Another heat wave

We're hot.

Really, really hot.

Seattle is almost setting records this week - very close to 100 degrees. And none of us are equipped for it, as local 'conventional wisdom' has it that such things as air conditioning are just not needed in our northwest climate.

In this kind of heat our usual 'coolness retention' methods just don't work. Open windows and fans can't really get the house cooled down at night and every morning we start out a little warmer than the previous one - and of course end the day more than a little warmer.

So - time for a crop report, I think:

Tomatoes - hundreds are ripening, it seems, between our two Stupice tomato plants. They are delicious and sweet.

Peas - maybe even thousands. We can't use them up enough, particularly since I'm really not cooking dinner this week (Mark is working late and it would just be too hot in the house to turn on the stove or oven!) We will have to harvest some for the freezer today though - don't want them to go to waste. Once I figured out how long to cook them, they were wonderful!

Beans - the plants are still small so I didn't realize how big the beans were already - or how many could hide on a foot tall plant! Amazing and wonderful. Some of them will have to be frozen too.

Pumpkins - lots of big leaves and lots of flowers with fruit setting regularly under them. The big plant can't retain enough water to get it through the day so every afternoon the leaves are drooping like big deflated umbrellas. Very sad.

Roses - while not crops, of course, they should be included in the report - they are on their second major bloom cycle but seem to be also struggling in the heat.

Dahlias - full of buds already! Sunflowers? Already over 10 feet tall, buds developing into what will surely be huge flowers.

And while we didn't plant corn, our squirrels did - and it is coming up nicely... though in the oddest places. (The Critter Food mix has dried corn kernels and the squirrels plant them - to soften them maybe, but likely just for 'later.') For a while there I was pulling it up with the weeds but I couldn't escape the feeling of beady eyes on the back of my head every time, outrage and disbelief that she who gives would also take away sort of thing, so I gave up on that and just let them grow. Interesting, it is. Not exactly the garden design of the professional gardener though, I must admit.

We are headed to the mountain this weekend - I hope it all survives 3 days without us!