tamarack

My preference goes to the Fay Hyland Arboretum spread throughout and nearby to the U. Maine campus.

Also the difference between high bush (there) and low bush (Maine.) The major blueberry acreage in Maine is downeast - Hancock and Washington counties - and most areas are on shallow and/or excessively drained soils. The plants themselves are tolerant of drought and low fertility, but lack of rain limits the amount/size of the fruit. The harvest runs late July thru early/mid August. I don't think the Maine harvest was a disaster (have not seen the numbers) but significantly down from recent years.

Maine's blueberry harvest took a hit also, especially for those fields without irrigation. In addition labor was scarce, as many growers downeast depend on First Nation folks from the Maritimes but COVID-19 made the border crossing nearly impossible for those folks.

The CBB trio. Anyone looking to attend one of those excellent schools should be diligent in seeking scholarship money. Like many well-regarded liberal arts colleges, full ticket (room/board/tuition) is frighteningly costly but there's a lot of financial help available. (I have no dog in the fight but my sentiment would be with Bowdoin, if only because the Bowdoin Pines east of the campus make up one of the most magnificent pine stands I've seen.)

First time I've seen yellow used for trail marking. Not the best for this time of year. However, when Great Northern Paper was Maine's biggest landowner, all their linework was done in yellow.

Some shoreline trees at North Pond look like they're on fire, though the oak-rich hill in Smithfield to the east is mostly still green (as to be expected.) Beautiful colors along Beech Hill Road in Mercer and almost as good after I turned onto Rt 2 on the way home. May be the best reds I've seen in 5 years or more.

Day 13 with nada since the 0.02" deluge on the 13th. Worked in late June after 6 weeks with 2/3" total - 3.5" in 3 days. Again in mid July with the remnants of Fay and some TS bringing nearly 4" in 4 days. Not much since then...

Was -2.7 after last Tuesday, 3 straight AN days have cut that to -1.8. Would need to average +9 these last 5 days to avoid the month being BN. Could be close but I think we end up about -0.5, essentially average. Mid 40s this morning so today should be +5-6.

10-15% of pedestrians were wearing masks when we visited our son/D-I-L in Japan (southern Honshu) in March 2016. Between that and Japanese culture, I highly doubt there was much anti-mask unrest there.

Finally found some pike at North Pond (Belgrades) after not seeing one this year. After 3 hours with just a single yellow perch, was drifting and casting my way back toward the landing when a 20-inch fish nailed the spinner 3 feet from the canoe. Dropped anchor there and tossed out the spinner a few times, then decided to try the much bigger (1 oz.) faux-Dardevle. Shortly thereafter got a 25" fish, probably about 4 lb. Fish stew upcoming.

Ill, maybe, but here at least it would take a week with 3"+ to inflict a fatal would. Not seeing it.

Our dug well is only 8' deep but has a good spring as its source; the normal level is at 5' but it's now down by 21". Was down 24" in 2002, but the 3' depth means about 300 gallons, though the bottom 50 may be below the foot valve. 0.15" for the month so far and 0.03" over the past 3 week. Some very nice reds and yellows in our area, though right near the house it's fairly dull, as always. Approaching 50% change, about 10 days ahead of average - 3 straight mid-20s mornings will do that.

He's north of much of the town as well. IIRC, he's less than a mile downriver from the Chops, the exit from Merrymeeting Bay.

A woman drowned Saturday on Flagstaff Lake, recovery only yesterday afternoon. Three people and a dog motoring their canoe back to their campsite from visiting an island, water got rough as the campsite was on a lee shore and they capsized. PFDs in the canoe but no one wearing. The 2 men each grabbed one that was floating nearby but the woman, 31 yo, headed for shore without. The lake is about 18 miles long so it doesn't take a whole lot of wind to build up the surf.

Low near 50 this morning, big change from the past 4 days which averaged 59/26 and 12.5 BN, taking the month to -2.7 after being +2 on the 10th. Now we go the other way, though I think the month ends up a bit BN. Morning GFS chopped yesterday's 1.4" for Monday in Augusta down to 0.5". A blip or a trend?

Noted that someone evidently is still reporting snowfall (129.3") from Clayton Lake even though the co-op obs disappeared in 2011.

August had only 1.79" here though June-July total was close to average. September is at 0.15" to date and driest September here is 0.84" in 2014 and driest for any month is 0.31" in April 1999. Almost a shame to wreck an all-timer only 3 days from being set; drought wouldn't be any worse if it ended on Oct. 1 rather than Sept. 28.

Reminds me of October 1963 in the town north of where I lived - had that phenomenon going on for more than a month until 4" from a SE storm in early November drowned it. The fire covered 3,000 acres, most within a State Forest. Edit: The warmup has begun, only 26 here this morning after 29/25/25. Was cloudy at 7 but dim sun now with light winds. Early GFS had 1"+ for this coming Monday. We'll watch it shrink between now and then.

Was the aquarium there in 1965? Crabcakes very good - could get a small one, perfect fit between 2 saltines, at the ball park (8 blocks from JHU) for about 40 cents.

Armpit of the East? (Our affectionate name for Balamer when I was at Hopkins in the '60s - fits both the climate and its position on Chesapeake. Perhaps fitting for other reasons as well.)

Back to back 25s here. Had two tarps over the peppers (tops portions killed, lower leaves and fruit protected) and abandoned the other warm-season veggies, with predictable results - annihilation. Another lesser frost/freeze tonight.

Magma must be getting closer to the surface there. Had 25-26 here, added a 2nd tarp over the peppers last evening, we'll see if that worked later this morning. Probably could play marbles with the green cherry tomatoes.

95-96 and 06-07 are the most schizo winters of my experience, and they did it different ways. 06-07 was a simple split - thru Jan 13 it was heading for record ratter status, then became one of the better 2nd halves. 1st-2nd snowfall was 11" vs 84". 95-96 did it month by month, Dec thru April (totally cherrypicked dates): Temp+/- Precip Snow Dec 1-21: -9.0 3.33" 34.0" Dec 22-31: +6.1 0.52" 6.0" Jan 1-17: -9.8 1.52" 20.0" Jan 18-31: +6.4 4.45" 7.0" Feb 1-20: -8.4 1.15" 15.0" Feb 21-29: +12.5 2.40" 2.0" Mar 1-12: -10.5 1.25" 15.0" Mar 13-27: +4.0 0.94" 2.0" Mar 28-Apr 15: -3.4 2.25" 20.0" Apr 16-30: +1.0 3.73" 0"

29 this morning, might be cooler tonight. Time to check on the garden carnage.

After a mediocre winter and the day before another 10-12"?