The summer heat has arrived. I enjoyed the warm-but-not-hot spring weather this year, it is what suits me best. The heat, the humidity, well, not so much. But I am comfortable, the temperature in the house is cooled by the air source heat pump.
Now that the heat has arrived, and the air in the house is cooled, we do not cook in the house, but on the back porch. The Nesco oven has been put to good use this last little while, we have been enjoying baked-fish sandwiches, with a green salad, for our dinners. Attila also fired up the charcoal BBQ on the weekend, and cooked chicken and a package of wieners. The chicken is just for Attila, I don’t care for it. The cooked wieners were refrigerated, and quickly heated in the microwave for quick and easy meals… I’ve had one, Attila consumed the rest… he eats at least four full meals a day, while I eat only one main meal, and two small meals a day. Rather than me cook mountains of food I am not going to eat, Attila cooks a lot of it for himself. I prepare one main meal every day for both of us to share.
Last Saturday we spent the morning picking strawberries at a pick-your-own farm. It was crowded! We picked, between the two of us, just under 24 pounds of strawberries, in less than an hour. The Mira berries were large, juicey, and sweet. What a wonderful variety.
Attila’s focus in the garden is food. I have only food in my two raised beds, but I am attentive to including beauty in the garden in addition to edibles. There are quite a few blooms at present.
Last weekend was the Canada Day long weekend here in Canada. Many people celebrated on Monday, Canada Day, with fireworks. I love fireworks, but I have mixed feelings about them. I kind of think they belong in parks, well away from residential areas. Why? Well, the loud noises and light flashes involved can cause extreme distress to some animals, to some military veterans, and to a few other people for various legitimate and real reasons. Luckily I am not one of the animals/people who suffer in this way. Our backyard neighbours put on quite an elaborate fireworks display this year. We had thought of going to a public park, where the city was putting on a show, but once we realized all we had to do was sit on the back porch at home and enjoy the show, well, we stayed home. We sat on deck chairs in the back yard and enjoyed the display immensely. The mosquitoes also enjoyed the evening, they were ferociously hungry, and not easily deterred!
Well that’s me, spending as much time as possible on the back porch, or in the garden, or sitting on the back porch, enjoying the flowers, and watching the vegetables grow. I love where I live, the housemate, the house and yard, the street, the municipality, the province, the country, the continent, the planet. I guess I just love being alive. And I am glad you are here too!
How was your weekend?
Worldly
Weather
HEAT WARNING
26°C Ha! It is 31C here.
(NOTE: The official weather station is on the shore of Lake Ontario, it is 31C at my house, close by, but not getting the lake effect)
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Friday 5 July 2019
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.7 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 26.2°C
Dew point: 23.9°C
Humidity: 87%
Wind: SSW 19 km/h
Humidex: 37
Visibility: 18 km
Quote
“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.””
Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803 – 1882
Why unsavoury humans love the digital age of carefully groomed images and faceless text, you never really see what they do, you only hear what they say!
Sounds like you’ve been having some great weather! Even though we’re in the same province we had a very cool and rainy spring. I was really starting to think we were going to have a non-summer as the temp was barely making 70/21C, but someone turned on the switch with the summer solstice and suddenly we’re having days above 82/28C. Thank goodness the lake is cool enough that it’s keeping the temps down until after noon, so we always have the windows open in the morning.
Your clematis is beautiful! We have 2 clematis climbing the back deck at home. Like yours, our clematis have huge blooms this year. They’ve definitely liked the rainy spring weather!
Teri, I think we had the same spring, I loved the cool temperatures, that allowed me to have the windows open, and didn’t mind the rain because I preferred it to watering the garden by hand. Same weather, different perspectives. When the heat arrived I wasn’t all that pleased, but then again, the garden likes it, so I am not complaining. I do most of my strenuous outdoor chores in early morning, or late evening, when it is a bit cooler out there. During the heat of the day, I hide, as my hands and feet, and goodness knows what else internally, swell and make me very uncomfortable.
Your place by the lake sounds lovely, and the mornings sound perfect. Having the windows open is such a treat, when it isn’t too hot, or too cold, outside.
I love Clematis! Ours has become more vigorous each year, it was so sad when we rescued it from the dark and dreary place it was planted in the front yard, only a few living leaves on it back then, but now, well it is happy. Your blooms are big too, so it must be the weather!
Things in your yard are so far ahead of things in mine! You must live in the tropics! -Kate
Kate, after living far north of here, living here does seem like living in the tropics! 🙂 The spring was chilly and wet enough that we wondered if the gardens would succeed at all, then the first day of summer brought… summer weather, and things began to grow. This heat wave, with accompanying rain, is steamy wonderful for the garden. We have been watering to beat the band as well, I carry the bath water out pailful by pailful and dump it into the rainbarrels, and we use it to water the garden every day that it does not rain. The watering has kept things moving right along.