Black Friday

It's the day after Thanksgiving and the sun is shining in a clear blue sky. And I am VERY thankful! As the days grow shorter and the fall rains come (which we desperately need after one of the dryest summers ever) glorious sunny days are appreciated in a way that never really happens in lower latitude places. And Orcas Island is just about as far north as you can get in the contiguous United States. My home in Deer Harbor is 48.6 degrees North. By comparison, this is the same as the center of Newfoundland and well north of Toronto or the northern tip of Maine. So when I tell you it gets dark at 4:30 this time of year, I'm not pulling your leg! The other side of that coin is that it doesn't get dark until 10:30 in the middle of the summer. Yet, despite the significant variation in the length of the daylight from winter to summer, and our high latitude, the weather is quite temperate year-round. Today the high was about 50F and the low tonight will be in the mid 40's. Typical winter weather. Every year or two we get an "arctic express" and get some snow and freezing weather, sometimes for weeks on end, but that is the exception, not the norm. Summer weather seldom gets into the 80's for more than a few days. Typical summer temperatures would be 72F during the day and low 50's at night. Because of the mild climate our heating bills are quite modest compared to much of the country. AND because the weather is seldom extreme we spend a great deal of time outdoors. Yes, sometimes it's raining, but (usually) it is damp/drizzling rather than soaking/raining. There are fogs and mists that turn the forested hills to Chinese brush paintings. The foghorns sound and the ferryboats call in return. I like fog actually.

Yes, those are roses blooming in November! Some years they go till the crocus are coming up. We love warm winters!

And when we get a good snow storm we are grateful for that too, because it kills the yellowjackets. We don't have mosquitos or blackflies or large numbers of any biting insects but we do have yellowjackets and they can make late summer picnics a challange. After last winter's extended cold snap we had almost none this summer; it was great!

There is much to be thankful for here.