How do you watch for the ending of summer?

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   Perspycaciousposted 9 years ago

   How do you watch for the ending of summer?
   
   I have two methods, only one of which may be useful to you:  (1) I live at the base of a mountain and watch for the first snow to show on the peak (11,000+), and (2) I watch the nighttime temperature lows which right now are in the mid-fifties....a sure sign the cooling has started.  Of course the leaves changing color is a sure sign of Fall, but usually we see snow on the peaks as summer ends here.
   
   

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   Tusitala Tomposted 9 years ago

   Love the photograph and the descriptions.  However, I watch for the end of calendar by turning over my wall calendar.   Down here in Sydney, Australia, the seasons are, of course, reversed.  Our summer ends at the end of February.  Mind you, it can remain hot for another couple of months after that.
   
   No, snow, mate.  I think we might get a flurry of snow once every thirty or forty years, though it generally snows for a week or so up in the Blue Mountains and Western Slopes approximately seventy miles to the west, and for around three or four months - sporatically -on the higher Snowy Mountains far away to the Southwest.
   
   So glad we don't have those awful long, snowy - shovel your driveway snows - you people get in the USA and Canada.     Oh, and we use Celsius for temperature here in Aussie-land.  Gave up Fahrenheit when we took to Decimal Currency for our money back around 1966.

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   chef-de-jourposted 9 years ago

   Here in Yorkshire in the north of England there are several sure signs that summer has truly gone, vamooshed. The beginning of the end so to speak starts with the rosebay willowherb plant seeding. This wild flower has long thin strips of seed that gradually ripen and form white feathery floating capsules. As summer ends you see the air filled with them as cool breezes take them away from the mother plant.
   Later on the swallows that come here in May from Africa group together on telegraph lines and decide to quit whilst the going is relatively good! Having nested and raised a family they spend the warmer days feeding up, zipping over field and pasture snapping up insects. It's a great sight.
   I'm always ready for them to leave because that is a definite pointer to cooler days and evenings. When the swallows leave summer is over.
   
   That's a wonderful image of the mountain. I'm a bit envious, I would love to live with a mountain on the doorstep.

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      Perspycaciousposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Oops! I could surely have mentioned the swallows' departure, along with the departure of the hummingbirds!  I will watch to see here, if those herald the end of summer or an end to  fall.

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   pstraubie48posted 9 years ago

   O lucky you...
   I live in Florida so watching for it is a long process...it comes when it wishes...no telling when it will be.
   The other morning while working outside I felt a most lovely breeze...and thought "O can it mean that maybe fall will come sooner rather than later?"
   Probably not...and despite it all I do love living in the 'tropical' zone.
   
   Angels are on the way to you this morning ps

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      Perspycaciousposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Everything has its trade offs.  Topical? Yes, but hurricanes too.  I like having distinct seasons (having grown up in Maine.)  Our trade off is living on an earthquake fault line!

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   connorjposted 9 years ago

   
   
   here in the Sunburn State; oops, I mean the Sunshine State (Florida) we do not watch for the ending of summer. We must leave the state to watch for this phenomena or enter one of the not too many ice rinks and  "abracadabra" summer has ended and we have entered the ice age...

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6. 87

   BWD316posted 9 years ago

   I live in Connecticut where we get all four seasons and Fall is pretty much the best (although I do love all the seasons). For me, I start to notice fall when the sun angle starts to drop in August, my vegetable garden becomes more shade than sun, some of the maples start to change color as early as late august (even though peak foliage isn't until mid October). Funny, its like a biological clock thing, as soon as the sun begins to lower in the sky, I begin to crave apples, pumpkin coffee and pumpkin pie.
   
   One random day this past August, I was sitting by the pool and the sun seemed lower in the sky for the first time and it just hit me, i was craving pumpkin pie. Its weird but hilarious at the same time lol.
   
   Of course I also know when summer is coming to an end when all the town fairs start up and the apple orchards open!

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      Amanda108posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm the exact same way, Brian! Any sign of Fall shifts my cravings.
      
      I'm in Michigan so we get traditional four seasons. But to live in the New England area during Fall must be like a dream! I hope to see it someday.

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   MizBejabbersposted 9 years ago

   With dread because I know that fall is the harbinger of winter. But to answer your question, my Spider Lilies bloom just in time for the autumn equinox. They are the highlight of my plants and I eagerly await their arrival. During this time I forbid my lawn to be mowed because they bloom like the pink "Naked ladies," blooms first, then the leaves.
   I watch for the changing colors of the trees, or the fall foliage, as the advertising brochures put it. Right now I live on the border between my native Ozark Mountains and the Ouachita Mountains (pronounced WASH-ih-tah), our other beautiful mountain range. Then come flocks of geese flying South. By that time, I'm sneezing my head off from the ragweed and goldenrod in bloom and running to my local pharmacy for more allergy medicine.

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      Perspycaciousposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I have a tall reminder, too.  My Jerusalem Artichoke start to blossom!  Plants sure know how to do their thing, don't they!

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      MizBejabbersposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I wish you would post a photo. I would love to see it. My spider lilies are featured in the photo of the top of my house in one of my hubs.

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   Lila Rainesposted 9 years ago

   I begin mourning the end of summer when it starts getting dark before 8:00. I love it in late june, when it's light out until 9 or 9;30. The days feel long and life feels great.
   
   I just hate how in the deepest parts of winter, it's dark by 4:30. As the days get shorter, it feels like impending death. From September through March is something I feel like I have to endure--and not look forward to. I wish that I loved winter, but I really don't. Not a fan of cold, and not a fan of short days. 
   
   When fall comes, there is a crispness in the air that you can almost smell.
   
   You're life at the base of a mountain sounds great. I think it is spychologically a good thing when seasons show themselves to be distinct. In California, the seasons don't change very much so it can often feel like a whole season was skipped. Like last winter, we had zero rain for the month of January. It messes with your rhythm.

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      MizBejabbersposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with you, especially about the short daylight. I can't drive very well after dark, so getting home from work in winter is a nightmare for me. Our seasons have shifted, so now it doesn't really get shirt-sleeve time until the middle of June.

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   Faceless39posted 9 years ago

   
   
   When the purple asters are out, that's the end.

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      Perspycaciousposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, they are blooming here now, too, a little before my Jerusalem Artichoke.

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    Amanda108posted 9 years ago

    Fun question!
    
    Hmm, the first thing coming to mind is the most obvious: leaves changing color and dropping from their branches. That and temperature consistently lowering, as opposed to a randomly cool weekend. Oh, and I live in Michigan. Figured I should throw that in since everyone is sharing the differences in location!
    
    But I think what really triggers feelings of Fall for me is ultimately something a bit childish, in the sense of one's inner child: Halloween appearing. I don't mean the insanely early candy bags and skulls popping up in the mega stores. But when those temporary Halloween shops set up in town, then I know Fall is officially here even if they've yet to open their doors. This goes back to when I rode the school bus home and a couple weeks into the school year I would start putting down my book to look out the window in search as the bus drove past a particular stretch of street: the area where Halloween USA always came in. When it finally happened it would make my week, and then for the rest of the season I always smiled as we drove past.

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