I'm confused. If we're now experiencing global warming, how come it was 56˚F when I got up this morning? Have I fallen through a time warp? Is it not now mid-August? The leaves are green, so it can't be October. Did aliens zap me in my sleep and spirit me off to Canada?
Naaahhh, I just checked—I'm still in Ohio. Huh! And I was just about to get in the mood to go walleye fishing and maybe pick some wild blueberries for my pancakes.
By rights, and past history, it ought to be in the sweltering mid-80˚s already, well on its way to heading somewhere north of the 90˚F mark by noon. I should have beads of sweat on my arms instead of goose bumps. And be dressed in shorts and flip-flops rather than long pants and a pullover.
Cicadas should be ratcheting from the sycamores. Turtles ought to be sunning atop the riffle stones. And I'd expect the zinnias to be alive with flittering butterflies.
But no…just me and a great blue heron skulking the far side of the Cottage Pool. We seem to be the only living creatures braving the unseasonably chilly morning. Even Moon-the-Dog, after taking care of necessary business, gave her usual sprawling spot in the driveway a brief trial, then decided she'd rather sprawl inside the open doorway and keep watch over my outdoor goings-on from a more comfortable venue.
I'm seriously thinking of gathering an armload of sticks and building a fire in the woodstove.
18 comments:
HI GRIZZ- mother nature has a mind of her own with no explanations! It has been chilly here too, kept the quilt pulled up to sleep the night before last! And ya, if we still lived on The Trail a fire in the ole wood stove would have served well.
Great picture by the way....
Love Gail
peace......
Gail…
Yup, you have that right, for sure. Weather and seasons do what they want in their own good time. I saw that Atlanta had the lowest high temperature ever for the date yesterday, cooler even than here—something like 74˚F. Imagine…Atlanta, Georgia, in mid-August!
Now, personally, I'd like to see every summer this cool. Mid-70s are hot enough for me. But it sure feels weird when you look at the calendar and consider the norm.
BTW, I really liked this heron image, too—especially the really saturated colors of early morning plus being slightly underexposed.
Be good.
Gorgeous colors!
I think the key is to make the shift from the term "global warming" to "climate change" (if you swing that way). I haven't heard an explanation for the low temps this summer, but I bet there is one. Marquette had a high in the 50s recently. Quite nice!
Jain…
Climate change I can buy…as the record shows there's there's always been climate change. I just saw a report that there's now thinking that we may be heading toward another mini ice age of 150–300 years. I doubt that accounts for this summer's cool temps.
Hey, 50s in Marquette in August is pretty much normal. I remember a year in Grand Marais when everyone was worried that all the lingering winter snow wouldn't be melted before the 4th of July parade…and I've seen snow flurries sufficient to temporarily cover the ground in early September. That's one of the things I like most about that Lake Superior country—you can get sunburned out trout fishing during the day, and need a nice hearthfire to stay warm the same evening. Folks up there seldom lay awake in bed late night in puddles of sweat unless they've picked up a virus—doubtless from an improperly barbecued bear sandwich.
Light that wood stove Grizz - a sure way to make the temperature outside rocket I find.
It's cool here in the northern Piedmont further east, too, Grizz, but we're supposed to have temperatures near 90 by the end of the week, so August will be back! Personally, I much prefer 56 degrees.
Weaver…
Well, I didn't light the fire, and if you're right—and I suspect you are, given the contrariness of nature—I'm glad I restrained myself because I prefer cool temps over warm. I've enjoyed this chilly summer.
Scott…
Me, too—that is in preferring the mid-50˚s over the mid-90˚s, or even the mid-70–80˚s. Alas, we're also heading in an upward temperature trend this coming week—so August still has a opportunity to make us sweat and be miserable.
It has been a cooler summer this year...and I for one am loving it. After having experienced such dangerously high and humid extremes the last two summers, I am really enjoying this summer. Since I am in Montreal we use the celsius....and it was 32 celsius today, which is in the nineties, however, it was bearable due to the fact that there was a strong breeze and not humid. As for the leaves, they are starting to change colour over here...slowly. I love your header.
Linda…
Really, I prefer this cooler version of summer. It could be this way every year and I'd be happy. Can't imagine Montreal in the 90˚F!
No color changes here yet, other than different wildflowers, and some of the water willow is turning golden, which it always does about this time every year. But nothing that truly says autumn's coming…not yet.
