No question about it: Seattle has the most beautiful summers of any major city in the U.S.
Even with average temperatures creeping upward and scorching, 90-degrees days no longer an aberration, this part of the country is still blessed with low-humidity and gentle breezes that leave tourists slack-jawed with envy.
No surprise Seattle is ranked the No. 1 destination in the country to visit this Labor Day weekend. You have to know summertime in other places to appreciate how truly special our version is.
Yet, there is no doubt that we are in the dog days. This is the time named for that sultry period stretching from July through September that Greek stargazers associated with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs and bad luck.
During this eerily dry summer when wildfire has loomed as a continual threat, who doesn’t crave the beloved drizzle that comes with fall, the gentle mist that lets plants thrive and adds a calming background patter to early mornings?
All to say, welcome, autumn! Season of mulled cider and pumpkin-flavored coffee, of expectation and invigoration.
It’s an annual irony that this period of slowdown in the garden is simultaneously a time of crackling energy for schoolchildren, college students, teachers, administrators, janitors and bus drivers. Even those who left that seasonal cue behind long ago can’t entirely forget the sense of anticipation.
Booksellers and librarians say fewer people are reading for pleasure than at any time in the past two decades, but fall is still the perfect season to settle into a corner and reconnect with the private world that flows through a book’s pages into our imaginations.
So bid a fond farewell to the dog days of August and embrace the brisker pace that comes with cooler air and, dare we say it, holiday planning.
No? Too soon?
