ME II: 9 days left

· Maine Event

Ohhh now we are down to the single digits (in terms of days left in Maine)! The low here was 51° and the high was 58°. We woke up to rain and then in the middle of the day we had a great thunderstorm that included lightning! Our friends here said thunderstorms are customarily in September and surprising in October. Then again everything is topsy-turvy. Here are maps by the EPA about how much longer the growing season is. These maps show us what is and were normal in terms of temperature and precipitation and the USDA zone maps which haven't been updated since 2012 can give us a false sense of security. This little table shows that the Fall freeze dates are September 18th for Portland. That certainly has not even been close to happening in the past two years! September has been hot and rarely even light jacket weather. It's October 24th and it hasn't come close to freezing this year nor last until well into November.

In terms of local Bay Area news, there are rumors in the Chronicle about Monterey Market and Pegasus Books being turned into housing developments.

Puddles and misty morning walk.
Wet New England Asters
Resilient Yarrow doesn't seem to mind the rain at all
Ta-da! There are significantly fewer flowers and yet so many that keep on keepin' on
Foggy morning at the harbor
Harbor View Park looks more wintery every day.
Nice House Nice Tree, while the tree has lost its lovely leaves the black bark and its shape is a delight.
It's nice of the house to set off the gorgeousness of the tree.
Wet streets
Fore River and the lights of South Portland
People really go all out here for Halloween.
You have to wonder if the person that
lives here is a dentist...
Beautiful naked trees

Have a splendid night.

Sending love, Tawnia

Shortish rain-day bird list:

  1. House Sparrow
  2. Herring Gull
  3. Blue Jay
  4. Rock Pigeon
  5. European Starling
  6. Northern Cardinal
  7. Downy woodpecker
  8. American robin