Description

Locally, maple trees are dying. The maple sugaring season starts earlier, and doesn't last as long. Fist and last frosts are farther apart. It's nice to have a longer growing season, but scary, because it portends the coming, unstoppable storm of environmental disaster. I cross-country ski in the winter. Over the past 15 years, I have noticed significantly fewer days each year that there's enough snow to ski on. Thaws and rain are more frequent in the winter. We used to have at least a week or so of days at 20 below zero or colder. Now it might be a single weekend. We have kept track (loosely) of migratory bird appearances in the spring. There's a general trend of them returning earlier. When the first hummingbird appears, we know it's safe to plant warm crops. That used to be the first week of June. This past year, it was the second week of May.