The song “In the Good Old Summertime” was written by Ren Shields and set to music by George Evans in 1902 (click here). It was later made into a musical film in 1949 starring Judy Garland, Van Johnson, and S.Z. Sakall (click here).
Summertime in the Finger Lakes this year has been up and down. No sooner had I taken the picture of a lovely front porch in Hammondsport, NY when suddenly the weather changed, the energy draining humidity left the air, and the cool nights in the low 60’s appeared. My tomatoes have been mostly a failure this year. For some reason (perhaps too much rain?), the flowers did not set properly and very few tomatoes formed. Jeanette just looks at me in disgust! This is the first year that I can remember that I ever failed to raise tomatoes.
My daughter who lives in Gastonia, NC reminded me just last week that their school starts in two weeks! I spotted some sunflowers up the road and so I am including a picture of some sunflowers for my daughter as she works to prepare her two boys for the start of the new school year.
The clear cool nights remind me that the harvest season is just around the corner and that Canandaigua will be celebrating the “Ring of Fire” around Canandigua Lake on the 31st of Augusts which marks the end of the summer season for vacationers and the start of the harvest season for the local farmers and our Native Americans. The Old Order Mennonites up the road don’t need to be reminded of the coming of the harvest season. They are busy building a new dairy farm barn which must be finished so that the hay can be stored for the cows before winter sets in.
Since we have had plenty of rain over the summer, I have not spread any fertilizer on my lawn. But with the cool nights and the coming fall rains, I need to get moving and do what I should have done this spring! Ah, in the good old summer time! Even the fire bushes along the pond are laughing at that one because they know that change is coming.
