hate sweating, so my summer gardening is very cursory. I took today off for grocery shopping and kitchen chores and have my fingers crossed that the "showers" predicted for tomorrow will arrive after dark.

Dark comes so much earlier now.

This is a bumper year for acorns--at least in this neck of the woods.

There were a lot of acorns on the ground at dog camp. Quite distracting for the critters in the obedience training ring.

Oh no, lots of acorns, what does it all mean.

I kinda sorta miss the East Coast, well my yard and garden at least. But not racling leave. I had a rather small yard in VA but still would have upwards of 50 bags of leave even after mulching and putting most on various flower beds, around trees and bushes and filling up the compost.

But then I got to the why rake at all phase since there are always a couple of house on every block that don't rake and then all of there leaves head for your lawn. Sheesh.

Good poem, Noddy.

Here's one of my favorites about my favorite time of year:

The Goose Girl

Spring rides no horses down the hill
But comes on foot, a goose-girl still

And all the loviest things there be
Come simply, so, it seems to me

If ever I said, in grief or pride
I tired of honest things, I lied;

And should be cursed forever more
with Love in laces, like a whore,
And neigbors cold, and friends unsteady,

And Spring on horseback, like a lady!

--Edna Millay

ehBeth--

I used to own a dog who barked at every falling acorn. Some years there are enough acorns for all the critters and other years the bears go to bed early because the food is gone.

No one had discovered exactly what will prompt a bumper acorn crop, but the bumper crop promotes population increases in mice, voles, deer, coons, skunks, deer, bear..... Then there is a crash.

Acorns have been thin on the ground the last few years.

Joanne--

My yard has as many broad leaved plants as blades of grass and is surrounded by woods, so fall raking doesn't bother me. During the last cutting of the year, the leaves get crumbled. Then, if the aesthetic powers that be are kind, the snow falls deep and crisp and even.

Stray Cat--

Edna St. Vincent Millay is one of my favorite authors.