heat wave

Put simply, it is just way too hot. I've got sheets over all the sunny windows, which keeps the house on average 5-7 degrees cooler during the day. An ocean swim is only barely refreshing, and by the time we're back home from the beach we're sweating again. The poor children are covered in mosquito bites and intermittent heat rashes, and the animals hang out in the house with us all day. Our thermometer outside in the shade read 42 degrees celsius a couple of times this past weekend. It's now 11:30pm, 20 degrees outside, and still about 24 in the house, thanks in part to our little fan, pulling the cooling night air in through the children's room.

It's been so hot that I daren't go out to take photos during daylight, so these are taken inside of some of the day's harvest. This evening after 9 I went out and sweated in the evening heat while I harvested some boysenberries, chamomile, and overdue lavender. It's all I can do to find the space of cool to harvest what we have and water the most needy plants; weeding and mowing will have to wait.

But then, I've always been a heat-wimp. I just hope this doesn't last too long!