Lackluster, So Far
I regret to say that so far, this fall season has been cancelled due to--who knows why. There is scant color in the hills even at mid-October, and as far as our five maples that surround the house, they ended their season with a wimper, not a bang. Most of their leaves turned brown, and fell on one day last week in a heavy rain. A few stragglers remain on the branches, and at least in the last slanting light of dusk, showed a bit of color, but yellow--not last year's gold.
There will be more color to come, toward the end of the month, and especially after a hard frost. Hey, what's with the frost? When we lived here in the 70s and 80s, first frost of fall was on or about September 15, and a freeze not long after. Yesterday, I raked leaves in shorts and had to come in for sunscreen. Seems warmer these days. Wonder what's going on?
Comments
OK. So here is the under-cafinated question of the day... Since global warming seems to be a clear direction for the forseeable future, with potential harm facing many areas of the earth, where might the "benefits" accrue?
Posted by: Carl | October 17, 2005 9:08 AM
Our display of fall colour has been underwhelming in eastern Ontario as well--then a few days of very strong winds a week or so ago took down a lot of what colour there was or would have been. And no frost yet here too.
Posted by: Pamela Martin | October 17, 2005 9:34 AM
Hi Fred,
Up here in the White Mountains we still haven't had a frost. I mentioned how unusual it was for us to reach October without one and my neighbor insisted we never have frost till October. I may be going nuts but I think normal for us is early September. ( maybe global warming is messing with his memory!) We haven't even had a touch of frost. You can still have your squash and tomatoes out.
Any ideas where we can find the info on average frost dates? And our fanous foliage is way off too, some trees are bare and sone are still green. It's like the trees are confused.
Posted by: zuleme | October 17, 2005 11:12 AM
According to these guys -
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/envirohort/426-331/426-331map.html
- the first frost date is around 10/10 to 10/15. No matter though - we can't use the atmosphere as a giant "air-fill" and expect nothing to happen.
It never ceases to amaze me that mankind was given custody of this gorgeous planet. Seems like we're about to get some supervision.
Planet Maintenance 101 - attendance is mandatory.
Posted by: M Lawless | October 18, 2005 6:32 AM