In 2016 I’m doing a 365 Nature project. Each day of the year I will post something here about nature. It may be any format, a photo, video, audio, sketch or entry from my nature journal. It could be a written piece. Each day I will connect to nature in some way and share it here by the end of that day. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to the RSS feed or be notified by email. See all the 365 Nature posts.
June is also 30 Days Wild and I’m participating again this year.
We’re having a disagreeable heatwave this weekend. Personally, I despise hot weather, it ruins my day, my week and even entire months. My mind shuts down, I become unbearably cranky and all around miserable. What I find even worse is when these heatwaves happen when they’re not supposed to. The average first day of the year in Seattle for hitting 90 degrees is July 1st. Today is June 4th. We’ve already had multiple record breaking hot days in the 80’s this spring. In the last 48 months here, 40 have been above average temperatures. I suppose I should be grateful I’m not further south, Olympia is supposed to reach near 100 degrees. As I sit in front of the fan, hiding inside, that’s not much consolation though.
I did go out this morning into the yard and looked for bees. They were already active as it was warm very early, and I had no trouble finding bumble bees around the California Poppies. Our flower meadow we seeded last year has started to grow again this year, but very differently. Pansy and California Poppy have dominated the middle area, but there’s an inexplicable bare patch where something – anything – should be growing. I threw out dozens of sunflower seeds this spring and not one has come up. Foxglove came up this year and flowered, but last year I planted seeds and not one flowered. It may be one of the species that doesn’t flower the first year though. I’m having to water the front garden constantly because it’s been so warm all spring and with very little rain and I find that annoying and tedious. It’s supposed to rain!
I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come this summer. Last year was unbearable – it was hot, there was a major drought, massive wildfires and generally just horrible. Last I read, La Niña was heading this way to kick that miserable, good-for-nothing El Niño to the curb. It’s hard to believe though, sitting here on a 90 degree day in early June. It can’t happen soon enough for me, and my sanity. And the safety of everyone around me.
