Around the House – Summer

Summer began with 90º temperatures for a couple of days in early June and a long period without rain – a portent of things to come as my least favorite season brings heat, humidity and haze to northcentral Pennsylvania. This year we also were the recipients of  smoke from wildfires in Canada that were greatly enhanced by the changing climate.

Although I may prefer spring and fall with all their beauty and their day-to-day changes as well as winter with its cold and snow, summer still has wonderful things to see out there in the natural world.

Flowers bloom throughout the summer, they’re different than the ones we see and enjoy in the spring, but still beautiful; birds are at their maximum abundance as young ones leave the nest; colorful and intriguing insects abound, only a few are a nuisance to humans and many more species pollinate the plants we need or enjoy.

Here are photographs of the natural world taken each day of meteorological summer within 200 feet of our back door. Most were taken with an Olympus micro four thirds camera using a variety of lenses, the other is from a camera trap located within that 200 foot radius (the date of that photo is listed at the end of this post). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer’s over now, it ended on August 31, and cooler days will follow (although there will be some hot days) with colorful falling leaves, migrating hawks, waterfowl heading south and the first frosts. Fifty years ago we had snow on the ground by the end of fall, but as our climate warms that seldom happens any more – "the times they are a-changin".

From the camera trap:  7/2