Natural Observations

Every day here has been a first. It's interesting to have a completely new experience.

In the early part of summer the sun rose at about 5 a.m. It was very strange to see so much light in the sky at such an early hour. Back in December it seemed to get dark by 3:30 p.m. It was actually a little later, officially, but the often overcast skies and the place of the sun made it pretty dim by then, and totally night within a short time after.

It's not something I've ever seen. I'm now living far more northerly and easterly than I ever have. The natural environment is unlike anything I've ever lived in, and the change is significant.

A few days ago I was on the bus. I have always been a skywatcher, and the beauty of public transportation is that you get to spend more time in observation. I still feel like you could blindfold me, put me on a plane for hours, whatever, and wherever we landed, if we were in Texas I would know it by the sky alone.

Maybe, maybe not. But I believe it.

The sky here is very different. It's... wetter. I see traces of the rare times I've been in this part of the world. It resembles Ontario and Quebec. The cloud shapes are not like those I have seen in other places. As I sat on the bus and looked north, I could tell I wasn't in Kansas any more.

Sometimes I look east and see big cloud formations that are over the Atlantic. The view of them is mesmerizing. I bet the view from them is even better.

Rarely have I seen the menacing clouds that frequent "Tornado Alley." There are sharp weather conversions here, but they seem a bit less dangerous. I think here they are bigger and overwhelming, but there also just isn't enough real, sustained heat to generate that power I've seen so many times in Texas. If something really large moves in here, it is usually something cold, and the power of the Atlantic typically seems to mean it will quickly dominate. So the cold blasts just shoo away the heat before things can get too rowdy.

***

It's much greener here than I thought it would be. And this by all accounts has been a drier, hotter summer than is typical in these parts.

The yardlet is struggling; there hasn't been enough rain. A massive tree provides so much shade that a good portion of the yard never gets direct sunlight. And of course the dogs do their damage.

So there are portions of dusty, dried-up yard with no grass. Even the weeds struggle and mostly fail to take root.

But I have seen something interesting. The greenery here is resilient. Just a little rain perks things up quickly. I don't water the yardlet, but I want to. I think it'd be pretty lush under normal circumstances. Every where else, the green rebounds quickly. I see some greenspaces that are so rich and verdant that I want to roll around in them.

It's rainy today. A nice, consistent soak. When it burns away, by tomorrow, the lawn will look like it's spruced up and proud.

Some people up here have natural gardens as yards. They're wild and tall, but beautiful. It's a look I'd love to implement some day, if we wind up here a long time.