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Fading Days of Summer
After moving to L.A. from San Francisco, with its perpetually chilly summers, it took me ages to warm up. But 2014 has been the hottest year on record in California, and here in the Southland, it has felt like one eternal season of sweaty weather. (It’s going to be 90 tomorrow.) In the last few days, I’ve noticed how much the light has changed. Ordinarily that harbinger of fall makes me wistful. Now, I can’t wait.
Peanuts via this isn’t happiness
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We’ve had an unbelievably cool summer here, the coolest I’ve experienced since moving to the Midwest a dozen years ago; I believe it was a record-setter for Indianapolis. However, the weather seems to have “turned”, with normal summer heat and humidity having arrived last week and seemingly staying–the weather forecasts are showing mid-upper 80s for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, I’m gearing up for fall, my favorite season (I’d like a 9-month autumn, with 1 month for each of the remaining seasons). I’m getting ready for jeans instead of shorts, for long sleeves, and, very importantly, an office that isn’t 80°F! I’m looking forward to apples (and I hope the crop is decent–the cool summer following a cold spring has decimated the peach crop here, so no peach salsa this year). I’m looking forward to cool-weather cooking as well–soups, stews, braises–which I don’t do when the weather is warmer.
Many good incentives in your list to be happy about the coming season
So, we leave behind the grill and move on to the oven! I love seasonal cooking and even consider the month and weather. Yesterday evening, a storm blew in over the Cascades and I baked Snickerdoodles. Cinnamon is a cozy spice; it’s just the thing when it’s blustery and spitting rain.
My hardy brother who lives in New England tells me he never leaves behind the grill. I’ve seen photos of him grilling surrounded by multiple feet of snow. I can’t imagine.
Here in lovely Baltimore, we have had probably the balmiest summer in recent years. The newspaper was just reporting that this August will be the first in like, forever, where temperatures did not reach 90 degrees.
Does balmy means moderate?
Very moderate. Normally this region is stifling during the summer and this year it wasn’t bad at all. That said, last winter was one of the worst this area’s ever had. I grew up in the Midwest and lived in rural New England for a few years and the winter we had here wasn’t far behind those areas.
Walking the dog this evening, was the first time in awhile, I’d felt like putting on a long-sleeve shirt. Maybe fall is really coming.
We’ve had a bit of everything here, which is fine. The changing tone of the light and fewer daylight hours makes me a bit wistful, a reminder to treasure these final weeks before it turns cool. Our winters are so long that I don’t really look forward to them per se, though I am doing a better job of embracing them.
When I was growing up on the East Coast, I couldn’t wait for winter to be over. California was my destiny.
You guys crack me up! It’s been over 90 here in Houston since May, mid to upper 90s since June. We are supposed to have a cooler weekend due to rain – it’s sad when you consider 89 a “cool front”. This is about the time of year I start losing my mind over the heat. The good news is we did not have 100 plus temps like the rest of Texas this year, and we had more normal rain fall. We should be down to the mid 80s by October.
I laughed reading your comment, which provided an excellent perspective, Denise. Thanks!
Around Wenatchee, summer is now referred to as “fire season”. The weather will be brilliant early in the season, then one day ash starts raining from the sky and people are running from their homes. The air is becomes acrid, temperatures hover near one hundred degrees, and you wonder if you will ever get to go swimming at all at any of your favorite places. This ends up filling one with melancholy in one’s forties, because every summer matters. Every minute of life, every breath of clean air counts. Does anyone else get to feeling this way as the seasons roll by?
I used to dread turning the clocks back in fall because of how dark it got so early. But then one day, the seasons seemed to be speeding by so fast, and I realized I better try to enjoy each moment, each when dusk comes at 4:30 pm.