I turned on the air conditioning for the first time this year. I run it at 78 degrees for four hours at midday, shutting off at 2.00 when higher electric rates apply. Lowering the temperature is not as important to me as circulating moist air. Tends to freshen the dead air in the house.
The eastern two-thirds of the country is reporting record heat – temperatures above 100 degrees from Chicago to Boston. From Boston Lucy discussed dew point with me, adding to the insufferable index.
Hurricane Bruce is expected to hit landfall tomorrow morning. My niece and her husband expect to shelter in place, and their neighborhood is on higher ground. The capacity of the levees is all over the news reports. Of greater concern is the expected torrential rains over the next few days over a broad stretch of the southeast. All of that rain drains into the Mississippi River and has no place else to go than through New Orleans and hopefully out into the Gulf.
Last evening I replaced bubblers on the cotoneaster and the neighboring fortnight lily on the upper border garden. Those two were getting drenched. In theory, correctly functioning bubblers should maintain water pressure further down the line. Seems to work – the white geranium, crimson salvia, sweet pea and osteopernum down the line are already looking healthier.
On that subject, Mike found an open line by the low spreading deep crimson rose spewing water indiscriminately. He added a bubbler to limit the outflow to a drip and to force water to the two roses further down the line.
It is a breakfast nook, but I have all my meals there. At dinner I can watch a hummingbird sipping on the magenta salvia just outside the window. Must be something sweet in those magenta flowers.
A Year at the Snake 