I realized not long ago that I would not lament the passing of summer this year. When this thought occurred to me, I stopped short. This statement is more monumental than it seems at first glance. Summer is my absolute favorite time of the year. I wait 10 long months for summer. I wait through bone-chilling cold. Wind of monumental proportions. Sideways rain. Days when our outside lights, which are controlled by a timer that “senses” nighttime, are on at 10:00 a.m. Days when the sky is so gray it seems impossible for it to be any bleaker, only to be followed by days when you realize you were wrong. It can get bleaker. Through all of this I wait and dream of the summer. The warmth of the sun on my body. Eating our meals outside on our deck, and in the evening, watching the birds wait in line to splash in the birdbath. Lighting the chimnea, needing the smoke from the fire to keep away the bugs. I look forward to watering my flowers and refilling the birdbath – it’s therapeutic and relaxing. Best of all, in the summer, I keep the windows open as long as I can, putting off the time when we inevitably have to shut the windows and put on the A/C. Once the A/C is on, all is quiet. But with the windows open, we are treated to the cacophony of frogs, crickets, cicadas, and other wildlife inhabiting the woods and wetlands nearby. These critters sleep all day in order to stay up at night bickering with one another. These are just the things I enjoy about summer which occur in my own backyard. I haven’t even mentioned day trips to the beach, numerous outdoor concerts at local parks, trips to the farmer’s market for Jersey tomatoes and corn, or the sheer bliss of deciding to go somewhere and standing up and leaving. No search for warmer socks, heavier shoes, a scarf, thicker gloves or a hat.
But summer didn’t arrive this year. It rained the entire month of June, except for 2 non-consecutive days. In July things began drying out, but not with any real speed. Standing outside watching fireworks on July 4th, it was necessary to wear a sweatshirt and, earlier in the evening, when enjoying the music at the park, no sunglasses were needed. The gradual warm-up did postpone the need for A/C; however, sitting outside became unbearable. Mutant mosquitoes, the result of 28 days of rain the previous month, walked right up alongside us and took huge chunks out of our legs and arms. Sitting outside near the lit chimnea, tiki torches and citronella candles made our eyes water but did nothing to deter the bugs. Tired of swatting to no avail, we surrendered and came inside. Not once did we get up early in the morning in order to walk or get to and from the farmer’s market before the heat was unbearable. The underground sprinkler ran 3 times, not because the lawn needed watering but because we had neglected to turn it off. In August, I began spring clean up – the annual weeding and trimming of shrubs necessary to keep the landscaping from becoming overgrown. Since we did not enjoy one week without rain until the end of August, yard work was a sporadic venture. On the days when I could go outside in the morning to weed and trim, I also had to wage battle with the mosquitoes that were so plentiful by now that they could not confine their blood sucking to only the evening hours.
The news reported that the month of July had come and gone, and in New York – the entire state, not just the city – there had not been one day when the thermometer cracked 90. But in August, the temperature finally began rising and complaining about the heat became the universal topic. Everywhere I went, I heard complaints about the heat and I wondered from where these people had just arrived. From Seattle? From Canada? Had they somehow missed the weather of the previous two months? It was technically summer and summer is supposed to be hot. And yet the temperature barely reached 90. My annuals grew leggy, straining to keep their blooms above water. The blooms were half-hearted as the plants were using their energy to.search for sun. Often the days were overcast, with the sun finally breaking through around 6:00 p.m., just in time to begin setting.
I guess this is global climate change, or Mother Nature on some sort of power trip. Either way, I do not like it. For a long time now we haven’t had a spring season. Winter B has replaced it. Now we have lost summer due to global “warming.” Autumn A has replaced it. I enjoy four different seasons not the current pattern of Winter A, Winter B, Autumn A, and Autumn B. I missed Spring for many years before I finally gave up and conceded that it was really gone and not coming back. I am not ready to admit that Summer is meeting a similar fate. I hope the past few months were simply an asterisk that will appear in record books in the future. But after witnessing the death of Spring, I am skeptical. Regardless, I am going to do my best to enjoy fall . . . before the arctic blast of winter is upon us.
