Monday, February 02, 2009


If this is a random act of weather, it's an act that needs to leave, stage left, immediately. I am really tired with this constant heat and the restrictions it puts on me. I can't do much when it's 36C outside and "only" 31C inside; that's out of my comfort range. It's lucky that the only part of my garden that got planted was the raised beds next to the back porch, because they are shaded much more than the baking heat in the other beds. Therefore I have cucumbers and zucchini, and a few bean plants, and one lonely tomato. The blackberries are getting baked on the vines so I am not getting as many as I had hoped. When I go to pick them, I find dried up little nubs rather than the fat black beauties I want. The shaded stalks are OK but the ones that get full sun are getting cooked. The one plant that is reveling in the heat is my grafted citrus.(at right). It has about doubled in size which is why it looks too big for its pot. It is also blooming like crazy, even on the new growth. It's so hard to remove all set fruit as instructed for its early years, especially since I don't know which are lemons and which are oranges yet! I hope I can keep it warm when winter arrives. The plum tree is netted and I have picked a bucket of plums, and made one batch of jam. I would like to make chutney and spiced pl6um sauce but I need cooler times to do it.

I also have been dipping into Italian cuisine, but only via the printed page. I have Autumn in Piedmonte by Manuela Darling-Gassner and The Italian Country Table. Should a day come when I dare heat up the oven, I have lots of ideas, but right now the closest I'm coming is a pasta salad. There are some lovely dishes for baked pasta, which has always been a favourite, but the thought of eating anything hot right now is beyond me. Salad and fruit. If I do lash out it will be for takaway, maybe a chook to graze on.

It's been way too hot to knit anything but socks and I have all but finished the Regia Bambu I started in Findlay, Ohio, in November. I have some purple and black Sockotta to cast on. I've carded a lot of alpaca but to spin it while sitting under a ceiling fan is asking for disaster.

The Imp has been very flat, sleeping the heat away. A good model for this weather, especially when you are wearing a fur coat, if only a light weight one. She had her annual trip to the vet and is supposed to get her teeth cleaned. I will when I have money. Squeezing every penny now, as the case moves into what I hope is its final stages. If my dear Bear knew that 18 months after his leaving I was still waiting for his super funds, which we had considered life insurance, he would be furious.

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