We haven’t had significant rain for weeks now. Our rain water tanks are empty, and the garden is being watered with town water, for which we pay. Grass is turning brown, and crunchy in some areas. Our yard however, is relatively green, as it consists primarily of low growing native “weeds”, such as white clover, wild violets, plantain, wild strawberries, etc.
The two weeks forecast is for high temperatures (28C and above) during the days, and very, very little rain. Attila will need to water the garden every single day during this time. The predictions was for a hot summer this year, and it has come to pass.
I cannot function properly in the heat. This makes going for daily walks very challenging. To beat the heat of the day we will have to set the alarm and rise early to get a walk in, before the sun has a chance to heat things up. In the evening we will have to walk after the sun goes down. I cannot walk at a brisk pace when it is hot, so walks are taking a lot longer. Also my low sodium consumption has to be adjusted to accommodate the heat, I have to eat my pickles, teaspoon of jam, with a big glass of water to keep my electrolytes in balance.
I do sit out on the porch in the early morning, but abandon it when I can feel my head start to ache from the heat. Luckily I have the cooler house to retreat to, where I am comfortable. The thermostat is kept relatively high in the daytime, but still many degrees cooler than the outdoors. It is turned down at night to facilitate sleep, we both sleep better at a cooler temperature.
Since Attila is going to putter in the house a lot more now that the raised beds are done and planted, the kitchen is shared. Attila loves to putter in the kitchen, it is the most used room in our house. I stay out of the kitchen as much as I can when he is indoors, as he finds focusing challenging when other people are around. He does a lot more of the cooking when the weather keeps him indoors.
I have taken on a project that keeps me out of the kitchen for the most part. It came about because Attila and I don’t throw clothing out until it is worn out. I have clothing from the 1990’s, well, probably older than that. For instance, in my stash I have a shirt I made when studying haute couture techniques at the formerly named Ryerson Polytechnic, now called the Metropolitan Toronto University. That shirt, which no longer fits me, is over 55 years old, and I still love it. But I digress.
Recently puttering involved emptying some drawers in the bedroom, where I discovered forgotten 100% cotton pyjamas. When purchased they were affordable on a modest income, so there were five sets in the drawer. But although the fabric is beautiful, the elastic used in the construction was of low quality, and has disintegrated.
My project on the go is to use a stitch ripper to remove the elastic from each pair of pyjama bottoms. The plan is to replace the elastic with high quality elastic, which I ordered a few years ago from a dressmaker’s supply shop in Toronto. When the project is completed I will have five pairs of cotton pyjamas in very good condition to wear for years to come.
Worldly
Weather
31°C
Date: 5:05 PM EDT Saturday 5 July 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.8 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 31°C
Dew point:15.8°C
Humidity: 65%
Wind: SSW 15 km/h
Humidex: 35
Visibility: 24 km
26°C
(NOTE: I think today will be much hotter than yesterday, these numbers are just getting started!)
Date: 8:00 AM EDT Sunday 6 July 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.4 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 21.8°C
Dew point: 20.4°C
Humidity: 92%
Wind: SSE 14 km/h
Humidex: 34
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Those who insult the balance of mother earth do not realize. She is waiting for you, you are her creature, you will be hers, you will be dust, and she will do with you then what she will.”
Maggie, July 6, 2025, watching the world turn according to the machinations of the elites of the world.
We here in one of the hottest places on earth do any tasks requiring emerging outside very, very early. We aim (not always with success) to get to the grocery store, etc. as soon as the store opens. I hope the renovated pajamas serve you well. Thinking ahead, I bought narrow elastic and facing for casing for when the very narrow elastic in my cotton half slips go. (Meanwhile, I air dry those inside, to preserve the elastic from the great heat of the sunlight.) You’re so right about the balance of nature. People can deny climate change all they like, the earth doesn’t care about the denials. I feel sorry for the innocents though, who suffer as a result.
Joan, I cannot imagine the heat there! I wonder sometimes how humans coped before air conditioning!! I remember before living with air conditioning that during heat waves I became a different person, disoriented and lethargic, easily upset and testy. I did enjoy that, nor did anyone who spent time with me. At the country house we had a window air conditioner for the bedroom, and on the really hot days I stayed in there all the time, the rest of the time I tried not to move, with a fan blowing directly on me. I endured it, but not with great grace. Having air conditioning is such a blessing. Thanks goodness we live in this tiny house, so that we can, at least for now, afford to keep it comfortable.
I had not thought about the elastic in the sun, when drying clothes, something to consider! I think in the heat of summer I will try to hang the clothes out super early, so that they will dry hung in the shade of the porch before the sun hits it in the afternoon.
Yes, the innocents suffer the consequences of the disrespectful decision makers, so very sad. It is my belief that when we join our ancestors, the innocents will be welcomed by mother earth, the others will be just dust.
Good morning, Maggie! I came upon an interesting article some months ago in Nature Magazine. The study is supported by the Smithsonian Institute. It’s on 485 million years worth of temperatures that have been calculated based on various data. That data shows that we’re coming out of the deepest ice age in the last 485 million years and that ice age lasted long enough that humans became intelligent during that ice age. (From what I could interpret from the graphs, it lasted at least 40,000 years.)
The startling thing is that our planet’s history shows that given our orbit the planet is naturally hotter than the temperature’s we’re currently experiencing. So, we will need to learn to adapt to the real temperatures of our planet, which probably includes migrating toward the poles.
While I agree that we definitely need to clean up our air, I don’t believe that’s our current problem with the heat. Instead, we have a runaway zeitgeist in many scientific circles that have jumped on the bandwagon prematurely and they are refusing to look at the data coming in that shows they are wrong. They’ve even refused to publish data that doesn’t follow their beliefs. It’s kind of like watching what happened with things years ago like grapefruit diets good, eggs bad. Those fads have now gone away because people were ignoring the science or hadn’t uncovered the science yet.
Yes, carbon emissions do have a tipping point. No, it is not at our current level and it’s not irreversible in our planet’s experience. The level is much higher than what we’re currently experiencing. Instead, we are coming out of a deep ice age that we never noticed because it was the norm for us.
You might find the article interesting: https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2024/09/22/new-study-shows-485-million-years-of-earths-temperature/
A blocking banner with advertising will come up but all you have to do is click and it’ll go away.
All my opinion of course, based on what I’ve read and researched.
Interesting article! Science is always evolving, and I think highly biased despite the rigorous scientific methods, the bias creeps in in research design, to varying degrees and in various ways. Science is usually highly focused on one aspect of a phenomenon. I love science, and mathematics, always have, such comfort in the highly defined.
The climate issue is fascinating, thanks for the link! In my studies in climatology I came to the conclusion that all knowledge about climate is partial, and that change is the normal state of things, so what you are saying makes a lot of sense.
My references to balance with nature refers to human interaction with our planet, very broadly, and since we are nature’s creatures, interactions between us as well. The imbalance is represented by disrespectful interactions with mother earth, thinking of, for example, the city of Sudbury, where the smelting fumes created a treeless barren wasteland around the city. The tall stack taking the fumes higher into the atmosphere relieved the immediate area, which has since somewhat recovered. During those years, the air in Sudbury would sting the nose and mouth, and vulnerable people had a very bad time of it. Relatives were miners, I didn’t look forward to visits. These are small things, these little unbalanced approaches to living as part of the earth’s ecosystem. They damage mother earth, not destroy her, but change our environment in ways that human life finds difficult to cope with. Not the rich of course, they can cope with just about anything with the resources at hand. But the majority of humans find it difficult to cope with a lot of the decisions made about how our species interacts with mother earth.