We’re all hiding from the heat today. The temperature is 98 degrees (36 degrees Celsius) and the heat index is 112 (44 Celsius), the hottest day this summer. Upstairs, the drapes are all drawn so there’s a shadowy coolness, perfect for cat napping. Me, I’m in a sweatshirt downstairs where it’s at least 5 degrees cooler.
Through the heat, and maybe because of it, the garden is thriving; the squash are beginning to grow, the green zebra is finally producing tomato babies and the smart-ass pepper has actually started flowering, even though it’s only about 8 inches high. In the summer heat, I’m preparing the raised bed for a fall crop of carrots, spinach, beets and maybe bush beans.
The garden is peaceful in the early morning when it’s just me, the geese flying overhead and the blue birds chasing each other. There are dragonflies sunning themselves, bees doing their thing and an occasional humming bird. When the wind is just right I can hear a train going by on the tracks half a mile away. This morning, the train whistle and the 8 o’clock church bells were perfectly synchronized, one beginning as the other one ended.
School starts in another week here. I grew up in the generation (or maybe the area of the country, I’m not sure) that went to school until after Memorial Day, and started the next year after Labor Day. Somehow, it made school more special to have its closing and opening marked by holidays. Now, it always catches me by surprise to hear mothers talking about school clothes and bus schedules in early August.
It’s hard to believe summer is fading, but the seed pods on the butterfly weed are beginning to break open, taking advantage of every stray breeze to sow next year’s plants. The cantaloupe vines in the next plot over are dying back to reveal a hidden harvest of six small cantaloupes. The gardener has been showing them off to everyone, she’s tickled with her success after her corn failed to produce.
Someone else has one fully grown pumpkin to show for their efforts.
There’s still plenty of time for the garden this year, but I can’t help but see a difference in the light, the air and the plants themselves.
Fall is coming.
My feet are cold, I need some socks.
Sunday Supper
There won’t be any cooking today. I briefly toyed with the idea of turning on the oven to bake cookies and then decided Pepperidge Farm would do this week. I made scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast and even that seemed too hot to eat.
There’s leftover pork tenderloin and a marinated cooked chicken breast in the fridge so it’ll be a pickup dinner. Cheese, tomatoes, a loaf of good bread and ice tea sound like the right combination. Peaches, early apples and cherries are sweet enough for dessert. The combinations are endless.
What’s on your plate?
I love that photo.
Yes, I would like to get the oven going again, too. Still, Pepperidge Farm makes some mighty fine cookies.
You know it’s hot outside when ice cubes sound like a great idea for supper…
How well I remember Kansas summers.
Wow. Are we on the same Circadian rhythm, or what? The cold feet still kinda blows my mind;-D And, dinner? Salad in a bag with a whole fresh tomato just for me. MMMMM
It’s the humidity that’s chased me indoors the past few days… awful!
Great photo!
I’m enjoying your gardening.
With you on the school schedule, sandwiched in between the holidays but then we didn’t have Spring Break or really a lot of the holidays they have now. Gee, however did we survive?
We’ve been having those special temps here, high humidity and toss in the triple digit temps. I love my cave.
Great work on your garden this year. (And there is still next year to look forward to. And the next year. And the next…) It is so hot and humid outside that it is difficult to breathe. Thank FSM we finally got the A/C fixed last year.
So glad your garden is thriving!
Beautiful photo and I can see how the sun is slanting in your photo. Makes me sad as I know summer will be over sooner than I will ever be ready for it to be. I’m savoring it all every day. My garden has been fairly fruitful despite the chippies who have discovered my cherry tomatoes on my front stoop. It’s a race to pick them before they are ripe. They are now eating green ones in retaliation leaving the skins or half eaten ones if I’ve managed to interrupt their feasting. I even in the heat sat on my stoop knitting for a few hours hoping to keep them at bay and minimize the damage. God help me if they discover the tomatoes on the deck in back.
For lunch I sauteed peppers, eggplant, serano chile and garlic until nice and soft and carameled, then threw in a juicy tomato and let it all stew with the lid on on low. Meanwhile I boiled 2 small potatoes and added them in for a while to absorb the flavors. Took it off the stove to cool down a bit and served with feta cheese on top. Very yummy esp since all of the veggies were home grown. There was enough for a second helping. That will be lunch for tomorrow.
Very nice post, I think you’ve summed up summer quite well!
What’s your favorite Pepperidge Farm cookie? Just curious!
I hope the heat breaks soon. That’s just too much to take day in day out. When it’s crazy hot here, I cook in the morning when it’s still cool enough to have the windows open.
Cold feet? Good thing you knit, huh? ;^)
xo
Have you seen a difference already? I know that it is darker when I get up now. And it gets darker just a little earlier. But the heat makes it still feel like summer. I think you sent some of those degrees over to me. It is so so hot. I can barely knit lace. I can’t spin silk. The wine goes straight to my head, so I can’t drink much of that. At least the hummers are happy.
We had our first fire the other night in VT in the woodstove. It was 48 outside and we only needed to burn one piece, but still. The thought of autumn is constant which comes with Aunt-inherited fiber arts dreams of the new rug I started to hook. I’m in a jacket at the moment (8 am) and freezing. Glad to hear you’ve got lots of summer, but enough of a hint of fall to still appreciate the hot days.