We are having a hot and humid summer. The extreme heat abated, and left behind high temperatures and humidity, not quite extreme, but very, very uncomfortable. Right now, to add to the unpleasantness, is very poor air quality, as the smoke from forest fires to the north drift over us. The view is hazy, and from time to time the air smells vaguely like burnt paper.
People who like the heat will find this weather quite pleasant. I am not one of those people, I suffer in the heat. Attila and I rise early and take a stroll at first light, before the sun has had a chance to heat things up. If we want to take our second walk we either have to do it after things cool down, which is quite late in the evening, or take our stroll at a big box store, where the air is cool and clean. Tonight we opted for grocery shopping for our second walk of the day, cruising every aisle in the store. We found some excellent bargains, an added bonus.
I finished removing the elastic from the waistbands of the five pairs of cotton pyjamas. The task of sewing new elastic into the waistbands has not yet begun, as I keep getting distracted with other things, like medical appointments and paying bills and other things that aren’t very exciting but have to be done.
This puts me in mind of things like making the bed, getting dressed in the morning, and other daily activity. Which then leads me to a fond memory. I am much older than my youngest sister, and a cousin close to her age. When they were children, I was an adult. They used to stay with me and my ex-husband, during school breaks, as my Mom and Aunt worked full time, and I was a teacher having the same time off as the children. We had a lots of fun, I loved having them at our house.
One evening as we all prepared for bed, they came out of the bedroom in newly laundered clothing, not in their pyjamas. I was curious, so I asked them why they had changed into clean clothes. Well, they informed me that it was a perfectly logical thing to do, as it saved time not having to get dressed in the morning. Children have delightful perspectives! I’ve always loved spending time with children, although it could be exhausting, they have boundless energy, and often little fear of consequences. I used to say, “I can’t to live with them! But I can’t live without them!”
We had rain yesterday. I arose early, and sat out on the porch enjoying the dawn, watching the world wake up. It drizzled three times as I sat there, for less than 30 seconds each time, just enough to ensure high humidity later in the day. In the afternoon, we finally got a heavy rain, which didn’t last very long, about ½ inch. It hasn’t lessened the task of watering the garden though, the earth inhaled the wetness, which hardly penetrated the soil.
I have been busy with the usual day-to-day. With all the the things I do for my cardiac rehab program, cooking from scratch, and endlessly putting things away in this little house, I find I have to make time to sit and relax. Fortunately I have become a relaxation expert, a skill acquired through many years of hard practice.
Every day Attila brings food in from the garden. Today it was our first rutabaga. It was peeled, diced, and cooked in the instant pot. We enjoyed it with a small serving of air fried chicken breast, which followed our daily green salad.
Right now my breakfasts are exotic. The much anticipated meal begins with the first sip of the morning cup of coffee. I feel the pleasant tingle of breaking my fast, right down to my toes. The coffee is enjoyed with a chocolate zucchini muffin. Following that there is Greek yogurt with ground cashews and dates. Following that are bits of fresh raw vegetables from the garden, edible pod peas, cucumber, kohlrabi, whatever is harvested in the morning. Following that are small servings of apples, and any fruit that is currently on sale, strawberries, cherries, blueberries, whatever is priced within reach. Some days it is a three course breakfast, and some days it is a nine course breakfast. Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day!
Worldly
Weather
27°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Monday 14 July 2025
Condition: Smoke
Pressure: 101.6 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 23.6°C
Dew point: 18.4°C
Humidity: 73%
Wind: SSW 14 km/h
Humidex: 34
Visibility: 8 km
HEAT WARNING
SPECIAL AIR QUALITY STATEMENTS
Quote
“You make me understand how wonderful it is for little lizards when they find that one special rock that’s perfect for sunning themselves on. You make me lizard-happy.”
Randy K. Milholland
1975 –
Hi, Maggie. We made it up to a somewhat reasonable 26C, today. Humidex was 30. We’re having some issues with the smoke, here. Last night the air quality was upto Unhealthy at 118. Right now, we’re in Poor air at 88. (I start reacting to poor air when the ratings are around 50 or so.) Tomorrow it’s supposed to be in the 100s again and then starts moving down as the smoke exits to the east. I really wish the smoke would go away. I know we have it easy compared to the folks in the wildfire areas but I’d like to spend some of my summer outdoors.
We also went to pick up a few things at the grocery today and to just get out of the house for a walk. I passed up the cookies and cakes but had to say yes to some blueberry and maple sausages made by the store butcher. We bought some a few weeks ago and they made for a very nice breakfast for dinner with some pancakes.
We’re also having dry weather. Our neighborhood now has a restriction on watering, 6AM to 9AM, for us on even days of the month. I think we might need to get a timer so that we can water early as, since we’re usually up until 11:30 or so, we usually don’t get up until 8AM and then DH walks the dogs after feeding them. That means we don’t have any watering time, unless we get a timer.
The fires have been terrible this year! In northern Arizona, there’s a fire which destroyed the lodge at the northern rim of the Grand Canyon. All the veggies sound good!
Hi Teri! 26C is a reasonable temperature. Our daily high is predicted to be well over 30C for the foreseeable future, but early in the morning it is in the low 20s, which is warm for walking but not impossibly warm.
I think the smoke is having a bigger impact on you there than it is here. I haven’t been checking the numbers, but the haze is significant here, the air smells bad, and after my walk I have a sore throat and my eyes are runny. Luckily we have an air cleaner on the furnace, so that the indoor air is a lot better, so I recover after a few hours.
Those sausages sound delicious! I like a breakfast for dinner with pancakes, however, Attila has a thing about “appropriate” food, so that does not happen often.
You must be on a community well? A timer sounds like a must in your situation. We haven’t paid any attention to water restrictions, as we use our rain barrels for watering the garden, and we don’t water the “grass”, as it is native weeds and stays green even in drought conditions. When there are drought conditions, Attila fills the water tanks at night, so that he will have water for the next weeks or so.
I hope we get more rain soon!
Hi! Yes, we are on a community well. Unfortunately, even when we first moved in the well wasn’t sufficient when everyone was watering back then. And now, with about 200 more homes added even a second well isn’t making up for the drain on the system. Since people are complaining, I suspect they’re going to be digging a 3rd well soon.
Joan, how awful about the fires and the loss of the lodge at the Grand Canyon. The fire sites are a great loss, and the drifting smoke a hazard to animals and humans.
The veggies are great! We are quite spoiled in the summer months, well really I am the one who is quite spoiled, Attila works very very hard to keep it all coming to the table.
Teri, is rain water capture into a large tank a viable option for you? There are apparently ways to hook sprinkler systems up to these tanks. There would be no restrictions on the water from the tanks. In droughts the tanks eventually run dry, but they do provide some degree of protection from drought. We use our two 500 gallon rain water tanks to water the garden whenever we can. During restrictions, we fill them at night when allowed to water lawns, then use the water by day for the garden.
The plants prefer rain water.
Maggie, everything done in the garden has to be approved by the land leasing company, and they appear to have little patience with anything that isn’t pretty. I’m sure they wouldn’t allow any kind of rain barrels, let alone a tank.
Teri, that is not something I had thought about with land lease properties, good to know! The timer sounds like a perfect solution!