I know that title isn’t grammatically correct… get off my back. I’m an organic gardener, not an English professor. I was living under the impression all these years that summer starts on June 21st each and every year. Yesterday, I learned that that is not necessarily true… not when you’re talking about meteorological summer.
I heard one of the local weather guys on the TV news explain that summer actually begins here today, June 1st, because of the temperature pattern that we are currently in, as well as the predictions for the next several days. How is it that I’ve lived 52 years without knowing this? I have no idea. It’s apparently not a new concept, just not well known.
Clearly, after June 1st, we in Kansas know that we are in for some hot weather. Hot, though, is a relative term. Our house has shade trees only on the north side, and those only because we haven’t had the time and energy to cut them down just yet. They’re Eastern Red Cedars, which are particularly bad since we have a beautiful apple tree just a few yards away. The two are not compatible because there’s this really cool looking yet destructive fungus called cedar apple rust that can ruin a crop of apples in a heartbeat, and it is only present when there are cedars present close to apple trees. It’s a funky fungus that needs both types of trees in order to survive. We haven’t cut these trees down yet because they’re large and it’s going to be a big job, keeping them from hitting the house on their way down, but also because the hummingbirds nest in them and I don’t want to displace them. But I digress…
So, our house gets a lot of direct sun, and yesterday, it was hot outside, but it was cool in the house. Every year, I debate turning on the AC and I try to make it to Memorial Day without using the AC. We did turn it on a couple of weeks ago for a day or two when we had a spike in temperature up to triple-digit heat, but that passed and we survived. So far this week, though, having the windows open and the ceiling fans on has been perfectly comfortable inside and, I suppose, we could consider these “bonus days” of not having the AC on. Temperatures in town have been uncomfortable, so if we were living in town, I’m sure we would have had the AC on pretty much around-the-clock for the last couple of weeks. Getting by without the AC is a big deal because it adds so much to the electric bill… enough that we stop using the dishwasher in summer to balance out the bill. I can live without the dishwasher, but the AC… not so much.
So, I guess this is summer… I think I will start counting the days until fall.
