North Pole Weather 9/24/12

The sun rose at 7:42 this morning and will set at 7:42 this evening, so will be above the horizon for a few seconds more than twelve hours. What, wasn’t the equinox several days ago? Yes, but as I said, the times of sunset and sunrise are determined by the top edge of the sun, adjusted for the refraction of the atmosphere. Here in Alaska the angle of sunrise and sunset is very shallow, which makes the day even longer relative to when the center of the sun is geometrically on the horizon.

Although it has been warm enough this past weekend, actually reaching 67°F Saturday, this is well above normal. It’s snowing in the northwest of the state, and it wouldn’t really surprise me to see a snow shower here, though I wouldn’t expect snow to stick yet. It won’t be long, though.

This colored-leaf variety isn’t even grown for its flowers.

I’ve taken in the plastic covers for the raised beds. I harvested the last of the beets, getting several over a pound, and the rest of the produce is pretty well dead. I might still be able to cut and freeze some rosemary sprigs from the beds closest to the house, since I didn’t get any rosemary potted up. I did get the potted mints and the geraniums in, though they still need pruning. The outdoor mints are still growing vigorously, as are the pansies, but most of the outdoor plants are through for the season. If I needed further proof that the lemon mint wasn’t quite a normal mint, its reaction to the frosts we’ve had should give it.

I’m not going to get everything done this fall, but I do need to get the hoses into the shed and some of the perennials cut back next week. I hope the snow holds off that long, and my cough gets better. The last day of the farmers’ market was yesterday, so I won’t be selling books there any more. I will, however, be editing—talked to my editor last week about doing the trilogy, and I’m working on the formatting and having a final read-through. So I’ll keep busy!