The Coming Of Winter
Last week it was cooler and darker up here than it’s been in a quite a while, but I wasn’t complaining.
I’m not much for 30 degree C heat anyway and I was getting tired of hugging a fan. When it gets hot on the Miramichi, at least you know it’ll cool down a bit overnight. But when the sun stays up for nearly 24 hours a day like it does in Yellowknife in the summer, it’s hot day and night.
But after a couple of dark days stretched into a week, with the rain smashing and the wind ripping, I began to miss the nice weather. Still, I knew there was still a lot of summer left.
But I was wrong.
I forgot I’m in the Arctic and summer doesn’t stay around these parts for long. No sir.
I looked out my bedroom window Wednesday evening and noticed a change in the birch tree that lives there. A week before it was green, lush, even vibrant. But that had changed.
Most of the leaves on the tree had turned yellow. A bad sign indeed.
Leaves up here don’t turn the beautiful reds and oranges that they do down south. Up here they turn an ugly yellow, then they fall and are covered by snow almost before you notice they’re gone.
Because North of 60 there are really only two seasons. Winter and Waiting For Winter.
It was well into June before it was safe to plant my vegetable garden this year and I’m predicting the snow falling and lasting by the end of September, the same way it did two years ago. And that was a bad winter, let me tell ya.
It feels like Fall here now. The air has the same sweet crispness it does down home in the weeks before Halloween.
Summer’s almost gone, and I barely had time to enjoy it.
Oh well. I’m just gonna have to enjoy what short amount of time there is left.
I made sure to spend a bit more time than usual enjoying my vegetable garden Thursday evening. I pulled up some nice-sized turnips and noticed my zucchini and peas would soon have to be picked. I also noted with more than a little disappointment that my tomato plants, which I started from seed way back in February in an attempt to push back the dreariness of winter, were not doing what they’re supposed to, which is produce tomatoes. Well, you win some and you lose some. I had fun growing them at least.
I’m glad I had the chance to have a garden this year, even with mosquitoes the size of bison. I’ll be even gladder to do it all again next year.
So to you folks back home, where the summer is longer, enjoy the rest of it, cause one day in the not-too-distant future you’ll wake up to smell the crispness of the air and notice the changing leaves too. And it’ll be sooner than you think.
I’m not much for 30 degree C heat anyway and I was getting tired of hugging a fan. When it gets hot on the Miramichi, at least you know it’ll cool down a bit overnight. But when the sun stays up for nearly 24 hours a day like it does in Yellowknife in the summer, it’s hot day and night.
But after a couple of dark days stretched into a week, with the rain smashing and the wind ripping, I began to miss the nice weather. Still, I knew there was still a lot of summer left.
But I was wrong.
I forgot I’m in the Arctic and summer doesn’t stay around these parts for long. No sir.
I looked out my bedroom window Wednesday evening and noticed a change in the birch tree that lives there. A week before it was green, lush, even vibrant. But that had changed.
Most of the leaves on the tree had turned yellow. A bad sign indeed.
Leaves up here don’t turn the beautiful reds and oranges that they do down south. Up here they turn an ugly yellow, then they fall and are covered by snow almost before you notice they’re gone.
Because North of 60 there are really only two seasons. Winter and Waiting For Winter.
It was well into June before it was safe to plant my vegetable garden this year and I’m predicting the snow falling and lasting by the end of September, the same way it did two years ago. And that was a bad winter, let me tell ya.
It feels like Fall here now. The air has the same sweet crispness it does down home in the weeks before Halloween.
Summer’s almost gone, and I barely had time to enjoy it.
Oh well. I’m just gonna have to enjoy what short amount of time there is left.
I made sure to spend a bit more time than usual enjoying my vegetable garden Thursday evening. I pulled up some nice-sized turnips and noticed my zucchini and peas would soon have to be picked. I also noted with more than a little disappointment that my tomato plants, which I started from seed way back in February in an attempt to push back the dreariness of winter, were not doing what they’re supposed to, which is produce tomatoes. Well, you win some and you lose some. I had fun growing them at least.
I’m glad I had the chance to have a garden this year, even with mosquitoes the size of bison. I’ll be even gladder to do it all again next year.
So to you folks back home, where the summer is longer, enjoy the rest of it, cause one day in the not-too-distant future you’ll wake up to smell the crispness of the air and notice the changing leaves too. And it’ll be sooner than you think.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 4:24 PM
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