Oh the excitement! Well, by modern standards of drama, not really. OK, admittedly by the standards of recent drama in my own life, not really. But I can muster a little bit of excitement over this.
On Wednesday evening, after 7:00 p.m. the dishwasher was doing its thing. The dishwasher generates heat, as it does its thing. Unexpectedly, the dishwasher raised the temperature in the house a whopping 1.5C, which put it at 22.5C. That is too warm for sleeping! The temperature in the house, due to new insulation and new windows, remains constant. Attila suggested turning on the air conditioning. I was resistant. The compromise was to open all the windows in the house until bed time, which brought the temperature down to 21.5. Better. It will take some time to learn how to manage the temperature in the house! I might just open the windows while the dishwasher is running, and see if that keeps the temperature down.
I have been enjoying the beautiful warm sunny afternoons, and chilly clear nights. Everything is green. The leaves are unfurling, the perennials are shooting up towards the sun.
This morning I washed laundry before 7:00 a.m.; it has been hanging out to dry on the back porch clothesline. It has not been a terribly busy day. Attila’s iPad needed some updating, did that. My web sites needed software upgrades, did that. Time is flying by, so I must be having fun.
Things between Attila and I remain friendly, a new rhythm of life is slowly emerging, and I find I am comfortable with that process. The future is unwritten.
Attila’s garden is in the planning stages. The seed packets are spread all over the kitchen table: Swiss Chard, Scarlet Runner Beans, Climbing Peas, Blue Hubbard Squash, Butternut Squash, Basil, Spinach, and a few others yet to be chosen. The Scarlet Runner Beans, Blue Hubbard Squash, and Butternut Squash are seeds we saved from previous harvests at Mist Cottage, originally saved from produce purchased from organic farms. Some of the remaining seeds are Heirloom seeds purchased from Salt Spring Seeds, and some were ordered from William Dam Seeds. This is a gardening weekend for Attila.
I have just come indoors to finish writing this entry. The mosquitoes were beginning to be bothersome. Attila and I had been sitting out on the porch, chatting, and watching the big bonfire that the neighbours had built in their back yard; all the enjoyment, none of the work. There is a party going on around that bonfire tonight, but the revelry won’t disturb me, I’ve been sleeping well most of the time lately.
Worldly Distractions
Weather
17°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Friday 18 May 2018
Condition: Partly Cloudy
Pressure: 102.6 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 16.5°C
Dew point: -2.6°C
Humidity: 27%
Wind: NE 18 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“It’s easier to put on slippers than to carpet the whole world.”
Al Franken
Our house can get so hot in the summer. It was 27 the other day. Meh.
I’m glad your and Attila are finding a comfortable way of living.
Our house is situated so the large windows face north and the small windows face south. It’s perfect in winter when the sun’s low and shines in during the day, warming things up, and in summer the sun’s high and doesn’t shine in. BUT in summer I go outside to warm up, and put on a sweater when indoors! I go in and out like this all day.
By the way I have a recipe for mosquito yard spray for the area where you sit outside. I’m going to try it this year: epsom salts, blue mouthwash, cheap stale beer. I’ll post the recipe on my blog one of these days.
-Kate
Birdie, 27 is way over my comfort zone, stay cool if you can. It is a process, learning how to best keep the house comfortable, thank goodness for trees, insulation, and great windows, we are soooo lucky!
Kate, I can’t imagine feeling chilled in the summer, lol! I am a very hot person, and wow, I am finding the window orientation info you describe very intereting and will be giving it some thought.
The mosquito spray sounds pretty interesting too. I have epsom slats, and blue mouthwash is easy to come by, but beer, not that isn’t so easy to come by, I am allergic to almost all beer, so we never have it here in the house. Maybe I’ll try the recipe without the beer and see if that works.
I wonder if non-alcoholic beer would work? I love it when spring is cool but all the foliage and flowers are blooming… I can enjoy them but not when the heat of summer follows up on the heels of winter… like it does some years. Spring is the best! A real spring anyway.
Bex, I think if non-alcoholic beer is fermented, that it might be OK, but I don’t know anything about non-alcoholic beer. Two summers ago it was so hot and dry that for weeks I couldn’t enjoy the outdoors. The cooler weather right now is quite wonderful, I’m with you that spring is great, but I love autumn best, not sure why, just do. Your yard looks amazing, I hope you have oodles of days that are just the right temperature for hanging around outside.
I’m so glad you’re sleeping well, Maggie! It gets hot here in the day, but it cools off at night, so we can enjoy open windows at night. Enjoy your greenness!
Thanks Joan! Getting a good night’s sleep is something I am very, very grateful for. I don’t do anything to achieve it, it just happens, or it doesn’t, according the fates. I count my lucky stars when it does happen. Cool nights, open windows, heavenly! The spring here is so lovely and green, and the back porch is the perfect spot to sit and soak it all in.