My Overheated World

 

Day 181

The Daily DuBrule

I think I am getting too old to handle all of this heat. Actually, it's not the heat, it's the humidity that is making me so exhausted. I've been lethargic and crabby and feeling overwhelmed by the weeds and the mulching when I am too hot to move. 

Yesterday I got up and turned on my computer to write my blog. Well, actually I didn't turn on my computer because it wouldn't turn on. It flickered and the screen went on then off again. An hour of fiddling and I gave up. Experts I have consulted believe my computer has overheated. Perhaps the motherboard is fried. Or partially fried. I am writing on my laptop this morning but I don't trust it. I am bringing it in for diagnostics this evening...

Back to the heat. I came home Saturday afternoon ready to collapse. After working all morning, doing a consultation in the afternoon, and running a few errands, I was DONE. My husband (bless his heart) decided Saturday was the perfect day to bake homemade rolls. Arghh! We don't have air conditioning, nor do we have a big old shade tree on the south side of the house. We have ceiling fans and window fans but it doesn't cut it in a prolonged heat wave. Baking bread just exacerbates the problem.

I refused to go in the house. Instead, I plunked myself down at the table on the deck and started processing the peaches I had been given as a gift from my old N.O.F.A. buddy Wayne Young of High Hill Orchards in Meriden. We were finally going to make peaches and red wine in my husband's mother's official peaches and wine pitcher. This was a summer tradition in his family that I had never heard of but I bought right into it. Yum!

I lured my husband out on the deck with a cold drink and a chance to escape the hot house. Much to my surprise he told me he had already been outside watching the hummingbirds! We sat together in our matching lounge chairs and waited. It didn't take long for a hummingbird to appear. I have planted a hummingbird nectar feast around my deck. The pots contain purple Verbena, Agastache, Salvias, and a host of other plants they love. Arching over the courtyard is an enormous mimosa tree (Albizia) in full bloom. 

The butterflies were also stopping by for some afternoon nectar. I have four butterfly bushes surrounding my deck. That brings them in, along with the sphinx moths and a host of other pollinators. Butterflies and hummingbirds share some of the same nectar flowers. 

My answer to being overheated is sit down with a cool drink and STOP. Watch, observe, and enjoy the fruits of your labors. That's what this lazy days of summer are for.