End of Summer

Today is the last day of summer, and it has been another pleasant one. The winds of yesterday died away, and left us with warmth and partly cloudy skies. My rose bush seems to be all done blooming for the year. I can usually count on a few last buds through the Labor Day weekend, but this year, they extended well into the second week of September. Whenever I am walking by, I really do make an attempt to stop and smell the roses!

Greg called today from Valdez, Alaska. They drove south through the Wrangell-St. Elias wilderness, stopping many times to take pictures. Now they will spend a couple of days in Valdez, and explore the area by foot, car, and boat. They plan to rent a boat to take out on the ocean, where they can go to see a glacier, and hopefully see it do some calving. On Friday, they will catch a ferry to Whittier, and then head up to Anchorage to spend the weekend with Greg's Aunt Bev, and his cousins Mitch and Rob. So much to do and see, I am sure that they are wishing for a few more weeks!

The loons are still here. I could hear them calling this afternoon as I was harvesting the hops. With the warmer weather, it is no wonder that they are still here. The warm days are a bit of a problem for the trout fishing, however. So far, the trout have not come up into shallower water as they usually do in September. The season is only open until September 30, as then it is the spawning season.