Why the North?

Every year at this time I begin to get a little panicked. I'll calm down in several weeks. Resigned, I think we can call it. Looking out the window at midday will help but first I have to get thru some final weeks of the growing season. Nice, calm September days to be outdoors will help.

This is the furthest north I have ever lived. After nearly 50 years, the changes in daylength still take quite a bit of adjusting since they seem to occur at breakneck speed.

I feel the loss of daylight as tho' something precious has been taken from me. Sunrise is over an hour later now than it was on July first. Sunsets catch me off guard ...

The weather predictions are for pleasant conditions after we get thru a little wind and maybe some rain tomorrow evening. I can feel the gardens gearing down as nighttime temperatures are dropping below 50°f.

Frost and its sad aftermath won't be here, just yet.

Steve

digitS' said:

Every year at this time I begin to get a little panicked. I'll calm down in several weeks. Resigned, I think we can call it. Looking out the window at midday will help but first I have to get thru some final weeks of the growing season. Nice, calm September days to be outdoors will help.

This is the furthest north I have ever lived. After nearly 50 years, the changes in daylength still take quite a bit of adjusting since they seem to occur at breakneck speed.

I feel the loss of daylight as tho' something precious has been taken from me. Sunrise is over an hour later now than it was on July first. Sunsets catch me off guard ...

The weather predictions are for pleasant conditions after we get thru a little wind and maybe some rain tomorrow evening. I can feel the gardens gearing down as nighttime temperatures are dropping below 50°f.

Frost and its sad aftermath won't be here, just yet.

Steve

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The day length often gets me especially when it is light out and I'd normally be in bed.

Steve, I have felt that seasonal melancholia for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, and "relationships" were the most important thing in my life, I would have to fight the urge every October to just get in my car and run away, to some place far away. I don't have that urge anymore, and find that the sadness of seeing the growing season wane is offset by the anticipation of preparing for holiday activities and gifts. I have lots of grandkids to make gifts for, and our charitable giving goes up a lot during the winter.
Just a suggestion: for those without big families to consider during the winter holiday season, how about getting involved in a toy drive or food basket give away, or activities at the nearest nursing home? A person has to have a reason to get up in the morning. Planning and doing for someone else is the best reason.
Happy Labor Day to you.

If my fantasy is allowed to run anywhere, it would be to the southern hemisphere at this time.

Spring in Argentina! Spring in Tasmania.

Begin anew!

I must be outdoors a lot for the next few weeks. The harvest continues. I dislike this phony daylight savings time. Noon is either when the sun is highest or its meaning is lost. We are tricked into more hours of labor.

The clock is still important to me but it loses meaning with the lingering morning darkness. I feel too grounded while I am continually looking up. Fortunately, the light of the stars and moon and light amongst the clouds are often there.

At midday, the low angle of the sun and blades of grass reaching towards it are delightful as I walk south on a sparkling lawn. Those days will soon be here.

Steve

so lucky said:

Steve, I have felt that seasonal melancholia for as long as I can remember. When I was younger, and "relationships" were the most important thing in my life, I would have to fight the urge every October to just get in my car and run away, to some place far away. I don't have that urge anymore, and find that the sadness of seeing the growing season wane is offset by the anticipation of preparing for holiday activities and gifts. I have lots of grandkids to make gifts for, and our charitable giving goes up a lot during the winter.
Just a suggestion: for those without big families to consider during the winter holiday season, how about getting involved in a toy drive or food basket give away, or activities at the nearest nursing home? A person has to have a reason to get up in the morning. Planning and doing for someone else is the best reason.
Happy Labor Day to you.

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Bless you So Lucky.

Steve, you are very poetic. I love how you stated it. I think you're the type of person that needs to retire and live 6 months where you live now and 6 months in Argentina or a country that as the opposite season from us. The seasons go so fast now a days. Perhaps spring will be here quicker than you realize.

Mary

I know what you mean...

@digitS' I sympathize. As I have mentioned for the last few years I have been working on a project to make a less day length sensitive strain of rice bean. And this season always fill me with great anxiousness. If the plants simply failed to flower at all, I could shrug and write off the year as a washout. But they invariably do flower. Only problem is they still don't start flowering until around the middle of August. So I spend most of the fall in a state of panic trying to work out how much time I have before the frost sounds the knell. Half the time I end up panicking around October and picking every pod in sight (thereby destroying most of the crop since it isn't ready yet) This year I have committed to leaving it all where it is as long as possible. But even that carries a risk of losing all of then to freezing. The patches have become almost like a yellow flowered Russian Roulette pistol.
There is also the odd feeling that comes the first Wed after the end of DST on the trip back from the city on the train, when I suddenly realize that the sun has now moved so far I can't use it to sort anymore.

Can I move in with @Hal ?



Steve

digitS' said:

Can I move in with @Hal ?



Steve

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How do you feel about summers that get up to 122ºF?