Countryside is bursting with life after our long summer

OUR local bay is less green this summer than any summer since the seasonal sea lettuce began a scourge a decade ago.

Some bay-watchers speculate that its roots were set adrift in the February storms when the swollen Argideen River scoured the channels across the sandbanks to the sea. Others contend that because there was little or no rain all summer, nitrates and phosphates weren’t washed off the land into the river. If the weather of today, September 2, holds, and delivers us an Indian summer, we may find ourselves in October without ever having seen the weed rampaging as in previous years.

While we are glad that the lovely summer has slowed its gallop, the great bounty the same summer has provided for wild birds and wild creatures is to be celebrated. Crab apples, haws, sloes and blackberries shine in the sunlight along leafy lanes. The fuchsia blooms in all its glory, and butterflies flit and flutter all over it. It is a joy to be out of doors.