Archive for ‘June, 2016’

Summer begins

Yesterday, Monday, late afternoon the summer solstice occurred.

But earlier, after a week and a half of weather that felt like Fall AND required a shot of heat now and again…it was warm-hottish…at least relatively speaking. It was 77F after a week and a half of 50-60F. It felt hot.

I happened to see Bear and Auggie together in the shade on and near the front porch.

First day of Summer by the calendar and we felt it.

Gah – we are NOT fans of summer.

Here we go.

Summer begins.

Every day is a gift

Yet another horrifying week. Prayers for all of the loss.

A recent work of fiction in a mystery series I read contained the question something along the line of “What would it take to stop this?” That question has come to my mind often these past weeks.

I’ve lately been reading a number of books about the World War I and II era – from the Great Britain and French perspective. I cannot help but see the parallels and it is pretty awful. At the time – especially pre-WWII/post WWI (the Great War) there was no idea what a Hitler/Mussolini world might be like. And there was a huge feeling of “let us not have another great war”. I have to wonder if we are in yet another time of naiveté.

And so, how do we go on? How do we live in our place in the world?

For me and mine, the choice is to look at each day as a gift.

A day with growing things.

A day with sunshine through the trees.

The first sweet cherries of the year!

A roll in the grass – dear Bear.

A peaceful Sunday: every day is a gift.

Mariposa Lily

One of my favorite wildflowers: Mariposa Lily

They start out looking like a miniature rosebud.

They open quickly after the bud first appears.

The woods is full of them this year. Usually I just enjoy them in the woods, but there are so many this year that I tried bringing some inside.

This is my second group. The first lasted a week with fresh water every day. I was very pleasantly surprised as wildflowers typically do not last long indoors.

A few raindrops on these from last night’s wonderful showers: Mariposa Lily

Back to normal

Wednesday afternoon the clouds rolled in, thunderstorms whoshed through…

…and we got back to normal temperatures. The highest temp in the current 10 day forecast is 71F. The nights are back in the 40’s.

We are enjoying being back to normal.

Too hot for us

So far we are staying a few degrees less than the forecast high, but today hit 90F about 4:30. That is about 20 degrees higher than normal and higher than Bear, Auggie and I like.

Early morning is the time to be outside and shortly after 5:00 a.m., I had sprinklers going.

Then a morning walk at 6:00 a.m. – sunrise is just after 5:30 a.m. and there is light in the sky at 4:30.

Short nights as we approach the Summer Equinox are part of the problem with hot weather now. Sunset is after 9:30 with light in the sky until nearly 11:00 p.m. There is plenty of time for things to heat up in the daytime and not so much time for cooling overnight. We started this morning at 58F.

So … yes, the behemoth A/C unit. It is to be in the low 70’s and even as cool as the upper 60’s by the weekend but we have another 3 days of 90 or near 90 so it was worth the setup.

Mid-winter I bought an Instant Pot electric pressure cooker: Not my Grandma’s pressure cooker. After using it several times and seeing how things went, I got to thinking that I would really appreciate it when it got hot. With the exception of a little steam as it is coming to pressure and a bit of residual heat when cooking is done, there is not a lot of heat generated into the kitchen. This morning, it was already getting warm when I thought about cooking some pasta for pasta salad. I dithered a bit thinking that the pasta would just be mush in the pressure cooker, but finally gave it a try: 1 part pasta, 2 parts salty water, 7 minutes and quick release. The macaroni was perfect: taste and texture. I had a refreshing pasta salad for lunch!

Afternoon outside time – everyone in the shade – too HOT!