I have been watching the “monster” cactus hanging outside from a tree and its four buds. Two are almost open. They should make it before it gets too cold for the plant and we have to bring it in for the season. It really does not like the cold too much. Two buds that are just emerging will probably not make it but the other two will. I am absolutely thrilled we will have flowers from the plant. When we bought the plants months ago it had multiple flowers. They were gigantic several inches wide and tall. These probably won’t be that big. I think my wife bought the plant to spoof me. Its tentacles hanging from the tree are several feet long. I have never seen anything like it before.
Tags: "monster" cactus, autumn, cactus, cactus flowers, plants, summer, The cactus is blooming again, tree
Posted in flowers, local, marriage, nature, seasons, time |
It was in the fifties and when I stepped out I felt cold. It is back to wearing more layers of clothing. Soon I will discard my tee shirts and shorts for the rest of the year. It is still officially Summer but it feels like Fall already. I always wondered how it would feel not to live in a temperate climate. Maybe if I didn’t, I would not appreciate spring and the warmer weather so much.
Tags: colder weather is coming, Fall, Fall is around the corner, spring, summer, tee shirts and shorts, temperate climate, the appreciation of spring and summer, the on-coming Fall
Posted in seasons |
We will have another burst of summer–at least for two days. I was wrong. I thought we would not have any more nights this warm but we are going to: the next two nights will be seventy and seventy-one degrees. Maybe, this will be the last two nights this warm this year. Then the temperature will plummet. By Friday, the high will be seventy and then below seventy the next day. Today and tomorrow it will hover around ninety. We need to spend part of today in a park. These days are numbered. They are not calling for any rain today.
Tags: a park, summer, the final burst of summer, warm temperatures
Posted in local, nature, seasons, time |
It is becoming colder. I am no longer wearing tee shirts and shorts, which I do all summer. Now I am wearing long pants and undershirt and shirt. The next thing I have to put on when it gets even colder is a sweat shirt or sweater. Fall is around the corner. The leaves are starting to fall.
Tags: autumn, Autumn is coming, Fall, It is getting colder, leaves starting to fall, summer, tee shirts and shorts, the switch to long pant and shirts
Posted in local, nature, seasons, time |
The summer is on its way out. Labor Day is today. I noted the low temperature last night was seventy. That might be the highest overnight for the rest of the year. We might have to wait until 2014 to see such temperatures at night. Already the highs are dropping to the seventies and the lows overnight are going to be in the fifties. Summer officially has a few weeks to go. The colder weather is coming. How depressing.
Tags: 70 degrees, autumn, cold weather, Labor Day, overnight lows, summer, Summer is winding down, warm weather
Posted in local, nature, seasons, time |
The grackles finally stopped coming. First, I stopped putting out suet cakes and then limited the birdseed on the ground. Sometimes I would have seven or more grackles feeding on the ground at one time. They crowded out the other birds. Now I have not seen one in weeks. This summer I had a regular visitor of a indigo bunting for the first time. They are such a beautiful bird–aptly named. The downy woodpeckers are now feeding on the suet but I have yet to see a red bellied woodpecker. I am waiting to see how long it will take before they rediscover the suet cakes. I can’t remember the last one I have seen. They are such magnificent colored woodpeckers.
Tags: bird feeding, bird-watching, birds, birdseed, downy woodpeckers, grackles, indigo bunting, red bellied woodpeckers, suet cakes, summer
Posted in beauty, birds, local, nature, seasons, time |
Where are the monarch butterflies? I really was not paying attention until someone remarked, “I have not seen one this summer.” I realized I had not neither. They are usually the most common butterfly to see. I will keep my eyes open for it. Something is wrong and I do not know what it is.
Tags: butterfly, monarch butterfly, summer, the disappearance of the monarch butterfly
Posted in beauty, local, nature, seasons, time |
It actually felt cold when I stepped out into my yard this morning. It was under sixty degrees. We had just gotten over a heatwave that lasted over a week. First every day was in the nineties, then in the eighties. I did not use the air conditioner in my bedroom last night. I know it will get hot again but this was a precursor of fall.
Tags: air conditioner, Fall, heatwave was over, it was actually cold this morning, precursor of fall, summer
Posted in local, nature, seasons, time |
The Black-Eyed Susans were finally blooming. They come up each summer and are one of the last flowers of the summer to bloom. They are annuals, that seed themselves. I thought it was unusual this year that the flowers were all at different heights–from six inches high to two feet and everything else in between. They had too much competition this year with the other weeds. I love looking at them. We have several beds of them. The flowers last for weeks. Summer is on its way out. At least it seemed that way. Summer still had eight weeks to go. The heat wave we had finally broke. And we welcomed temperatures in the eighties.
Tags: black-eyed susan's, flowers, garden, heat wave, summer, the black-eyed susan's were blooming at different heights, the weeds were crowding out the black-eyed susan's, weeds
Posted in beauty, flowers, local, nature, seasons, time |
It was midway to summer. The temperatures were mild and sometimes cool. It could stay this way all the time but it won’t. I am wearing a light jacket today. I know the hot weather will come and I will switch to wearing shorts and tee shirts all the time. Weather is always so unpredictable. I am in no rush for summer to get here.
Tags: hot weather, I am in no rush for summer to get here, light jacket, mild temperatures, spring, Spring and mild weather, summer, tee shirts and shorts, weather
Posted in local, seasons, time |
It is four days into spring and I am still wearing my insulated undershirt and underwear. I know warmer temperatures are coming but I am impatient. It still feels like winter. I will know winter has finally gone when I turn off, for now, the heat in my office and when I go back to wearing shorts and tee shirts the cold weather is finally gone and summer has come for good. Every year I go through the same cycle (as far as the clothing I routinely wear). I just wish I would get there sooner.
Tags: cold weather, spring, spring still feels like winter, summer, tee shirts and shorts, The clothes I wear when it gets warmer, warmer temperatures are coming, winter
Posted in balance, local, seasons, time |
I did not want to mow down the chicory growing on the two foot wide strip of land between our fence and road. We had cut the lawn all summer until recently. I noted a row almost an hundred feet long of blue flowers. The plants were about two and half feet high. It looked as if we planted them. I never paid much attention to chicory before. And I know the plant is a weed found everywhere. Nevertheless, the row of blue flowers were beautiful. Both my wife and I agreed to leave them alone.
Tags: beautiful blue flowers, blue flowers, chicory, cut the lawn, flowers, my wife, plants, summer
Posted in beauty, flowers, local, marriage, nature, time |
