In my mind, the official start of summer is the emergence of lightning bugs. I’ve been watching for several days but nothing, likely because the temperatures at dusk had fallen into the 60s. But we were in the 80s today and shortly after dusk the air was filled with a myriad of the little flashing creatures welcoming the beginning of summer. That’s five days earlier than last year when they arrived on June 22.

Unfortunately, the mosquitoes also marked the arrival of summer, but it has been relatively dry for the past week, so it’s likely that they will taper off soon. Also, with our new drainage system, there should be a lot less standing water available for them to breed in.