After a few days of mild weather, the heat has returned. We haven’t had a significant rainfall for over a month now. Attila spends a great deal of time keeping the garden alive, watering every single day. Our rainwater supply ran out weeks ago, so that we must rely on the municipal water supply to water our garden.
The hot weather makes the daily walk unpleasant, and impossible during the daytime. When it is this hot, we walk before the sun rises, and/or after the sun sets. Even then, walking is challenging in this heat and humidity. Where we live the streets were lined with beautiful old Ash trees. The Emerald Ash Borer killed them all, so that our walks are no longer along shaded streets, but under the glaring sun. People have planted other kinds of trees to replace the Ash trees, but these trees are not yet tall enough to offer shade.
The weather people say conditions are perfect for the development of severe thunderstorms here this evening. Hopefully our poor garden will not have to contend with high winds, torrential rain, and hail.
Oh for a few days of gentle, soaking rain!
Attila does not feel the heat and humidity to any great degree. He works in the garden all day, every day, without complaint. I can tell he is weary of watering though. Our plants have stopped thriving, and are merely hanging on at this point, despite daily watering.
The Heliopsis is blooming now, as are the Zinnias, and the Dwarf Marigolds. The Heliopsis are usually over nine feet tall, but because of the drought conditions we have experienced this summer, they are only five feet tall.
Despite the drought, we enjoy fresh produce from the garden every day. With my breakfast this morning I enjoyed our own raw kohlrabi sticks, and sliced cucumber. For dinner our green salad included our own greens, a cucumber, and the first small tomato from the garden.
Attila has taken over the task of dehydrating this summer. He has dehydrated kale, basil, and carrot tops. He has frozen several dozen bags of edible pod peas, and of chopped cabbage. It is so great that he can enjoy preserving the food he grows.
Retirement is magical.
Worldly
Weather
33°C
5:00 PM EDT Thursday 24 July 2025
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 28.0°C
Dew point: 21.6°C
Humidity: 68%
Wind: S 23 km/h
Humidex: 43
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it.”
Cullen Hightower
1923 – 2008
I know I sure love retirement! Stay cool!
Joan, it is grand isn’t it! The house is wonderfully cool!
We had quite the thunderstorm last night. Not because it was loud – it wasn’t – but because of an ominous cloud formation. For the first time ever, I saw one of those rolling clouds that happens before a tornado forms. It was a cylinder of pointy clouds rising up and then rolling behind like someone rolling a paper towel tube on the floor. Scary! Fortunately, neither side of the cylinder ever dropped into a tornado.
And then today was also an odd day. We started out with a temp of 22 and it fell to just 19 by noon. By about 2PM we had fog rolling in from the north. And that was our day, watching the fog roll in between the houses as trees and houses faded in and out of sight.
A very strange day, considering our temp was forecast to be 27! But at least overnight we finally got some rain.
Teri, wow, intense weather where you are! It has been tropical hot here the whole time, and only three minutes of rain since around June 20th. Your weather is completely different, and it sounds frightening.
I look at the weather radar online, for us storms track to the north of us, storms track to the south of us, we are in a small bubble of drought that is much worse than the areas surrounding us. The big storms are near your latitude when they enter Ontario, and are significantly north of us as the head east.
So glad you didn’t experience a tornado!
Turns out there were multiple small towns between Lake Huron and London that got hit by tornadoes or very bad straightline winds the other night. I’ve read reports of lots of trees down, crops flattened, etc.
Sorry, that was me posting.
Teri, glad there wasn’t any serious property damage or injuries! The weather can be very scary.