A Hint of Fall Color in August

One of the trees on the island in Carvins Cove (the one where I used to go skinnydipping) is turning.

This thistle (thithle?) reminds that it's still summer.

It is 8 o'clock Saturday morning, August 23, 2014. It is 75 degrees on my deck, which is not unusual for the first day of fall. But fall is a month away.

Practically speaking, however, we've been involved in some good early season football weather for a couple of weeks now and this summer has felt almost anything but.

I have not had my air conditioning on once in August and only ran it twice in July (for brief late-afternoon periods to cool the house for evening). My wallet likes that situation. My mind wonders, however, what is going on.

Virginia of the 2000s has had a climate far closer to that I grew up with in Piedmont South Carolina than Virginia of the 1950s. My guess is that the throwback climate is what we're getting now. It is a climate people used to visit in the summer for relief. I like it, but don't consider it anything like permanent.

A long-range forecast I saw yesterday told me to prepare for an especially cold winter. Two years ago, the winter was record warm and my heating bills were down 75 percent (I put in a new system, which helped some, but when it's 75 degrees in February, one does not use a lot of electricity).

Worry about it? Nah. I think I'll enjoy it. The only real challenge has been keeping up with the lawn. In a normal year it is brown and not growing very much. Right now, it's needing a good mow twice a week. And that's good for my activity regimin.