I call it purgatory because we have fans--otherwise it would be hell.
The slight cooling we were promised for yesterday did not happen, and in the late afternoon our front porch thermometer said 94F. We had neglected to close the windows and shades until late morning, and as a result the house was about five degrees hotter than in previous days. Closing down the house keeps things cooler, but it makes me feel weird and sluggish, as if I had the flu.
Today we've been promised thunderstorms, and much cooler temperatures. So far, however, the sun is still beating down, and there are only a few clouds in the sky. I worry about the nestful of baby phoebes in the porch, who are literally panting. How do the parents keep them from dehydrating?
The hens are panting too. This heat is not good for them. The hen that survived the fox attack has disappeared. I'm sure the heat stress was too much for her, and she died and something carried her off. The dogs, of course, are champion panters. That's how they cool themselves, and may explain why Bisou doesn't seem to mind parking her hot little body right up against mine every time I sit down.
It hasn't rained in quite a while. Though most of the vegetables and flowers are doing fine, I've been watering the grass seed that is supposed to cover the damage made by the truck that brought the slate for our patio. I couldn't water this morning, though. The wasps have built a nest right by the water spigot, and I got a bunch of stings yesterday as I was putting away the hose. We had planned to spray the wasps last night, but our heat-addled brains aren't good at remembering much these days. For all I know thousands of tiny grass shoots are shriveling in the cruel sun right now.
We'd better get a good storm today.
My Great Cities of the World
1 week ago
Do you have a cellar or basement???? Even if it's old and spooky, those dogs could get a break down there. We survived the summer of 1984 in our basement (in St. Louis, as a kid, it was one of the worst summers--1996 is another, and we were living in a second floor apartment with one room AC...four months above 85 degrees, nights getting down to 75 at best). Basements and sleeping porches. Gah. I love my central air now. I know I shouldn't but I do.
ReplyDeleteAh, the basement. Definitely spooky since that wolf spider came out from under the freezer. But my husband has rigged up a fan at the bottom of the basement steps to blow the air up, and another fan at the top, to blow the air into the kitchen, and it's amazing how cool the air is.
ReplyDeleteYou are quite the hot weather veteran!