A real summer day here in the NW

Summers in the Northwest is easily one of the most beautiful places on earth. Something about lots of water nearby, not too hot temps and no bugs is a real crowd please.

Hey! Come visit and spend your vacation dollars here!

Our summers almost make up for the 6-8 solid months of drizzle and gray bleh. Hard to even remember what it usually is like on a day like this.

Perfect. 75 degrees, cloudless blue sky, slight breeze and did I mention the no bugs part?

And, drum roll please...

The corn has actually emerged in my garden! I thought for sure I had screwed that up. Much to my surprise, they even look different from all the weeds. Now that I can tell the difference I guess I better do some weeding.

Pumpkins starting popping up yesterday with more happening today.

And, row after row of bush beans making their first appearance. Wow, they move fast once they are up.

I read somewhere that crows particularly like bean starts so to get some flashy tape or something to scare them away. GGF has some on order for us both. You know that metallic tape that you string around and it flashes light and is supposed to discombobulate the birds? Hope it works and we get it in time!

I might need an extra special strategy because my crows are pesky smart ones. They wait until we aren't around and snack on the cat kibble off the back porch and they have no qualms about snatching pretzels from Shea's lunch when he wanders off even for a brief moment.

In fact, one of two may be Ravens because they seem awful big for crows. I actually sort of like them but not well enough to feed them my bean babies.

Is it scarecrow time?

Suggestions?

Cripes!

Ok, I am not looking for sympathy. I understand that there are great swaths of the Northeast and Midwest that have to deal with loooonnnnnggggggg winters each year. Somehow you manage because you folks are TOUGH! Way tougher than me.

But, this is the maritime Pacific Northwest! You know? Sea level! I know today I wake up to just a dusting and not a big deal. Although, North westerners are particularly stupid about snow and ice driving. So, for someone, somewhere it is a very big deal. But, this is a place that would typically go years without a single flake while this winter we have had record flakes.

Is this what my pal Al Gore was warning us all about? Is this evidence? Are we year by year, tweaking was something so much bigger than ourselves that we are changing climate?

My kingdom for an electric car! With snow tires.

IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!

After days of threats and innuendo from the weather folks, the flakes started about 7:30. By 8:30 it was impossible to ignore. Even though Shea was brushed, jammied and ready for bed, I didn't have the heart to not let him play in his first snow with sissy and the big kids. So, we bundled him up, almost ridiculously and let him go.

Molly and the neighbor girls come over in full snow worship. After a busy afternoon hanging out next door, the 4 of them were thrilled to herald the rare weather and proceeded to roll many gargantuan snowballs presumably for the bottom part of a snow person choir in the orchard. Extensive plans were hatched for the morrow.

Shea ran hard with the big girls and came back with snow down his shirt. The little poops. But, fresh and rosy and annoyed (very annoyed) that he had to come in at 9:15. Then he literally crashed.

The weather gurus says it will be real cold for a day or several so our hopes is that the snow will stay for at least tomorrow.

I am almost completely a NW native (lived here since I was 1 1/2 years old) and I have spent my whole life wishing and hoping for snow days. There is absolutely NOTHING that turns back the clock for me as watching snow fall. Each snow fall is a red letter day and we make a big, darn deal out of it.

This is Shea's first. Tomorrow will be a big day. I can't wait!

Autism could be connected to the rain?

Very interesting article in the Seattle PI this morning, "Study looks at autism, rain"

Check out the full article if you have the time. This is not, of course, definitive or proof of anything but I thought it was pretty darn interesting.

Here is an excerpt:

Cornell University researchers said children living in rainy counties appeared to have higher reported rates of autism than those in drier areas, after analyzing data from Washington, Oregon and California.

Washington counties west of the Cascades, for example, got four times as much precipitation and had autism rates twice as high as those in the East, according to the study's co-author, Sean Nicholson.

In rain-soaked Seattle, some parents saw these findings as yet another piece in a complicated puzzle. There is no known cause of autism and no established cure.

"I kind of think there is something to the kids not getting enough vitamin D," said LeAnne Beardsley, whose 4-year-old daughter, Keely-Fae, has been diagnosed with autism. "This study really doesn't surprise me at all."

Wow! So does this justify a trip from my beloved Pacific Northwest to a sunny clime during the winter?