Gardens, Birds & Air Conditioning

A friend who reads my blog asked me the other day how our garden was doing. Which was helpful because, until they mentioned it, I forgot that we had indeed planted a garden this year. 

I walked out back this morning and visited the dry, dusty clump of earth we had oh-so-optimistically called "garden" in early June. Dehydrated tendrils of dying tomato plants lay limply along the ground.  Skeletal remains of what was once rosemary, basil and oregano disintegrated in front of my eyes as a light breeze stirred them. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Apparently there's something to that "watering" thing. I feel bad, both for the plants and for us. We so badly want to be grow-our-own-vegetable type people and instead we're on the 10 Most Wanted list for people who mistreat their produce.

On the bright side, the birds have relented and are eating from our bird feeder. We haven't actually witnessed this, but the food level has gone down. Occasionally we'll spy a bird sitting atop the feeder and while we call the cats to the window and root for the bird to eat, it inevitably flies away. Maybe it caught a glimpse of the garden and got scared .  

We're in air-conditioning limbo right now. The heat index has been around 100-105 for the past week and we can't get the house below 80.  I'm afraid to see what our electric bill will be this month with both AC units running non-stop. We had repairmen over who said it may just be our unit can't keep up with the heat. I'm not sure I buy that, as our units have always kept up with heat, no problem, and I've noticed the air isn't blowing as strong as it used to. But I'm willing to ride the heat wave out and see if temperatures indoors return to normal. If not, we may need to replace our ductwork and you all know how much I enjoy having repairmen around.

But I've a new strategy for dealing with contractors. I'll just direct their attention to the garden of the dead and insinuate that's where they'll end up if they don't do their work in a timely and professional manner.

 Stay cool.