Almost Over the Hump

Years ago, summer used to be my favorite time of year, but no more. These days, winter is my favorite season. Sometimes summer seems to drag on forever, but by the first of August, the sun rises noticeably later than on the solstice. Winter's on its way.

Even so, August is a challenging month. It's hot, humid, mosquito-y, and my work load hits a maximum -- irrigation, harvesting honey, and trying to keep the weeds under control.

I've developed a couple of psychological tricks to convince myself that summer isn't really all that bad. For one, I remember that the last of the residual winter cold doesn't finally burn off until June, which means that dawn remains pleasantly cool until summer is well-established. In addition, I remember that dawn starts to cool off again by early September, when we once again have enough hours of darkness for the temperatures to drop substantially at night.

So really, the worst of summer only lasts from early June till sometime in early September. That's not so bad, is it? Or so I like to tell myself.