What season is it anyway?

Not sure quite what's going on with the weather here in the midwest. We had record snow levels this past winter. We were robbed of a steadily warming spring in exchange for rain--a lot of it. Summer arrived and that was more or less lovely, and now my favorite time of year is coming to a close with nonsensical temps. In fact, Wednesday saw a high temp of 88 degrees breaking a 132-year-old record. We haven't seen significant rain in weeks. The BWCAW has been ravaged by wildfires, taking out over 90,000 acres in two months. Due to the winds today, the entire state of Minnesota is under a fire threat making it a ticketed offense to set up a campfire.

Our grass went dormant in late August; the leaves that were on the tree up until today wilted a while back. We can't seem to get to the first frost in the area, so the kids' allergy suffering bears on. Cate stayed home today dependent on her inhaler to avoid getting seriously ill. On the bright side, the weeds even stopped growing and we had a banner year with our tomatoes and jalapeno peppers.

Given the weather pattern we had this year, the fall colors are said to be the best showing in over a decade. A friend and I went to Bluff Country in the southeastern part of the state last weekend. Even though the leaves weren't peak yet, there were a lot of breathtaking views. I can only imagine what it looks like this week. We hit the bike trail between towns and enjoyed rolling over the crunchy leaves, but did not enjoy practically wiping out on the black walnut fruit scattered on the path.

Tomorrow, if the wind has died down, I and the kids will start raking. There will be multiple jumps in the piles before we bag it all in. I believe it's the only chore they don't complain about doing.