extended summer delight

We're now almost two weeks into the fall season and it still feels like summer.  This was the June that we never got this year. The irrigation water had been turned off on September 15, and there had been no rain since, oh, I can't remember when it last rained here; perhaps sometime in July? Yes, it must have been July because that was odd, too. We normally do not get rain in the middle of summer. Now the grass, the weeds, and the wildflowers have all turned brown; only the most hardy remained green. How is it that the birdsfoot trefoil is still flowering in my backyard?  

The weather has indeed been quite strange this year. Late spring was so rainy and cold that I had to re-seed my beans three times before anything sprouted.  Today, the house finches were enjoying a wildly boisterous splash in the bird bath in the kitchen garden. It's October but who can resist this weather?

The cherry tomatoes are also enjoying the warm weather and now seem to be in competition on which ones can turn red faster, which can display the best marbling stripes, which can blush deeper and be the most irresistible to pluck in the early morning.  And here I thought I would lose all of them in early September when the temperature first plunged.

The Farmers' Almanac says that on average, the first frost will hit our area on October 13, with Seattle getting its first frost about a month later.  That's only nine days away for us. And there are apparently more 70 degree days coming our way. The only thing predictable about the weather this year it seems, has been its unpredictability.

⚘