As much as I hate to say it, there is a change in the summer settings. I was out mowing along the driveway this morning and I noticed several changes. The Naked Ladies have spiked and are blooming. The wild Black Eyed Susans and the wild Fall Astors are in bloom. The walnuts are falling like crazy and the leaves on the popular trees are also coming down.
Wild Fall Asters? Wood Asters perhaps? Same here, they have been flowering foe two weeks now. I wonder if I should hunt for wooly bears? Jerry
Yep, changes are on the way. The fox tail grass is in seed now, which I despise,... the fall weed seeds are starting to germinate, the cottonwoods are starting to drop their leaves, the spiders are making their egg cases and they are huge this year, the velvet leaf is now about 6ft tall. My pumpkins are ORANGE, already. Many signs of the season.
I sure haven't seen any signs of fall here. The trees may be dropping leaves but it's the lack of water. My pumpkin has no pumpkin yet. It's still above 100 degrees most every day. No rain in sight either. Definitely not fall weather. dooley
We had more rain today, which is great. Some of the leaves are falling, though they start early here due to dry summer weather. My black eyed susies have been blooming for awhile. The rose of Sharon bushes are blooming all over, the mimosas are still full of flowers, my crepe myrtle bush has blooms, but I think I need to cut some of that one mimosa down to let it get more light? My phlox are blooming a second time, the petunias are still blooming, my 4 o'clocks are in bloom, some of my new hostas have flowers, the ostrich plume ferns are done for the year, and fried. Mine always finish early for some reason. A few sunflowers are in bloom, my tomatoes are blooming, but no maters yet. No bell peppers yet, but they look good. I have some watermelon vines growing, but not likely to make melons in time. A farmer down the road planted corn around July 1st, and it is getting tall and tasseled, despite being so late. He even has ears of corn with silk on them!!! I have never heard of planting corn so late and getting any. And we had a dry spell from late April until about 9 or 10 days ago. He might make it before frost? My mystery squash keeled over dead, something got the vine. It had a nice squash on there too. Those impatiens that were free finally put out a flower of dark pink today, and they have buds. I was waiting on them to bloom before taking any pics. I lost some of the freebies, but others seem to be doing well. The mint is doing nicely. I had to trim some new wood off of my forsythia bushes, so I stuck them in pots with other things that get water daily to see if they will grow. It is kind of late to try that, but they had to be cut. My Jerusalem artichokes have not yet bloomed--the ones that didnt get eaten by my horses, but hopefully they will bloom soon. They were late last year too. I hope the eaten ones will come back in the spring, and my horse will be properly fenced in by then! It is half past August already, and fall will be here shortly. I expect the sumacs and sassafrass to start turning any time now. The nights are cooling off into the low 60s, so soon it will be chilly. YAY!!! And our days are down into the 80s again. I dont like 80s, but it beats 100s any time.
Haven't seen and Wooley Bears yet. And we have had mice in the basement, so they are coming in from outside. This week was unseasonably cool. Lows in the 50's. One toen about 60 miles east of us got down into the 40's on Thurs.
Still summer here... but getting rain today -- I think it will sizzle when it hits the ground! Someone remind me again what the wooley bear cats tell us?
Wooley Bears are catapillars that are brown and black that have hair on them. Folk lore says that they predict the winter weather. Usually they are black on both ends and brown in the middle. The more black, the harsher the winter. My Dad always said that the shade of brown predicted how harsh the winter would be and the amount of black foretold how long it would last. The past several years they have been pretty darn close for here!
Well, for us here in western Washington, this has been a cool summer. All nights in the low 50's and most days in the 60's. The sugar snap peas are perfection, the squash plants are finally flowering, the hazelnuts are falling. Maybe it will warm up for autumn.
A sure sign of the seasons change is..... Back to school commercials on TV! It's also getting dark sooner.
