Well, we’re going through a cool-down here in Dunwich. It’s been in the low seventies today and rainy. I heard this will be going on for a week or so. That’s okay. With the kids going back to school it’s best if it’s not too hot. Most of the school buildings aren’t air conditioned so summer weather is truly oppressive especially while the kids are still in mourning over summer vacation.
I walked around in the rain and found some interesting bugs. There was a preying mantis and some hungover bumble bees holding onto the cone flowers for dear life. And then I found this really tiny, almost microscopic bight yellow spider. At least I think it’s yellow. Sometimes it turns out that these things are really some very light, bright green that looks yellow to people like me who are blind to green. Well, whatever color it was, it was sliding around on a strand of web and moving from flower petal to flower petal, trying to look like part of the plant. And maybe to someone with color vision, maybe because he’s some kind of green, maybe he does blend in. But to me he sticks out like a sore thumb. So, every time he flies off, I watch him trying to blend into his background. So, then I start trying to get good photos of him. But he’s unbelievably small and every tiny breath of wind shakes the flower stem and throws off my focus. So, I probably took dozens of frames that will be just blurred garbage and those files will add to the terabytes of photos that I should be deleting from my desk top hard drive but don’t.
But it was fun. I found a monarch butterfly chrysalis on a day lily plant. It was at least fifty feet from the nearest milkweed plants, so that’s an interesting bit of information that I can use in the future. I’m trying to decide if I should collect the chrysalis and try to photograph the hatching. I’m trying to decide what would be the optimal container to allow me to get the best photos of the hatching process. I probably will have to hurry because they only spend a week or two in the chrysalis and for all I know it may already be ready to hatch.
There’s talk about another kid’s movie in the near future for me. Princess Sack of Potatoes is back next week for the end of her vacation. The plan is to see the new Minions movie. Camera Girl is also a fan of these annoying yellow creatures so the three of us will experience this event together. Actually, the last Minions movie wasn’t so bad. It took place in the 1960s in New York and London and the music was very nostalgic. I haven’t looked into what the theme for this masterpiece will be but it’s a non-Disney production so that is at least one factor in its favor. Well, here we go into fall!
Cool down? Oh please, oh please. This is the time of year that Floridians-and deep southerners- pay dearly. I am so sick of 90’s in both temperatures and humidities, dripping sweat hell. It was 100’s last week. It looks like the temps will drop out of the 90’s for a couple of days next week but the dew points seem to be holding constant. Then the long range shows the return of mid-90’s. Suffocating, saturating. Any outdoor work in the AM but with 90-95% humidity. If this were a regular year without El Nino, we’d be praying for a tropical… Read more »
Yep, January is your payback. I’ll be shoveling thirty inches of snow and you’ll have to break out the long sleeve shirts for a few weeks until beach weather returns. What we both need is Hawaii; 78 degrees with a sea breeze 12 months a year.
My BIL and sister were both career Navy aviation and did a 3 year tour there. Their house had no heating or Hvac system. Fans did whatever duty was needed, which wasn’t much. A life long friend was an Engineer with Bechtel. He lived for a number of years working and living on the Pacific Island of Kwajalein. Nobody there but military and military contractors. No cars, just bicycles. Dive boats, snorkel and scuba free of charge and WWII era wrecks and spear fishing reefs just everywhere inside the atol. You should have heard his stories. Too late now, he’s… Read more »
A high school friend of mine has been a construction engineer in Hawaii for the last forty-odd years. He used to come home to Brooklyn to have Christmas dinner at his Mom’s house every year. I swear he never aged. He looked like a man thirty years younger. That must have been the temperature and humidity preserving his skin. Lucky man. But horrible weather builds character!!!
The cool-down is New England’s way of making us think fall is coming. Then 2nd or third week of September SURPRISE: back to the high 80’s just in time for folks with window AC to have pulled it and to make all the kids in school miserable. Just like the thaw at the end of January to coax us into think winter is over before slamming us with February. New England weather isn’t just changeable; it is downright capricious and vindictive.
High 80’s, huh? Possibly, with dew points in the 40’s & 50’s, you’ll survive. Well gee, I take back a couple of those bad things I said about New Englanders.
Unfortunately when we get what used to be called Indian Summer, it is usually due to a large system from the Caribbean cruising by. So, high 80s and dew points in the low to mid 60’s. Yes, I know that’s mild for the Gulf Coast; I’ve been to Naples, FL, and New Orleans, LA, in the summer. We rarely see that weather here; of course how often does the Gulf Coast see 2″ an hour snow with sustained Gale winds and 10-20 degree temperatures? Choose your poison. I’m used to here thank you 🙂 .
My Mother’s family is from northern Michigan so I’ve at least some experience with that weather and will (not very) gladly put up with the truly miserable 6-8 week summer doldrums.
Pensacola had a record rainfall in late April 2014, 26” of rain, a large part of it in 10 hours. It was apocalyptic!
Yes, we have to pick our poison indeed.
Other than island paradises I wonder if there are any American locales that split the difference and have both pleasant winters and summers.
As a guess, maybe Coastal California
I think you’re right about the California coast. But of course they make you pay a very heavy price to live anywhere on the idyllic Left Coast. From Seattle to San Diego you must allow your paycheck and bank account to be plundered and then be ruled over by degenerate psychopaths. Probably too high a cost for even a perfect climate.