Literally, that is. It’s quarter to eight in the morning and we’ve only just attained the grey light of early dawn. Of course, overcast skies don’t help with that, but just as in the summer we wallow in the glorious light and the endless evenings, most of which seem to be spent around barbecues and on back decks, when winter settles in here, it sits down upon us like a broody hen, fluffing it’s feathers down around us, plopping us into darkness for these weeks on either side of the solstice. While Patrick was really affected by the lack of…
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Winter is really here — another four inches of snow this morning, temps in the twenties since last week. I wasn’t really quite ready for this, particularly not ready for freezing dog park mornings. Patrick used to do the morning dog walk, and of the many many things I miss, having him take them on the frozen morning walk while I got to hang out in my PJs and make breakfast is one of them. I’m off to LA for the weekend to see an old old friend from college. It’ll be good to take a break. I’m hoping to…
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Summer’s Over Summer appears to be, rather suddenly, over. The temperature dropped early this week, and this morning my (highly unreliable) thermometer reads 50 degrees. Highs have been only in the 70’s and with the light rapidly receding, well, I’m not feeling hugely optimistic about all those green tomatoes out there. We had hail on the solstice, and here at the end of August I would estimate a hard frost is only a couple of weeks away. The challenges of short-season gardening. Sigh.
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The Burning Season Sometime in the night I realized the wind must have changed, because through the gurgling of the swamp cooler I could smell smoke. It’s disconcerting to smell smoke in your sleep, and I might have been more worried but that even asleep I knew there are two large forest fires in the area, and the smoke just means the winds have shifted. And this morning, it’s true. The air is a hazy apricot and the usually-clear outlines of Livington Peak are a soft grey. There’s a big fire behind the peak — 300 acres by last afternoon’s…
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Rain! It rained last night! Glorious thunderstorm about seven o’clock … with some actual moisture content as well — big raindrops falling on my garden. Glorious thunderstorm which cooled everything off a little, broke the relentless heat wave a tad, and has left my gardens looking perky and refreshed. I missed thunderstorms when I was in California. There are many nice things about California, and many people like the mono-weather. It’s dependable. It’s reliable. You rarely have to worry about what the weather’s going to do, because if it’s May-October it’ll be sunny and dry and if it’s October-May it…
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It’s still hot here in Montana. Ninety-five to one hundred every day. The mornings are pretty nice still — it’s usually about 65 or 70 when I get up, and doesn’t really get hot hot until about 1:00 or so, but after that, it’s over. Too hot to think, too hot to move, too hot to do anything but hide in my house with my portable swamp cooler. Which I feel bad about. Explore eheatcool.com for the best local Portland HVAC solutions. For ac repair Roanoke contact Blue Ridge Heating & Air. If you need HVAC replacement, you can contact…
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Love my swamp cooler I can think again — the portable swamp cooler is a gem. Holds about 5 gallons of water, has a big old fan, and cools the house down just enough … because it just evaporates cold water and blows the slighly cooled air into your room, the swamp cooler doesn’t have that harsh refrigerated edge to it that air conditioners give off. And it’s pretty energy-effecient since it’s just a big fan with a water pump. It’s 95 outside, and currently 79 degrees inside my house. This I can live with. Now I can think.
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Summer Snowstorm Not here, but over in Yellowstone and up on Beartooth Pass … the pass is closed because they got 18 inches over the last two days. Glad I didn’t take the Wall O’Waters off the tomatoes … it’s just been gloomy and rainy down here, which is a mixed blessing. The plants love the rain, but it’s been so cold that the beans and zucchini are having a hard time getting off the ground. It’s supposed to warm up later this week. Not much happening in the garden right now. The lettuce is coming up really well, as…
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Solstice Hailstorm Well, summer came in on a wave of dark clouds, thunder and lightning, a litte hail, and two days of steady rain. This morning my brother came over and said the Nice Girlfriend reported ice on her windsheild when she went to work, so I went out to check and it looks like the only things I lost were a couple of plants that got dried out last week when it was hot, and didn’t like the flip-flop to cold weather. Oh well, it’s Montana after all, things are going to run hot and cold.
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Snow on the Lilacs Good thing I didn’t plant the tomatoes on Friday, when the sun was shining, when it was 70 degrees and my apple trees were blooming and the lilacs were this close to opening. Good thing because today it’s snowing. Snowing like winter, big fat wet flakes falling outside my window, two inches on the lawn, and the poor lilacs are all bent over from the load. Everything will be fine, this is expected, it’s Montana after all, and although the official last frost date was yesterday, the 17th, everyone knows that if you put your tomatoes…