September 8th Fall flowers

Good morning everyone!

There were ducks this morning on our pond! Where have you been all year, American Black Duck? We don’t know because we’ve never seen them before, but we promptly scared them off anyways (it didn’t take much, we jusr charged to the pond and stared as rhey fluttered about). There were at least three ducks flying and swimming around. Some of them returned to the pond as soon as we re-entered the house, so we are curious to find out how long they linger about in our realm.

Fall colors are certainly popping, at least in the flowery world! Check out these amazing shades of orange, yellow, and purple.

Our purple/blue flower is the Aster, our yellow flower is the infamous ragweed, and the orange flower is the orange jewelweed, a gorgeous flower that has truly earned its name. It seems that bees love these plants, as they were humming and bustling around us as we marched through them.

Speaking of bees, we’ve heard reports from people saying that honey production this year was amazing. Could that be another sign that this winter is going to be harsh?

We picked a couple apples for our breakfast, and I snuck a couple out of my human’s pocket to play with them.

It is 54°F right now. Yesterday, our weather station said that we never got higher than 57°F! That is 13°C, or about the average winter temperature in Southern Brazil. Today, Hurricane Dorian has effectively passed us (we got no rain, but clouds associated with the system) and we can expect the same temperature and weather because a stationary front is right to our West – though a cold front should break through over night causing our night temperature to dive to the lower 40’s.

Enjoy your Sunday everyone!

Love,

Mack

September 4th Last warm night of the season

Good morning everyone!

If you ventured outside at 5:30 a.m. today, you would have immediately noticed that you walked into a very warm night – it was in the 60’s! Then, you would have noticed two of our most beautiful winter constellations up above: the Pleiades, or the Seven Sisters; and Orion. It was very clear before dawn.

When the sun started rising, you would have then felt a gust of wind all around you – still warm – and if you looked up at the sky, you would have seen fragments of clouds starting to appear. These clouds grew in size, and eventually took over the sky – a bit later, at 6:30, the sky is almost completely overcast. A warm front moved in, but is actively clashing with a cold front to our West, meaning that a storm system is heading our way later today.

This was possibly the last night we had in the 60’s for 2019. Night temperatures should take a plunge from what they were today, to the upper 40’s later tonight, which is good if you love fall colors. We need chilly nights above freezing, but warm days in the 60’s or 70’s to bring us the best colors. Maples around us are already turning shades of red, and some trees have even lost their leaves! Most trees are holding onto their green leaves, as they should, because we are still far from our peak fall season.

The bedroom window, though it was open tonight, was closed for the first days of September, which was a change since it had been open every day since June. We were even allowed conceded to sleep in the bed, since we were cold! We think it won’t be much longer before the humans light a fire to warm our bellies.

Today is the first day of classes for many students around the US. Happy first day of school, students! We are confident you will make the world a better place with the time and effort you put into your growing knowledge and your growing hearts. We believe in you!

Luckily for me, I get to nap ALL DAY today!

Love,

Mack

August 31st Hurricane and winter forecast

Good morning everyone! It is a lovely 49°F sunny morning at 94% humidity – yes, we got drenched this morning! We enjoyed taking a spin around the property and scaring all the starlings away – there are only a few of them left at the crack of dawn.

Down South, Hurricane Dorian, a Category 4 hurricane is no longer expected to make landfall in Florida! We can thank the Western winds and also a mighty cold front from NW Canada that seems to even weaken the hurricane in the jet stream simulation that you can see here. We certainly are already seeing the effects of this cold front: temperatures have definitely lowered overnight from a high 73°F yesterday (predicted upper 60’s today) and humidity is on the rise. Here in the Northeast, we might get the outer arms of the hurricane in form of precipitation, after it has weakened considerably and downgraded to a tropical storm near the Carolinas. The most recent updates online, which happen to be from CNN, now are saying that the storm might land in the Carolinas instead later this week, and the jet stream simulation seems to approve these odds of the hurricane hitting or stationing just outside the Carolinas.

That is not to say that Florida and Georgia shouldn’t be prepared – the hurricane could strengthen still and beat the cold front. My humble canine opinion is that it won’t, but time will tell.

Speaking of opinions, we talked to our human neighbors who agreed with our theory that the fall will be gorgeous! They also mentioned that the Farmer’s Almanac, and real NY farmers, seem to think that this upcoming winter will be a harsh one with lots of snow. Our bountiful apples, acorns, and abundance of scurrying activity from birds and rodents may be a signal that animals should prepare for a tough winter. Even Winston has been eating acorns! Myself, I have acquired a nice layer of fat over my chest area – I am trying out the role of Santa Paws this year!

Have a great Labor Day weekend everyone and stay safe down South!

Love,

Mack

August 28th Weather upgrade

Good morning everyone! After a week of vacation, my human is back! I was so excited to see her that I gave her a million kisses and showed her all my new toys. We got a new toy for the family, too – a weather station!

Now we can also determine the wind speed, dew point, indoor and outdoor humidity, and the atmospheric pressure! This is really neat to improve our weather predicting skills. If the pressure is dropping over a period of time, like we suspect it is, that means a low pressure system is coming in, and rain usually accompanies a low pressure system.

All is well in my kingdom as far as the eye can see! Inside of the human dwelling, however, there seems to be wasps coming into the house! The humans are currently fixing the problem by escorting the bees outside, and I am watching their every move – until I fall over asleep! It IS nap time, after all!

In our garden the tomatoes are huge but still green.

Our human also brought back several geodes to be cracked and inspected from Canada, so we’ll be reporting on these beauties soon!

The weather for today should be increasingly cloudy, then rainy, then back to sunny, with tomorrow morning being a little cooler than today (today was in the 60’s!). Midday temperatures for both today and tomorrow shouls be in the lower 70’s, and tomorrow should be sunny.

Enjoy your Wednesday everyone! (Is it true that school will be in session next Wednesday?!)

Love,

Mack

June 14th King Mack

Good morning everyone! It is I, King Mack, Protector of the Realm, Nature Blog Dog and Trailblazer Supreme. It is my duty to secure the realm and to note all the changes in weather, nature, and climate to best protect the realm.

May 25th Sibling shenanigans

Good morning everyone!

We have a bright sunrise over here filled with colors and joy. Our woods are sparkling with life and of course that means that Winston and I must go exploring to put our noses where they haven’t been before. We walked into some pretty high grass that left us soaked. That means two things: 1) my humans need to mow today! 2) the temperature dropped to dew point over night.

Poor little Winston looks like he went swimming!

Some say I resemble an otter.

May 22nd The moon by day

Good morning everyone! We’re half way through the week and we’ve been very good boys. Yesterday we took turns making our humans laugh by being goofy (me) or cuddly (Winston). We take our jobs as do-gooders very seriously!