WHERE'S JULY?

I man be eating these words by next week when it heats up again. I'll just add some tomatoes, olives and salsa. :-)

Yes, I know most of the rest of the country is getting pan-fried and scorched this week. But, here in the southern Willamette Valley it feels like we went straight from June to August.

I've seen Mays when it hit 90 on May first. I think it rained on May Day this year. Come to think of it, it rained most of the month. We didn't really get a 90-degree day until a week after the Fourth of July. The zucchini’s nestled in with the landscape strawberries and lavender look like midgets. And I’ve never met a dwarf zucchini.

My room is upstairs and I've seen June days where it was hot all day, barely cooled off at night and started all over again as soon as the sun came up. I think there's been three nights so far this summer that I haven't had to put the regular blanket back on the bed before morning and that's after I turned the fan in the window OFF. Incidentally, we live on the east side of a hill. Unlike our neighbors on the flats, we avoid the worst of the afternoon sun. By five or so we’re in the shade. So far we’ve managed to get by with fans. And over the years I have managed to build an impressive collection. It takes some maneuvering, but if you get the right combination we stay pretty comfortable.

We had one day last week that topped 90 and then clouded over. It was so still during the evening. It wasn't too uncomfortable but there was not a wisp of a breeze. The only thing moving the lavender stalks were the bumblebees flitting back and forth. It seemed like you could barely hear the traffic noises. Perhaps it was because it was so still. When the wind comes from the direction of the freeway you can definitely hear it. And, when you can hear the train whistles come through loud and clear you know the wind is from the south.

The reward for the really still evening was a series of thunderstorms that lasted most of the night in some areas. I heard the thunder about 2 in the morning. It rained some, enough to settle the dust but not enough to flatten the flowers. And it smelled wonderful in the morning. Damp dirt, roses and lavender. The kind of scent the air freshener industry tries to copy but never gets quite right.

And this morning? It’s in the low fifties. It’s cloudy. And while most of the country is baking-I’m heading for the closet to find one of those sweatshirts I put away for the duration and some nice snuggly socks. :-)