The heat is on

After a couple of weeks with cool, fall-like weather, the heat turned up again last weekend.  Actually, by comparison to Monday and Tuesday, the weekend was tolerable - it was at least possible to work outside in the early morning and late afternoon.  But, on Monday, the temperature here reached 102F (39C) and, even with humidity in the single digits, it was miserable.

Despite my best intentions to hold off on any fall planting for awhile yet, I'd fallen prey to a pretty new aster, Symphyotrichum chilensis 'Purple Haze'.  I planted it only days before the heat struck.  On Sunday, even before the heat reached fever pitch, I noticed that the plant appeared to be melting under the sun's intensity.  I gave it an H
2O infusion and used a broken umbrella to give it temporary shade.  It helped - I think the plant will survive.

I stuck a broken umbrella spoke into the ground on one side and staked the handle down on the other

On Monday, I didn't even venture outside until late afternoon when a fire truck appeared just down the street.  I saw the firemen speaking to a neighbor before their truck roared off, its sirens blaring.  I went outside and immediately noticed the tell-tale smell of smoke.  We live in a high fire-risk area so any sign of fire is a frightening event.

You can see the smoke in this photo taken from our front garden

As it turned out, a downed power line started the fire, 3 doors down from us behind a neighbor's home.  After some initial difficulties accessing the area, the fire was rapidly extinguished without damage to structures or life.  We joked cynically about whether our power (and air-conditioning) would be cut off next (outages are remarkably common here) and, sure enough, less than an hour later, our power shut off.  The outage was shorter than most of those we've experienced since moving here - less than an hour - and we ran our air-conditioner late into the evening.

Temperatures remained in the mid-to-upper 70s overnight and the power went out again.  I was up extra early Tuesday morning and ventured out to check the garden before the heat climbed back to stratospheric levels.  With no marine layer and a scattering of clouds, I caught the nicest sunrise I've seen in a few months, perhaps the only upside to the current heatwave.

Paraphrasing Homer, Dawn extended her rosy fingers and the color was mirrored in the water below, lighting it up.  I'm offering this as my Wednesday Vignette.  Visit Anna at Flutter & Hum for the images that grabbed the attention of other meme participants this week.

As soon as the sun was up, the temperature jumped again.  I spent yesterday darting from air- conditioned house to air-conditioned car to air-conditioned buildings and back again.  Still, Tuesday was nominally cooler than Monday and today is expected to be cooler yet.   Temperatures are forecast to be near "normal" again by the coming weekend.  I'm hoping the forecast is correct.


All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party