Our Turn

So, for many weeks now the news has been filled with stories of the terrible heat that has afflicted just about every place in the United States except the very far left edge.   We here in that very narrow strip of coast from Canada down to the Mexican border have had a lovely summer.   Well, maybe people in places like San Francisco, Portland Oregon and Seattle might take exception to me calling the fairly chilly weather they've had at times this summer "lovely" but it's true that it hasn't been HOT.

So, we've had a lovely summer -- until last week, that is!  And now some of us -- particularly those of us from Los Angeles south -- are experiencing a little of what most of the rest of the US has been living through for weeks and weeks.  It's HOT.  And it's MUGGY.   Well, maybe people in places like Washington, D.C.,  Orlando and Charleston might take exception to me calling 35-40% humidity "muggy," but that's muggy for us out here where more typical humidity is in the teens and 20's and sometimes even as low as single digits!

Even if I didn't go outside and feel the heat first hand, I'd have lots of signals to tell me the weather has turned hot.  And here are a few of them:

Heat clouds. Driving east on I-8.  

The same cloud a few minutes later from my backyard.

These clouds form over the mountains east of San Diego most days in late summer.  Sometimes they bring torrential rain that results in flash floods and sometimes they bring lightening with no rain -- and that can mean fire, something we here in Southern California fear.

On both Saturday and Sunday, more than 500 lightening strikes were recorded in our county.  At least one fire was started and it is now under control. 

 

The Iceberg roses in my front yard don't melt in the heat -- they love it!

Dogs with jet black coats are good at finding whatever shade they can -- in this case, my shadow!

Cilantro bolting before we really got to enjoy it.

Green peppers turning red, seemingly overnight.  I've made three batches of green chili stew with the green version of these peppers.  I'm looking forward to tasting them now that they've ripened further.

As if rolls and puffs of dog hair weren't enough, the heat brings drool drips from panting dogs just in from the heat.

I realize that we have nothing to complain about with our relatively mild summer heat, especially because it isn't accompanied by damaging rain, a derecho and days or weeks without power (and its blessed gift of air-conditioning and cold drinks.)  But, for us this weather is HOT and after a week of it, I'm ready for our turn in the summer oven to be over!