Is This The Way Its Going To Be?

I have always loved summer. Dreams of sunshine, green grass and leaves, and butterflies sustain me through our endless winters. However, things have been a bit different this year. Winter faithfully did its thing-with enthusiasm. Cold with lots of snow and very few Chinooks. By some time in April we were wondering if it would ever end. Normally, the cows would be free to roam several acres of woodland, depositing new calves under trees of their choice. But not this year. A calf deposited under any tree would immediately disappear under a couple of feet of snow. The cows were kept confined and straw-bedded in the big corral which contributed to a very successful calf crop. But what was going to happen when all that show melted? Surely all the streams would be flooding. But, suddenly, it seemed like all in one day, winter turned to summer and all the snow was gone. And where was the great run-off? There was none. Apparently, after last year’s hot, dry summer the soil just gulped the water down as fast as the snow melted. Actually, it was quite a dry spring-not that good for hay. Up until late July we were blessed with enough thundershowers to keep things growing. But then came the heat and the showers disappeared as we sweated through the 30 plus days while wanting to throttle the cheery people revelling in the summer sun. Mostly, the garden grew-if watered daily. The tomatoes on the south side of the house did reasonably well. They would have done even better if not rendered inaccessible for some time due to the three large wasp nests constructed in the eaves above them. In August, came the smoke. Day after day it hangs above and around us, a gift from our neighbors to the west as BC endures over 500 forest fires these days. Altogether, it hasn’t been a sterling summer so far but, to steal a line from an old country song, “We’re still a livin’ so everything’s all right.”