We've just returned from 6 weeks in Arizona. It's a luxury in this economic climate to be going anywhere--to be spending money on travel when you don't know what even the immediate future is going to bring on. I'm so concerned about finances I'm canceling a trip to Italy later this fall; it just seems frivolous at this point.The climate in AZ--weather climate, that is--was very pleasant, with most days in the mid-to-high seventies, nights quite chilly. If anything the weather seems to be warming there, for I don't remember it being quite that warm in years past. But here in the Pacific Northwest the climate seems to be cooling. We had a rather short and cool summer last year and if our weather so far is any indication of what's coming this summer it bodes for even cooler weather. We had sub-zero temps for quite a few days this past winter and that's practically unheard of. We see also that we've lost several bushes to the cold so it will mean new plantings--maybe with hardier ones.
