“Do you think we’ll need the air conditioner again?”
…asked the man last week.
“No! It’s October!“
As I said it, I knew I shouldn’t have.
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Luckily, the thermometre stalled at 74F/23C.
The air conditioner did not need to be re-activated, but we drove along yesterday with both car windows open.
Just perfect, but not for the end of October.
It’s all wrong.
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The lilac bush is full of buds, so I am wondering what will happen in the Spring.
Will new buds form where the others will inevitably have frozen solid?
My poor lilac has been very challenged by the weather these past years. I make sympathetic noises to it each time it’s hard work is ruined by late frost, but I sense an offended reply:
“It’s all the doing of your kind.”
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Cosmos is still flowering. As I took its picture I noticed the zinnia:
Atop a very sturdy stalk, 5 ft tall.
Maybe it isn’t a zinnia?
I’m fairly sure it is.
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The only reason I noticed those flowers was because I went up past them to offer peanuts to a groundhog.
We were convinced some days ago, that they had gone to hibernate and stopped supplying carrots.
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Then we saw fresh drag marks in the driveway, where disabled Scooter had come looking for a snack.
And when we got up from breakfast today, we had a visitor on the patio.
It was eagerly munching peanuts and we couldn’t disturb it by moving around, so we had to sit down again till it was done!
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We like to send our friends to bed on a full tummy, so I went up to drop some nuts where a groundhog was likely to find them before the competition arrived.
While I was doing that, I acquired an unwelcome hitchhiker.
We need frost to rid ourselves of ticks.
And flies. And mosquitoes!
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Two years ago, I was hospitalised by a late-season tick and I have been very careful to avoid them ever since. I stay away from their habitat but somehow this thing climbed aboard and imbedded itself in my bare arm.
Tee-shirt weather in October.
Things may normalise tonight.
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Not that I’ve been keeping track, but it is my impression that Winter arrives later every year, delaying the arrival of Spring as well.
Yesterday’s putt-putt, a Vermonter.
Identifiable by the green license plate.
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Impossible to pass on these roads.
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There was no rush and it was too fine a day to be muttering about slow drivers.
He’s forgotten driving in Seattle.
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Some distance from, in fact.
You could get stuck in traffic going out for a loaf of bread and generally once you were, there was no easy way out. It was for the duration.
Here, you just turn at the next intersection and go cross country.
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Some trees are still holding out!
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Early light made the Hudson irresistible.
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Most of my life I lived quite near a major body of water.
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The Atlantic, the Pacific and for a year, overlooking the confluence of the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers.
In the monsoons, the volume of water in the Mekong turns the Tonle Sap to flow back into Tonle Sap Lake, which amazed me even at age 8.
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The Hudson is a mere upstart!
It ranks 71st out of 135 rivers in the USA which measure 100 miles long.
But it is called one of the prettiest.
That would depend, no doubt which stretch you happened upon.
The Hudson I know is enchanting.
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It is now my body of water.
And it does quite nicely.
I do so like a bit of water in bulk, but we’ve had a bit too much recently. Last Saturday we had flood waters within 30 feet of the house!
Too close! Stay dry!
All receded now but lots of people had to find alternative accommodation and it will be ages before their properties are dried out.
Needs a warm dry day….um, July possibly?
Thank you, Carolyn, for your wonderful photography, and your tribute to the Hudson, your much loved body of water!
Joanna
Do those ticks carry Lyme Disease? I have heard that can make you seriously ill. Your weather is strange indeed. 74F in October is unheard of here. That would be a good summer’s day in England.
Best wishes, Pete.
Yes, they do carry Lyme. Fortunately I did not get that. What I had was bad enough. My arm is itchy today but I am hoping the rotten think didn’t give me anything nasty! The weather has been record setting.
Nature is mixed up. You have still 23 C and we have freezing weather, even it should be over zero at the moment. Hopefully the buds will survive and bloom next spring. I loved to see the photo of the groundhog as we don’t have those animals in Finland. It looks so cute eating a carrot!
I don’t like ticks as they spread decides! Hopefully if did not bite you.
I think the groundhogs are a bit confused with the warm weather – and they know very well where to get last bites before the cold arrives. The Hudson is such a lovely river – I’m surprised that you quite often manage to capture the most beautiful reflections in it.