hot summer days

A SLOW BAKE TUESDAY

It’s day 3 of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I’m feeling challenged to get the words onto the page. It has been overcast most of the day. It is cooler, but the house is still fairly warm from yesterday’s heat. The low during the night was 22℃. Still any temperature under 30℃ is a good day to bake bread.

It’s good that I’m an early bird since retirement. I’ve learned to get moving in the mornings during these hot, hot summer days. Seems like we are living under a heat dome. And there hasn’t been a break. This could be our NEW NORMAL. I better adjust and adapt. I can still live my best life. No need to cry Woe is me! That isn’t going to change anything. What is here is here. Does anyone hear any alarm bells besides me? No matter. I will proceed as best as I can.

This is turning out to be a laborious task. I’m toiling over my keyboard, pecking a letter at a time. The words, sentences and thoughts are difficult to organize. And dang! when I got a whole paragraph, I hit a wrong key and the whole thing disappeared. Pardon me while I cry ‘Woe is me!’ Baking bread is much easier. I know all the steps and measurements. I only messed up once and killed the yeast because the water was too hot. I ended up with unleavened dough for 6 loaves of bread. It wasn’t really a disaster. It made delicious flat bread and pizza dough. Most of the time I am overflowing with success.

Today was no exception. 6 beautiful golden loaves came out of the oven. The work doesn’t end there. It starts there with the clean up of endless washing of this, that and many other things. But apparently it is all worth the effort. I continue to do it as I continue to do the Ultimate Blog Challenge. Oh boy! what a struggle.

HOT SUMMER DAYS

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It’s not even 7 am yet.  The sun is out and it is already hot and humid.  I have already been awake since 4:30.  Too early to get out of bed.  Sheba is stretched out on the cool wooden floor at the foot of the bed.  She is stretching her boundaries.

At 6:00 I decided it was a waste of time staying in bed.  It would have been fine had I been content.  But I was not.  Such is life now and again.  Everything changes and this, too, shall pass.  So for now, I will stay and embrace it.  I can still tap out my words and feelings.  Perhaps I can free myself.

I padded out to the kitchen.  I hear Sheba retching and soon out came her breakfast, eaten in too big of a haste.  What a mess!   But she is lapping it all up again.  I turn my back and let her do her thing.  Sometimes you just have to.  Life can get like that.  I wipe the floor with damp paper towels.

I am tapping out my words on the deck.  The birds are chirping.  A crow cawed.  Sheba is at my feet listening.  The words are coming from my   fingertips.  What a blessing!  What a relief!  I can still make life work.  I try not to think too much.  I just try to move.

Yesterday we went for a long bike ride.  I pedaled with my heart in my mouth.  I pedaled with heart and metal.  I pedaled with success.  We celebrated with coffee at the Broadway Roastery.

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There was not enough tables with umbrellas.  We would sizzle under the hot sun.  So we moved Rod’s cargo bike under the shade of the trees and used it as a bench.  It was a lovely way of enjoying our coffee and watching the people come and go.  But I do think he need to add some pop up trays for our coffee.

So you can see that even not so great days are in reality great days.  It is in our minds and hearts to decide what they can be.  I try my best and that is all that I can do.  It is enough.