Above 63

It is August–right?

When i left on July 31, it was a beautiful summer day in Milwaukee. The sun was warm and the breeze off of Lake Michigan was cool and refreshing. Summer was in full swing the day lilies were in bloom, and the garden was an explosion of color.

The weather has been mostly good since my arrival. It is summer here, but not like the summer we know at home. Despite the name of this blog, I can’t really recall a day since I’ve arrived where the weather has been above 63 degrees. Generally it has been in the low 50s at night and the temps will creep above 60 on a nice day. When the sun shines it is warm and it is perfect to take a walk or have coffee outside somewhere. This is summer in Iceland.

Still I have forgotten about summer at home. Kathleen tells me it is hot this week and she is sending me photos from the garden (see below). If you have been in our garden, it is always an alive with color, but I’ve forgotten that it is the time of year for all kinds of flowers. I know it is also the time of year to eat fresh sweet corn and tomatoes–but I’ve forgotten about that as well. It feels like October with the air temperature and the sun angle. I see on Facebook that the heat has been intense for many of you–I am thinking of you in the heat. Stay cool and safe my friends.

This is not the first time I’ve been disoriented by the sun angle. When I used to do work in Nicaragua I was often there in early January. The heat in combination with the sun angle made me think it was July because it felt like the July sun angle in Wisconsin. In those Januarys I had forgotten about Winter. It was the sun angle that disoriented me and made me feel like it was summer (more than the heat). There is something about late August sun that reminds me that it is time to go back to school. This year the sun is different.

The angle of the sun here is low. It feels like the October sun. The days have been beautiful, but I’ve forgotten that it is summer (as I know it from home).