While some may be lamenting the first day of autumn today, marking the official close to summer, Jerome Peacock is casting longing glances at his surfboard.
Fall means the start to the surf season on the Island, and the chance to make up for lost time after the Capital Region experienced a long, wet spring.
“There’s no need to huddle around the potbelly stove,” said the Saanich resident.
While John Adams’s ghostly walking tours through downtown Victoria weren’t affected by the rain, he said the weather in July and August more than made up for the delayed summer.
“There were actually far more days when we could go without a jacket this summer in the evening, when it usually cools down by the water,” said Adams, Victoria resident and owner of Discover the Past walking tours.
Even when the summer finally arrived, it didn’t pack a lot of heat, despite many people’s hopes.
“In a twisted way the warmest weather came in September, near the end of summer,” said David Jones, meteorologist with Environment Canada. “That speaks to how long things were delayed.”
For Victoria urban farmer Sol Kinnis, it was the summer of salad.
The co-owner of City Harvest Co-operative grew salad greens in abundance, while a number of other crops, including green beans and zucchini, had to be planted late after such an overactive spring. That resulted in lower yields.
“It was a warm summer and it was a good summer for most of our crops, but the things that needed a lot of heat, in order to catch up from being planted later, didn’t really catch up,” said Kinnis, who grows crops in 12 backyards in Victoria, Saanich and Oak Bay, and sells the bounty at markets, restaurants, and by-the-box to regular customers.
For those in the golf industry, the season got off to a late start though ideal golfing conditions prevailed during July and August. That’s when the Cordova Bay Golf Club saw a spike in the number of golfers.
“I think it was probably one of our better summers (for weather),” said Jim Goddard, the club’s director of golf. “It followed the worst spring in my memory. I guess that’s what makes the good summer feel better.”