Hiding Inside on a Hot Day!

Thank goodness for air conditioning! Today is hot. Hot and Muggy! And I am holed up inside like a bear hibernating in its den.

With all the traveling this spring I haven't done any of the spring yard work that needed to be done. Now that I am home I've been trying to get the yard spruced up. It is a job best done in spring when the weather is cool. Flowers aren't the only things that do better with cool nights and warm days. I don't wilt as quickly either.

When I look back a few years to when we moved here, I remember a slightly different attitude. Spring was 'too cold'. I had no desire to be outside working in the yard. I relished the Florida heat. I could go out all day in February or March and work in the yard, cleaning up debris, trimming bushes and sprucing gardens. It was my climate! Even in the summer, I could go out at 10 in the morning and work. I'd take a lunch break on the lanai (screened porch for you northerners), and work some more. Then I'd get in the pool and float around until I cooled off.

That first summer in Pennsylvania, I was surprised when summer hit. Over all I didn't find the heat anything to write home about, (if home was Florida). But when it came to yard work, I couldn't last an hour. I quickly learned to mow the grass after dinner. The problem was simple. In Florida our yard had a good bit of shade. The heat and humidity might be in the 90's, but the shade was an impressive mitigator. Nice shade and a little breeze went a long way. In our new house in PA, there is no shade! None! And it made a huge difference.

Last weekend I spent several hours outside planting flowers in flower beds and in containers. Humidity was low. The sun was bright but it was only in the low 80's and there was a breeze! Oh, that breeze!

I still have a list a yard long of outside cleanup chores, from edging to mulching and weeding gardens. But today I took a break. It is hot out there. Thank goodness for air conditioning!