Flowers and birds and whining about the heat
Last week I finished sharing the Michigan pics, just in time to start my annual whining about the heat. We’ve had a much cooler than normal spring, so the abomination you’re about to behold is several weeks late in coming. I’d rather it didn’t show up at all.
To avoid spontaneous combustion, I plan to spend the weekend sitting under an AC vent with a book. Does anyone in a cooler climate need a house sitter? Please????
Don’t worry–I won’t spend the entire post whining about the heat (just most of it). But before I resume whining: Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! Grab a treat, have a seat (indoors so you don’t get heatstroke), and let’s get to it.
What’s happening in the garden
Over the last week or so, I’ve been taking pictures of my garden, so I have something to remember it by after it gets cooked to a crisp.
Flowers
The roses are fading now, and the edges of the petals on the few remaining blooms are crisping. Then again, our backyard is basically a really big air fryer right now. This Scentimental bloom is the least-crispy:
The zinnias seem air-fryer-resistant (so far):
The sunflowers are just starting. This one looks like it’s either photobombing the zinnia or preparing to slit its throat.
The Japanese morning glories (the few the rabbits didn’t eat) are in full bloom:
Birds
We have so. many. birds in our neighborhood! Two families of Gambel’s quail have taken up residence in our backyard, and Long-Suffering Husband has started buying them big blocks of seed. So now our yard is an all-you-can-eat buffet for every quail, pigeon, mourning dove, thrasher, and little brown bird in the neighborhood.
Here are a few pics of the quail. I had to take them through my (dirty) office window, because quail spook easily.
Meanwhile, in the front yard, we have nesting mourning doves and a saguaro that doubles as a woodpecker condo.
The memery
I thought about starting the hot weather memes, but I won’t, mostly because I still have a backlog of non-weather-related nonsense to share. Here we go:
I, agent of chaos that I am, usually went for the bass players. I even married one.
Related to this meme, I saw a comment on Reddit last night that nearly made me snort Diet Pepsi into my sinuses. “My dad’s so cheap, when he dies, he’ll go toward the light so he can turn it off.”
Long-Suffering Husband was fond of pointing at an alley/a stretch of desert wasteland/an abandoned house and asking, “What would you do if I found a bag of money over there.” After one too many times being told, “I’d call the police, because I don’t think I could enjoy a bunch of cash while being chased by narco-terrorists who want their money back,” he now simply informs me that if he finds a bag of cash somewhere, he won’t tell me about it.
Uh huh.
This, my friends, is Long-Suffering Husband:
Pretty sure if he finds a bunch of money, there will be signs.
As long as I’m picking on family: My son is a gamer. Starting in middle school, I used to tell him, “Go outside, the graphics are great.” Apparently I enjoyed watching his eyes roll.
Anyway, a few years ago, I found this meme, which suggests there was more to his eyerolls than just preteen attitude.
“Everyone was arguing over whether there was an admin or not”–blahahahaha.
If you’re an American of a certain age, this next one may give you flashbacks:
And finally… this might be my all-time favorite internet laugh ever (and that’s saying something):
That kid better have gotten an A – and a full scholarship.
That’s it for me. How about you? How’s the weather? Your writing? Your garden? C’mon… anything has to be more interesting than my dull life.
15 Comments
ArleneS
Let’s discuss a 2 week house-sitting gig next June or July—I won’t get my Alaska Highway trip in this summer so I want to do it next summer. And I’ll have a nice SUV for you to borrow (as lovely as Poppy the Jeep was, this will be more reliable). The place with come with a built-in Spike and I SWEAR he’s settling down.
Janet Alcorn
YES!! Count me in. Just let me know when you have dates in mind. Thanks!
Natalie
Thank you for your weekend coffee share. I’d seek AC with those high temperatures, too. Love your flowers, especially the zinnias and Japanese morning glories.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! This is the first year I’ve grown morning glories down here, so I don’t know how they’ll handle the heat. But they’re morning glories, a/k/a pretty weeds, so I suspect they’ll do just fine.
I’m currently sitting in an air-conditioned room and still melting. *sigh*
trentpmcd
It looks like there is a very narrow band for just hot: 104 is sunny, 109 is hot, 110 and 112 are Excessive Heat Watch… So 105 to 109 is hot?
OK, looking at the photos you will never know if he finds a bag of money or not. Maybe a fancy new bass, but… As to bass players and singers, where does that leave McCartney, Sting, Geddy Lee or Esperanza Spalding? My brother is a bass player and I think he has been in one band or other since he was 15.
Have a great weekend!
Janet Alcorn
105-109 feels like a reasonable range for “hot” down here. Below 105, going outside for brief periods is doable without much discomfort. 105-109 it’s unpleasant. Above 109, you feel like you’re going to burst into flames between the front door and the mailbox.
Oh, there’d definitely be signs if he found a bag of money. Right now the glitter is limited to just his person. If he found a bunch of money, I’d expect to see a muscle car with a purple glitter finish in the driveway.
And yeah, the bass-playing lead singers confuse the issue. In those cases, the only logical course of action is to flirt with the drummer.
Hope you have a great weekend too!
Janet Alcorn
I’ll have to check it out if only to vicariously experience clouds and mid-60s. *sigh*
Denyse Whelan Hosts A Weekly Blog Link Up on Wednesdays.
The weather …what a great topic. We are in mid Winter (what we call it, starting on 1 June) in Australia. The day and evening temperatures have been surprisingly low and for the first time EVER I wore a coat and gloves to my local shopping centre which is ‘climate friendly’ i.e. cold AND can be HOT. I do not like extremes of heat and like to have nice air con comfort! Hope you have reasonable weather ahead…suspect still HOT though! Denyse #weekendcoffeeshare
Janet Alcorn
I’m not a fan of extreme temps either, though I usually prefer hot to cold.
I love the “climate friendly” shopping center. It’s so nice when you don’t have to peel off 3 layers because it’s cold outside and sauna-like inside.
And yeah, it’s definitely still hot here. Supposed to be 110F today with wind. Hello, giant hairdryer. *sigh*
csuhpat1
Beautiful flowers and it is cooler than normal here in the Bay Area but it is suppose to warm up in the next week.
Janet Alcorn
California has been all over the place weather-wise for awhile now. Floods all winter, on fire all summer. I miss my home state terribly, but I’m also glad to not be dealing with that. I hope you get a break and have a pleasant, fire-free summer.
Joanne
Oh my goodness; that is HOT! I was just so happy to see it hit 80 today. We’ve had very few days above 70 this spring and the next few weeks in the forecast aren’t looking all that warm either.
Janet Alcorn
I remember living in cooler places and grumbling about cold springs and late frosts and why can’t it get warm already so I can plant my dang tomatoes? Now… let’s just say I don’t have those issues anymore. Not sure which is better, to be honest. When it’s miserable here, I try to remind myself that November-April is wonderful.
Karen
Enjoyed your blooms & birds & memes.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks!