The rain gauge is showing an inch and a half of water for the first time in weeks.
After a rainy muddy spring, summer weather since the end of May has been DRY.
We have only had two short sprinkles all month, a half an inch once and 1/10th on the other occasion.
This week has been different.
Storms were predicted (that has happened without any precipitation at all) several times this month. They got rain south of us, rain west of us, rain north of us and rain east of us, but nary a drop on our poor parched yard. I am exaggerating of course, but it has been pretty hot and dry outside.
Shady areas of the yard didn’t fare so badly, but some spots out front (south west side of the trailer) actually cracked open, despite Jack watering trees and flowers daily.
This week started differently with a nice storm on Sunday (3/4 of an inch) and on Monday afternoon (another three-quarters of an inch) blessing us with an inch and a half total on this parched ground. I thought it would wash the dust and Canadian smoke out of the air, but that hasn’t happened unfortunately.
Now it seems more like cooler weather out there, but I still can’t get out and enjoy it as the Canadian wildfire smoke is the worst it has been around here. Air quality today was at an extreme level of 233 (elevated levels of fine particulates – a good and healthy level is 18) with warnings to stay inside if at all possible. It actually looked like fog outside this morning…
All that being said, I was wishing I could turn back the calendar a year or two, because our short sweet summers are wonderful to remember on a bleak cold February morning or in the middle of a March snowstorm. Can’t say that this year, however, is going to win any awards or make any memories, even if we have been having some sunshiny warm days.
Typically, this is my favorite time of year and the best time of the day is the evening. Summer nights are usually something special.
Some of the best things about summer are the hazy evenings when the sun lazily sets after 9:30 p.m. and the scent of flowers and fresh cut grass is everywhere.
You see couples strolling around town in the evening, youngsters riding bikes and skateboards, or swimming in the afternoon and catching frogs and tadpoles in the edge of the river.
The days are made for spinning on the tire swing in the sunshine and splashing in the lake or river.
The evenings are for sitting around bonfires after dark and roasting marshmallows over the coals of a dying fire.
There’s something exciting about a summer thunderstorm crashing through the sky after dark, and that incredible fresh smell that comes right after the rain.
It is completely peaceful just sitting on the steps at the front door and listening to the frogs singing in the twilight.
Even driving home after an evening meeting is an adventure – seeing deer wandering everywhere, some with new fawns.
You wake up to birds singing at dawn and listen to them making music again just before the sun sets on a dead calm warm evening.
It’s a time to be outside as much as possible, watching the sun light up the eastern sky in the morning, taking a nap in the hammock in the afternoon and listening to the geese heading back to their pond for the night just after the sun sets.
For kids, Summer means never ending days of play outside with friends, going to the lake or river and jumping in that shivery cold water on a blazing hot afternoon.
It’s sitting on the riverbank with a fishing pole and waiting for that “big bite,” and not even minding when it doesn’t happen.
It’s popsicles that melt almost before you can eat them, ice cream cones in the shade or eating big slices of watermelon and seeing who can spit the seeds the farthest.
It’s long bike rides and picnics on a blanket in the yard.
It’s lying on your back after dark and counting the stars.
Gee, I wish they would get those fires up north out.
I want summer again.