All the signs at Port Hardy’s Civic Centre and arena last weekend claimed fall had come to the North Island.
But summer, apparently in agreement with the calendar for once, refuses to relinquish its tenacious grip on our parched region.
Yes, the evenings are coming earlier, and they’re getting cooler. But the traditional signs of summer’s demise are nowhere to be found.
Heck, with a few exceptions, even the kids haven’t gone back to school.
The Indian Summer Softball Classic at Beaver Harbour Park is commonly a cool, damp wrap to the summer ball season. But this one was marked by the sunscreen and shades of midseason.
After years of seeing their late-season races washed out by rain, the drivers and organizers at Tri-Port Speedway chose to move the end of their season up to Sept. 6. And had to hose the track to knock down the dust.
The drawn-out summer has resulted in an equally drawn-out fire in the hills above the Nimpkish Valley. Yes, we’ve had fires on the North Island before, but we’re not often told they’re going to keep burning until winter.
Now let us return to the arena for the aforementioned sign of our times.
The Mount Waddington Regional Fall Fair was more like a summer showcase. And what a summer it’s been in a region known as a temperate rainforest.
Dominating the entrance to the fair booths in the arena was a giant sunflower, grown in Port Hardy, that appeared to be 15 feet tall. And the vegetable table included multiple entries of corn — corn! — along with the usual kale, cabbage and zucchini.
Global climate change deniers are welcome to submit their objections, but if this turns out to be a trend rather than a single outlier season, we may soon be seeing citrus among the fruit entries.