It’s not really as cold as the picture might make it look, but May continues to be an overall chilly one. The hats and extra layers are more a personal preference, but I’ve been wearing a lined flannel workshirt over my regular clothes much of the time. Here, as Lynn and Shannon sort seed for numerous smaller plantings in the herb garden, it’s about 60°F (15°C), cloudy and the kinda damp that can give you a shiver if you’re not a little bundled up. Shannon, sporting an illustrated, ear-flapped cap brought from her travels (it gets cold, especially at higher altitudes, even near the equator), has been back in Canada for less than a month after spending two years on farms in Central and South America, and is still getting used to the local weather. Lynn, in hoodie, vest and classic Canadian cold-weather headgear, was just…chilly! The slowdown in both crop and weed growth from the cold is quite noticeable, still, things are definitely moving along now… Weed watch, and the start of serious WEEDING, is on…
It’s been an unusually cold spring our west here too, though we’re getting a heat wave for a few days just now. Everything is behind and it feels very strange. I’ve lived here for more than twenty years and can’t remember a spring like this one.
Amy: Yeah, the weather is pretty scary. I mean, I’ve only been watching it from a gardening angle for five years, and already in that time, the changes are really noticeably, especially in the last three years. It’s not SO bad when you’re dealing with it day to day, where you’re at, on a practical level, but I keep hearing and reading about how anyone working directly with weather data, like climate change researchers and…weather people, who are immersed in the whole big picture, are really just freaked out permanently now… Yikes!