It was well over a hundred today at the Ponderosa. Tomatoes ripened, seemingly within hours, on the one tomato plant I put in this year. The agave, being a desert plant, is happy, two stories high, and preparing to burst into bloom. The roses are lovely, as long as I keep them watered. Nothing like a wilted garden to also wilt one's spirits.
Mr. Strega, Faustus (our fur child), and I hightailed it to Santa Cruz, then up the coast to Davenport, where we bought a flat of strawberries. Now we're back at the Ponderosa, where the air is as hot outside as it is inside. We can hear neighbors talking and cooking outside; their voices echo off the canyon walls. We're making a cold mango-shrimp-rice noodle salad for dinner, which we will probably eat outside on the deck.
I realize other parts of the country are doing far more terribly with heat right now, and so I won't complain further. I am grateful for all the fans in the house (no air conditioning, which we actually would need only a couple of weeks out of the year), no blackouts right now (we often get them in this rural area), and a gorgeous night sky for stargazing.
There's a trick I used to do with my kids that they still remember: I would allow each of them to put a clean, folded sheet in the freezer (the sheet can be put in a plastic or paper bag, so it doesn't get last month's leftover ice cream on it). At bedtime, they could take the sheet out and put it over themselves for a little bit of coolness.
I hope you kids don't forget that! :)
My name is Joan McMillan and this blog is, as Emily Dickinson says, "my letter to the world." I am currently working on a nonfiction book about the murder of a young woman, Asha Veil, born Joanna Dragunowicz, and her unborn daughter, Anina, on September 9, 2006. My book is meant to honor her life and illuminate the need to create a safer world for women and children.
To read an excerpt from the book, please click on the following link:
ashaveilbook.blogspot.com
An excerpt from The Pleasure Palace, my romantic comedy, can be found here:
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