Friday, August 24, 2012

Early Fall?

Ruth over at Hope, Joy and Faith Farm mentioned in her post this morning that on the southern Oregon coast where she lives fall seems to be arriving early this year.

I've had the same feeling about that in our neck o' the woods for a couple of weeks now.

Up here in northern Minnesota, we usually hit the middle of August when the temperatures at night suddenly turn and have a fallish kinda nip to them. This year it happened just about August first.

The few deciduous trees we have (we're primarily a pine forest) started turning color and even dropping a few leaves a couple of weeks ago. Now I know science tells us this phenomenon has everything to do with the amount of light during a day and nothing to do with temperature, but it still seems to be happening earlier this year to me.

The impatiens I plant in our flower boxes are already looking stressed and bedraggled.

Most years I feel badly about pulling them out of their boxes in the middle of October because they're still so lush and beautiful when I want to redo the boxes with fall foliage and miniature pumpkins. This year I think I'm gonna want to give them a decent burial long before that.

Who woulda thunk our super-hot summer would end so quickly and fall would come rushing in early?

18 comments:

Sue said...

We had that cold spell last week--where Sue went nuts and cleaned and sorted and organized because the nighttime temps were upper 30's and daytime highs were in the 60's.
Now it's 85 and I'm grilling out because it's too hot to cook.
ROLLER-COASTER!!!
LOL!!

Sparkless said...

Could be your plants are just plum tired out from all the hot dry weather you've had and decided to have an early Fall.

I've seen signs of fall all over. Most noticeably is the yellowing of the willow leaves.

Susan said...

Ditto here in upstate NY. I've noticed color on the leaves and the days are noticeably shorter. I'll know it's fall for sure when they start cutting the corn. Or so says my farmer/neighbor. I'm ready. More or less.

Rebecca Shockley said...

Is here ,its here ,Merry Christmas,no I'm not drunk,why do you ask.

Tombstone Livestock said...

I think some of my tree leaves are turning yellow due to lack of water, the new trees I planted and water daily are bright green, but fall and winter will be here, trust me, happens every year. Enjoy.

Karen L. said...

I cannot figure out if a weather shift has happened or not. Seems like Summer started about a month early and therefore Fall is doing the same. Our persimmon tree has been dropping very green fruit and way too early. However, I am thinking/hoping this is due to the previous dry spell. Perhaps in 10 years or so, it will be snowing in July and we will be swimming in January! Well, probably not but it surely has been a strange year.

Jane @ Hard Work Homestead said...

Well for some reason it got hot here again. Almost 90 now. This is just crazy in PA. I was soooo enjoying the cool down. Well careful what I wish for because this will be the year of -0 temps. That would be the luck.

Unknown said...

Seems even here (way down south Texas) we have had a cool front move through knocking out some of the intense heat we always have in late August. I'm enjoying it, but wondering what winter will be like if Autumn is early...

Mama Pea said...

Sue - Roller-Coaster, indeed! Someone mentioned a couple of days ago that it's like Mother Nature is suffering the symptoms of menopause. I thought that was quite an appropriate description!

Mama Pea said...

Sparkless - A very good point made about the plants suffering from the extremely high temps this summer. I feel kinda the same way!

Mama Pea said...

Susan - I think we're all ready for fall emotionally . . . maybe not considering the end of summer chores that are still on our lists!

Mama Pea said...

judy - The thing is it WILL be Merry Christmas time before we know it!

Mama Pea said...

Tombstone Livestock - Yepper, that's one thing we can still rely on . . . the change of seasons! (And I wouldn't want it any other way!)

Mama Pea said...

Karen L. - I keep reading reports (supposedly from those who "know") that we're headed into a warming trend . . . and headed into a cooling off of the earth. Take your pick, eh? Guess we'll just stick around and see what happens. ;o}

Mama Pea said...

Jane - Our high temps are only in the high 70s/low 80s now but, holy smoley, the HUMIDITY! Even at night when it cools down things still feel clammy and damp. Give me 20 degrees and cool crispness anytime!

Mama Pea said...

Simply Scaife Family - The thing is even with all the technology at their fingertips, I don't think the weather forecasters do any better a job than the forecasters did 100 years ago!

Erin said...

It's still hot here but our leaves are falling too. Not even turning much color either, just green one day and brown and on the ground the next LOL!

Mama Pea said...

Erin - Hmmm, that doesn't sound quite right.

Our birch trees are all being stressed by a fungus and have been losing many of their leaves all summer which gives a look of fall to the forest. Don't like it!