Thank you re. the header. The heron was wading just across from the cottage—maybe 50 feet away. (That's what, about 15 meters?)
As your near neighbor to the west, I too enjoyed those cool mornings with hot coffee steaming up my glasses. I even caught a few whifs of wood smoke from someone's fireplaces morn and eve. The thing I didn't miss was the mosquitos! Now, they're back and I'm having my coffee iced indoors. I am looking forward to Fall after those little teasers! :D
Debbie
Debbie…
Now see, I figured an expatriated Texas gal would relish the heat and despise such cool, crisp mornings. Goes to show you how much I know!
But I agree with you…and I like cool way better, too.
Oddly—and I've mentioned this before—in spite of living within spitting distance (literally!) of a river, mosquitoes are pretty uncommon hereabouts until you get in the shade well away from the water. Say up the little hill toward the mailbox. Not that I EVER miss them, mind you. Of course if you've never fished in the northcountry—Michigan, say, or Canada—you have no real concept of how bad mosquitoes can be. Not to mention black flies. A deer flies. I've fished plenty in the Everglades-area, too, and while Florida might have the edge on mosquito size, an evening trout stream coming out of a dark cedar swamp to empty into Lake Superior can beat them hands down for sheer density. So given all that, my mosquito tolerance is probably skewed.
I'm getting kinda anxious for fall—my second favorite season—myself.
One of the most beautiful photos ever, Grizz! I turn to your blog when I need to get out of my head, out of the busyness of life -- it always brings me peace. Keep the camera clicking and the words wafting. Have a wonderful weekend.
Brenda…
Thank you. Your comments are truly appreciated. It hasn't been exactly the best week ever. I've been down and limited in my work and outdoor rambling due to an infection—though I now seem to be mending. However, your complimentary words are a genuinely welcome encouragement.
Scribe--you are far too informed and intelligent to be fooled that one summer's cooler temperature than the average in one corner of the world means that the PLANET is not warming up.
This is one of those tender topics for me. It is the most human tendency to take our own experience and expand it to the universe. But it is what puts us in danger.
Sorry to turn so serious--but so much depends on our ability to learn and to act in time.
KGMom…
I wrote this post mostly from the perspective of bemused observer rather than as an acolyte of convinced discipleship to either camp. And certainly never with the intention of setting off controversy or even getting into debate.
But I will tell you this…I've become increasingly skeptical of many aspects of the various data interpretations used to shore up the theory that global warming is a foregone fact. To me, this issue is far from being "settled science." Which is not say that during the last 75 or so years, greenhouse gas emissions and human activities in general have not had some impact on climate—particularly in North America.
You are right that it is "the most human tendency to take our own experience and expand it to the universe," as you also are when noting "one summer's cooler temperature than the average in one corner of the world," does not mean it is globally applicable. But this reasoning cuts both ways—and nowhere is it more apparent than in the rendering of the data itself.
We so often view ourselves as the planet's de facto administrator, leader, and head guru. The best at everything, superior to all, and therefore rightful masters of mankind. In spite of such conceit, we do not have all the answers. Which would be laughably parochial if we weren't so big a nation and prone to involving ourselves in the most serious of matters—infallibly mixing in politics, which does little other than muddy the waters and stifle both debate and action.
The current state of climate science opinion—perhaps excepting a few western nations where "global warming" has become so intertwined with long-range political agendas that opinions and data in opposition are ignored and ridiculed—is that we might be smart to unshackle ourselves from the chains of dogmatism and consider recent facts—such as the fact we're now experiencing the lowest solar activity of the past 100 years, which indeed has possible weather consequences worth at least contemplating.
Is global warming a fact? Nope, not to me, not yet. For now it's a theory worth examining. And in truth, I don't think we'll know for sure for decades. Furthermore, should it one day turn out to be fact, I don't believe we as a nation—or most parts of the "enlightened" west—will ever have the willingness to take the sort of individual lifestyle steps, hard work, inconvenience, limitations, and financial hits necessary to reverse such change…if that could even be possible, which is another question entirely. In the end, nature will, as always, take it's course.
Nothing wrong with Canada-as I sit in a sweltering heatwave right now.
AfromTO…
The situation here has taken a sweaty turn for the worse—daytime temps pushing 90˚F, with no relief in sight before the end of the month.
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