it was only 75F this morning. at 5am.

i do apologize, dear visitor
and issue this alert:
this post contains a rather lengthy moan and groan about the unforgivable weather
However, after i vent i do share some more positive thoughts
and a pleasant photo or two. If you don't wish to indulge my rant
you can jump down to the photo for a few, more positive thoughts.
And now, the rant:

Yesterday, it was 109F in the parking lot of the movie theater when we came out at 2pm

it was 102F in the garden.

Outside, away from the unnatural "conditioned" air
it is difficult to breathe
shade offers no respite.
Nights are long and restless

This is simply not natural for our region.
It feels as though Hades has come, uninvited
plopped down with a greedy grin
and is refusing to leave until it has sucked all of the life out of
every living thing.

Standing in line at the deli i overheard a man say
"I'd take a week of snow and ice over this awful stuff."
i wanted to hug him.
Given that he was a total stranger
i resisted the urge and just gave him a grin and a nod instead.

i confess that i feel not one iota of sympathy for those who moan only
in rain or snow--and thereby reveal their utter ignorance for the needs
of the natural world around them.
Yes, of course i empathize with those who feel trapped, or threatened living in a climate they dislike.
But, i confess i find it difficult to voice my understanding when most are silent
during heat and drought.

i find the rote, endlessly chanted-from-every-outlet
"sunshine = happiness" to be utterly foolish and distasteful.
Those in this seemingly vast chorus are obviously blind and
do not see the large tracts of dead maples, oaks, ash and
other important native trees across the hillsides, fields
and mountains of the entire northeast.
Worse, if they do see them, they fail to comprehend the disaster those
skeletons warn us of.
News outlets never notice until conditions are desperate.
This widely accepted blindness, or ignorance--or just plain silence while the sun shines relentlessly--hurts me. i try hard not to, but i'm afraid i take it personally.

i write a garden column for our local daily
and i do my best to learn what i need to know about all of this
and to share it. i've written frequently
too frequently over the past decade
about my case of RSAD, "reverse seasonal affective disorder"
and i posted this public service announcement/warning on Facebook for
all those who live in my vicinity:
DO NOT utter the words "isn't this gorgeous weather".
We just might learn that looks can kill or maim.
It was my attempt at a sour joke after i'd come in from the smothering heat.

Writing publically about my distaste for hot weather
has given others permission to acknowledge their distaste for blistering summer heat.
Last spring, when it rained and rained and rained some more
nearly every week, for two months
we smiled, knowingly when we ran into each other.
A postal clerk whispered
"I know most people walk around miserable, but I love this."
When individuals stopped me to exclaim, "I can't believe how fabulous the roses were this year!"
i explained, "It was the good snow pack over the past 2 winters--and all that rain."
Most just stared back
slack-jaw
incredulous. "You can't be serious" in their eyes.

It's bad enough that my body revolts in temperatures above 80F
(i've experience one too many bouts of heat exhaustion in my attempts to "tough it out"
when i was hired to design, install and maintain gardens)
Even so, i could cope with being trapped indoors with the ac and fans running 24/7
i could read, play in PhotoShop, and haul the hoses around in the early morning hours
while Hades reigns
if it weren't for the fact that this type of heat destroys so much of what i love
out there (including wildlife)
where no one can irrigate.

Leaves from the beloved birch rain down as it attempts to protect itself from further loss of moisture. The running joke is that weather forecasters are always wrong, right??
i surely hope so, because--contrary to popular assumptions
i've lost more trees, shrubs and "hardy" perennials to summer
than any of the "harsh winters" that have come our way over the past 30+ years.

My heart leaped up when the dawn revealed an overcast sky
to shield us, if only a few short hours from the harsh sun.

OK. ,nuf of that. For today.
Thank you, dear visitor
(if you are still with me)
for listening and indulging me.
i do feel better for having expressed these feelings...even if you left.
Now...onto other things.

There are cheery blue chicory flowers
in a sea of lovely grass ignored by the men with their terrible mowing machines


 
and tropical plants in pots
like this Plumbago auriculata









The other very bright spot, The Movie
the final installment of the Harry Potter saga
was a very wonderful surprise
definitely not the disappointment i had expected after seeing the
very poor HP &DH part one.

i had determined that i would see the films
even tho the previous 3 had been disappointing.
It was my duty to sweet Jon
the nephew who is/was my best friend
and who got me hooked on the books.
An avid reader, the HP books were the only ones in the
fantasy genre he ever liked.
He had read them and listened to the audio versions several times
and was my source when i forgot details in books 4-6.
He laughed in a scolding manner when, at first, i mixed up
the names Dumbledore and Gandalf.
(Neither he nor i enjoy Tolkein. Sorry!)

While watching the boring HP & DH part 1
i could hear him saying what i was thinking, too
"that part of the book can only be read"
and
"Wow. They blew it at the end of the film. Hollow.
Devoid of the wrenching feelings of awe at the loss of Dobby."

Part 2. Completely different experience.
i was enthralled.
It was a satisfying conclusion to Harry's saga.
It's as if the filmmakers saved all of their heart for last.
i was especially moved with the marvelous artistry in the rendering of
that magnificent, tortured white dragon crawling up, up, up to his freedom,
Snape's petronus, and the revelation of his true character, and, of course, Harry's final battle.

It was simply a heart-full.
My sister, my nephew, my niece were all with me.
Just like when i read the book.

Even tho the heat from Hades slapped us in the face as
we opened the doors and left the theater to step out into blazing sunshine
(me, my sister and friend)
our full hearts carried us up and above
all the rest of the day.

So often, people get things so very, very wrong.
It felt so good to sit for 2.5 hours
carried away with people who got it right.

Comments

[marly youmans]

Ah, a Southerner never complains over a hot day in Cooperstown. They are too rare. But I notice that there's a lot of whinging going on in these parts. I just remind them that January will be here soon.

[marly youmans]

Yes, that dragon was very good--actually reminded me of a James Owen dragon.

Why the mislike of Tolkien? Sheer curiosity.

[zephyr]

It's not "just" the heat. It's what the accumulation of too much heat during several summers and even a few winters (of the last 20 years) hath wrought... and its terrible consequences.

Tolkein. i read the Hobbit and was taken in enough to begin the trilogy, but found it to be, in a word, boring. Neither the story nor the language "hooked" me. Jonathan was a "Star Wars baby". He identified more with a boy than with hobbits. When the first LOTR movie came out, i went to see it, and was bored again.

Neither Jon nor i favor stories that are that long on darkness and so light on humor.

[zephyr]

Clearly, we are in the minority. i no longer care that i don't "get it." Jon never cared that he didn't agree with the mainstream.

[Julie]

If we believe what some say the earth will end in fire--I just assumed all along it would be a spontaneous combustion thing....not a long, painful and drawn out process! Thankfully we have had a model summer and even avoided the forecasted flooding. I picked my first tomatoes today and the beans are doing pretty well. Love you.

[zephyr]

Pamela had kept me abreast of your winter weather, and the more than excellent snow pack, Julie...and i watched the news carefully all spring, worried about a sudden hot spell bringing another tragic flood.

Yes...i have always thought it would be--hoped it would be a spontaneous burst of flame.

Every time i complain, i think of family back in the valley and the terrible droughts Utah has endured in recent years.