SUMMER IS OVER

        We got a killing frost last night. The temperature went down to minus 8C last night and stayed below zero for about 5 hours. 

To me, summer is officially over when the first killing frost occurs. What's a killing frost? It's a frost that is severe enough that stops the activities in the plant. The plant is officially dead.

      Now all that's left to do is cut down the perennials and throw out the annuals. I usually dig up the soil so that it is ready for next year.

      It's a sad time for me when I stop watering and doing all the things you do to look after plants. 

    I did  couple of oopsys last night. You have to make sure that all materials that will freeze are put away. I put all liquid chemicals in the house two weeks ago. Some how I forgot to empty the watering can and a small pitcher for watering plants. However, I got lucky and the frost did not damage the containers. 

    So I'm now ready if a severe frost occurs again or if it snows. 

MORE SUMMER WALK

      In my last post I wrote about the trails in our city and how lucky we are to have them. Along with paved trails we have lots of shale or gravel trails. Along with this goes thousands of acres of native parkland. There's old growth forest. Spruce forest. Poplar forest and mixed forest. There is even a bit of grassland. 

     So last week I went through some solid spruce forest. the rest of it is a big mixture. Most of this area is old gravel pits. About 100 acres. It's surprising how much of the old quarry has a variety of various trees and shrubs. 

     There were many, many butterflies. I took many photos...all of them poor, but you're going to see some butter fly photos anyway. 

ANXIETY OVER SUMMER STOLTICE

      Last evening I went out to take photos related to summer stoltice. No, I wasn't overly anxious and wanted to jump the gun on photos. The weather forecast was the better last evening.

    So at 9:30 I packed the camera and got on the bike and went to a high spot about three Km from the house.  All photos are from 9:40 to 10:00 PM.

    I tried to show our long day where the sun set at 9:58  PM and rises at 5:14  AM For many people it's hard to visualize broad daylight at 10:00 PM. At midnight we still see light in the sky

       View of a senior's residence to the east.

  North side of a house

  The sun has not quite set.

  Somebody else is out bike riding. I met a woman pushing a stroller

  Across the street at 10:00 PM

An out of focus photo of my street at 10:00PM

THE OLD GIRL'S (SUMMER) LEAVIN'

      I went out this morning to tend my garden and I got the feeling that my plants are finished. there will be no more progress. They will hang around for a few weeks but there will be no more new development.

     Some leaves on tees and shrubs are starting to turn and drop off. Part of this is because of the stress from heat and dryness

     In particular, I was looking at tomatoes. I've got a good crop and we've been eating them for two weeks. We had two hailstorms so some of the garden plants have had a challenge. the onions have done nothing since their tops were knocked off.

     We have had a very hot dry summer. It's tough on plants. I do some watering but only for plants that cannot tolerate being dry. It got to 26C (82 F) today. It was 12 C(54 F) this morning. For the record, the record low for today is -0.6C (30 F) and the record high is 32.3 C (92 F).

     I get back from my after supper bike ride about half an hour before sunset. The sun sets tonight at 8:30. It rose this morning at 6:40.

    So gradually summer is winding down and slowly leaving us.

    Photos are from 2015 and better times.

Summer Has Been a Drag

    I don't know about you but this summer is starting to seem like it's been terribly long. Why? They haven't changed the number of days. So I started to look for some reasons  why the summer seems so long. Usually summers are too short.

   We've had some odd weather here. We had a cold spring with lots of cloud and wind. Our summer has been a mixture of hot and really hot. Along with the heat we've had rain and thunder showers. 

   Now I like a good old 20 C (70 F) summer...something that is reliable. None of all this variety. With a good steady temperature you can get into the flow of things with work and play.

    But what I really think has made this summer seem long is some out of the ordinary weather in late winter early spring. Some of the blogs I follow were reporting temperatures which were far from the ordinary. The hot spell people had was very early in spring.   People were not only showing plants growing but blooming. People were remarking about the unusual weather. Now there was a cool spell after this early warm weather but it didn't slow things down.. 

    I think the early warm weather that other bloggers reported in the east got me thinking about summer much before summer arrived here. I had it in my head that summer was here but it was not. 

   So sorry folks, I'm blaming you for me thinking that summer is really dragging by. 

   I know how I'll get even. I'll start talking about winter. I hope it comes early so that I can really have some effect. 

   But first , let's all enjoy what's left of summer.