"madgardener" wrote in message
...


I also disturbingly noticed the absolute lack of a beautiful spider that I
would be seeing right now. She is black and yellow and quite large,
making a rather impressive web with a distinctive "zipper" in the middle
of her nets.

That certainly does sound impressive. It's sad when we notice living things
which are missing but often it's only temporary - or they've moved to more
hospitable areas. Human do it ... Spiders are fascinating creatures, I
wish I knew more about them. We have a large black one which moves around
our bedroom ceiling, we can't work out what it lives on. Or even, of course,
if it's the same one we see every night :-)

And we also seem to have quite a high population of raccoons around here
too....hmmmmmmmmmm, that could only mean their love of people's trash has
hit payload payoff because more people are moving in here and building
subdivisions where there once used to be pastures and hillsides and woods.

Yes. When I visited friends in Puget Sound they kept a sack of dog food to
feed the nightly visitors to their deck. I was charmed - but later realised
that they are the same kind of beautiful but destructive pests as our fox
:-(

Over population by people is not good. I don't know the answer to that.

But what I was worried about was hearing today that London had
temperatures around 101o F ???!??? Asphalt was melting and there is also
a drought going on? Now, having grown up in Nashville, Tennessee and
experiencing summers that I remember sometimes got so hot that tar bubbled
up on the roads and we kids played with it.....

Yes, I did as a child. We called it 'gas tar' and it was so beautiful and
our mothers weren't pleased when it got on our shirts and shorts and dresses
.... But we never learned to leave it alone. The shine, the black, the
mouldability - the mucky fingerprints we left in it ...

well, I have to wonder if this is a foreboding sign of other things that
might be out of our control. Yes, yes, global warming and all that. I'm
not here to talk politics. And I will not carry the total blame of gas
guzzling consumers. Apparently the Chinese are now eager to embrace
Western ways and there be far more of them to consume and pillage.

As we do and have done for centuries. and we've gone exponential in the last
few years :-(

So here's the extended tangent... I keep a ten year journal. I've kept
records of blooming perennials for quite a few years now. It's not a bad
habit to have, actually. What I'm seeing lately is that some perennials
are arriving earlier and finishing quicker. That varies of course because
each year is different. But I have noticed changes.

It's too late for me to do that in detail but I haven't noticed many
changes, there are slight differences year to year but on balance I reckon
things are much the same as they've always been. I grow the same things as
my parents did, with the same results at more or less the same time - except
that I have a small greenhouse so have some advantages.

What I noticed more than anything is that since the early 70's, instead of
decent winters in Tennessee, no matter if it was Middle Tennessee (where I
grew up which is where Nashville is at) or Eastern Tennessee (where I am
now, and I can't count West Tennessee as they have always had milder
winters)what I have seen, with exception to a few abnormal cold snaps that
plummeted temperatures back to colder, I now remember rainy winters.
Instead of snowy winters. Less snows in early to mid Spring. I remember
as a child, snow sometimes on the dogwood blossoms. And now as a gardener
in her early 50's, I now know that is around the mid to latter part of
April.

Yes, we have wetter (therefore warmer) winters but apart from muddy gardens
the overall effect is the same as if it were snow. Some say that pests
overwinter better, I hadn't noticed that. There have always been (what we
call) pests. Some years they're worse than others.

I also remember my mama grew me up to wear that damned undershirt until
Memorial Day which was in May. No matter how freaking hot it got. If it
did. But most times, shorts weather came after Memorial day. The same
rule of thumb applied to planting tomato plants. No one used to plant them
until Memorial Day. Now I see people setting out their tomato's by Mid
March!! And working at the Lowes store in the garden center, I began to
notice that the cole crops that came in as seedlings for gardens that used
to arrive in February, are now coming after New Year's Day. The same
thing with onion sets, bare root berry canes and the like.

I suspect that's more to do with economy and marketing than natural causes.

So since this must be confusing. yes, I still would like to hear what's
going on with you gardening friends in your neck of the woods. I, myself
am having a parched summer.

We, in Yorkshire, England, have had about three weeks of very hot and dry
weather. I might be wrong, it might only be two weeks but it seems like more
:-) There's been no shortage of water because our supply company is
excellent, it's invested huge amounts into the previously failing
infrastructure and encourages consumers to have meters, be careful with
consumption, use grey water and store rainwater in butts. The Fishers do all
those things as a matter of course and as a result my vegetables are
thriving.

Hot temperatures that have stayed in the 90's now for days on end.

Yes. And nights. Lying on the bed, windows open, with no nighties or even
sheets.

Any storms pass me or poop out quickly, leaving the soils barely touched.

We've had no storms since the beginning of the month but during last night
it rained a bit. not enough to fill the butts, the roofs are so hot that
water evaporated! But the ground is a bit damp. It's cooler too, the
greenhouse vents haven't opened.

It's so bad right now, that the Yellow finches are stripping the
Kugglesonne Rudbeckia blossoms of their petals, not waiting for the
pollinators to get the pollens and make viable seeds, and ripping into the
raw, green seed heads. For moisture? Or food. I am going to purchase
thistle seed and hang socks out for them to nourish themselves with. And
to purchase a birdbath for them to get water. That will answer that
question then.

It will be interesting.

I can't tell how badly it is with the summer's weather on the birds
because my hateful neighbor's inbred and over productive cats are at a
level of population that I fear the birds have been snatched up by
starving felines.

Our garden is full of birds - nothing exotic, just local town birds, large
and small. Our garden isn't representative of others though because we have
hens and there's always food available for winged things - who take
advantage of it :-)


back to what I was concerned about. I'd just like to know how things are
over there with you all and your gardening efforts and how Mom's Nature is
treating you. Believe it or not, I care and despite that I can't change
the weather, I'd like to keep track of things with you. I hope everyone
is well, and that the heat wave has only caused discomfort. I fear we're
all in for some adjusting. My love and concerns. I, myself have shut off
the central air many times recently and turned just the fan on to
circulate the airs around.

We don't have such a thing in our house but more and more Brits are
installing air conditioning, even in the north of England and Scotland. It
seems to be the latest thing to have. I can't understand their wanting to
increase their electricity bills which they complain about anyway but that's
their problem. I've mentioned to a couple that they're adding to global
warming. They shrug and say that it doesn't affect them :-(

But by mid morning with temperatures barely hitting 80 this last week, if
I had ventured to open a window, I'd have let in hot evening air.

I open windows on the first floor (that's the next one above ground level!)
and doors and windows on the ground floor. Yes, hot air is drawn in but it
moves because of convection currents, that's Nature's fan. South facing
windows are covered by thick curtains so those rooms keep cool.

What irks me more than anything is that we're getting huge amounts of very
hot water thanks to our solar water heating system - and we can't use it :-
Well, not all of it. We don't want hot baths so even daily ones don't drain
the cylinder. We're not wearing many clothes so not much needs washing.
We're not cooking (eating mostly raw food) so not as much dishwashing needs
to be done. Hrumph.

Yep, things are certainly not what I'd consider normal. I do remember hot
summers, but usually at the end of July and August. When my youngest son
was born, I took him home on the 5th of August and the temperatures were
104o F. So hot summers are normal. But not like this I don't think. I'll
have to research this more.

I really do think that we're contributing more to global warming - in very
many ways - than we have done in previous centuries. We're paying the price
for our modern 'conveniences'.

Thanks for putting up with me.

It's been a delight :-)

Mary