How Dry...and Hot...We Are

What a difference a month makes.  I seem to recall that I was whinging about all that rain we were getting at the end of May, beginning of June.  Daily downpours. Weekly wash-outs.  Well, just where is it now, I ask you?  Not here, for sure.  It's starting to look like the Dust Bowl around High Point.  I water the garden twice each day, but it still is parched.

As I headed home yesterday from a short drive to the Post Office, I watched the thermometer in my Lillie Pearl PT Cruiser jump from 98 to 100 as I made the turn from Skeet Club onto Waterview.  Stop the car, as my dear Daddy used to say.  I pulled over to the side of the road to snap the shot, left.  Had to document the occasion, of course. The weatherman said the official high for Piedmont Triad International (PTI:  local airport, serving Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem) was 99, but at 3:47 p.m., it was one hundred degrees in this northwest corner of High Point.

Pardon me while I go get a glass of iced tea.

And, if the heat, humidity, and the lack of rain wasn't enough to make you want to stay near the AC (which is running constantly, night and day), we had a Code Orange air quality alert yesterday.  Over 150 for the first time this year.  Unhealthy for individuals with breathing issues (like N/M/E).  Not to worry, BFF AW braved it all and came over to join N/M/E for a Chat 'n Chew.  I fixed supper trays with scoops of tuna salad (made with apples instead of celery) and bow-tie pasta salad (made with both yellow and zucchini squash from the garden, of course), followed by dessert bowls of homemade vanilla ice cream (which was still tasty after our Fourth celebration).  My job was to keep the Drool Gang otherwise occupied so the Lovely Ladies could enjoy some uninterrupted time together.  It all worked out pretty well, thank goodness.

Speaking of the Fourth...

Missy M and Ella Rae made the long drive to come visit us over the Holiday weekend.  On Saturday, when it was just too hot to do anything else but ride around in an air conditioned car, she and I hopped in Lillie Pearl and headed her toward Hillsborough, NC.  There is a yarn shop there, you see...and they were having a sale.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.  Mother-Daughter Bonding Trip, by any other name.  A good time was had by both!

Sunday was another scorcher.  Limited our activities to after sundown.  Hamburgers and hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob on the grill.  Homemade ice cream with strawberries (a few of which came from the garden, even!).  Topped off with fireworks after dark (first...on TV, from the Capitol Fourth; then, big booms from across the Lake, here in HPNC).  Happy 234th Birthday, America!

On this morning's water-walk (replacing the usual Coffee Walk...too hot...:), I couldn't help but notice the Jubilee watermelon's progress.  Took this snap (left) to compare it to one I took 8 days ago (right).  Yowza!  How it is growing in all this heat is a miracle.  Same goes for the corn, which is tassling and setting ears in the worst week of the season so far.  Wonder if it will survive...much less thrive?  We'll see...

  

I also enjoyed taking a couple hundred snapshots of the butterflies and bees who are enjoying the blooming zinnias and marigolds.  OMG.  I've never seen anything like this!  I took so many photos that I zapped the batteries...which is probably the only reason I stopped taking pictures.  They are so beautiful.  We've always planted borders of zinnias and marigolds around our gardens, and we've had better/thicker flower results before, but I cannot remember when the visitor population has been so spectacular.  It was difficult to pick which ones to show you.

 

 

Weatherman is calling for a slight chance of rain tonight, increasing to a 50% chance tomorrow night.  Fingers crossed.  Toes, too!

More Items Checked Off the To Do List

Wow!  What a productive weekend we had!  Since the weather cooperated (read that:  it didn't rain all the time), we were able to get a lot of our outdoor "to do's" done.  Despite sweltering temps in the 90's...with corresponding humidity levels...we:

1. weeded the veggie garden (really needed it after all the rains) and replanted a couple patches of lettuce;
2. did some more work on the garden path, adding some recycled stepping stones and spreading gravel between the gate and the mulched area;
3. assembled our new NC Pot Person, hereafter to be known as Hyacynth (photo to right); and
4. completed the Garden Gate Pergola (finally masking the two mismatched monolith gate posts -- see more info below), along with planting a Carolina Jessamine (Jasmine) beside the gate/to be trained to grow over the pergola.

Whew!

And it feels so good to be able to take a breather and enjoy our work.  Today was just lovely, with temps in the low 80's, humidity below 50% for a change, so we could even have our dinner out on the deck.  Quite pleasant, actually.

Let's take a look back at the activities of the past weekend, shall we?

About the Garden Gate Pergola project...

Here (left) is Mr. T, hard at work.  For those of you who have been to our house, you probably recall those two ginormous posts on either side of the gate which leads to the garden in the Way Back.  Yep, the ones that were of different heights.  Guess that happened when the fence guys put one post deeper in the ground than the other.  Well, Mr. T figured out a way to "mask" the difference in heights with a pergola, which then got a lattice top (repurposed from the deck...:).  I planted a climbing vine on the left side, with high hopes that it will eventually climb up and over the lattice top.

BTW, some of you may remember that long, long ago...in a galaxy far, far away called Mississippi...I worked as an OSHA Safety Inspector.  I know, I know...not a good career fit for me.  What can I say?  It was one step up from my previous job:  IRS Tax Collector.  Hey...it was the mid-70's, and Sociology majors just graduating from college couldn't be too choosy about jobs to pay the rent.  Plus, looking back, I see exactly where those two jobs fit into my own career puzzle:  through them, I was introduced to a job known as a Trainer, which was a perfect fit for me.  And, having had the life experiences of poorly-fitting jobs and then finding my Perfect Job, has made me a better Career Coach.  Anyway, if you are still with me, you must be asking yourself where in the world is she going with this line of thought?  You should be.

OSHA.  Job safety.  Hmmmm.  Wonder if we could get approval for Mr. T's approach to building the Pergola?  Check out the other photo of him on this project (right), taken when he was attaching braces for the lattice to go on the top.  Standing on the top of the ladder.  Not the top step (that would have been bad enough); no, the TOP of the ladder.  The ladder which is "secured" to the gate post with a wrapped dog lead.  Hmmmm, indeed.

About Hyacynth...our Pot Person.

Do you remember Wilson...our very first Pot Person we "assembled" in O'Fallon?  Well, since Pot People are rather heavy and fragile, he stayed behind when we made the move to NC.  But, I got another Bag of Bones from Annie so we could bring the same whimsy to our garden here.  We had an old chair I'd rescued in MO; Mr. T prepped it and I painted it Grape (purple, by any other name...:); and we purchased the pots as directed.  Voila! 

And, why the name of Hyacynth?  Did you ever watch Keeping Up Appearances?  An old BBC show that is still making the re-runs on PBS.  Love it.  Anyway, the star's name is Patricia...and she plays Hyacynth Bucket (which she pronounces Bu-KAY).

It wasn't all work, though.  While I was cooling off a bit in the shade, I snapped these shots of a butterfly on the newly-opened daylilies...next to the heavily blooming Black Knight Buddleia.  Aren't they beautiful?  I was standing less than 3 feet away from the flower stalk when I took the pictures...can you imagine?  The butterfly was so intent on getting all of the nectar that he/she completely ignored my presence.  Amazing!

Hope it's a good week for all!