08 August 2020

Baking

As in, we are baking, like roasts in an oven. It's 80ºF in the house this morning. It was nearly 95ºF up in the loft yesterday afternoon. We stayed downstairs, where the temperature was not so oppressive. This morning I have all the windows and doors open to let the heat out and the cool air in. Yesterday, London, three hundred miles north of us, recorded its hottest August day since 2003 (97ºF). Accuweather says it was over 100ºF (38ºC) here in Saint-Aignan yesterday afternoon.

The canicule (dog days, heat wave) is supposed to continue until at least Tuesday.












Plants on our deck are enjoying the heat and sunshine, though if we didn't water them almost daily they'd quickly perish.









I hope this doesn't turn into a repeat of the 2003 canicule, when so many thousands of older French people died of heat stroke and dehydration. Meanwhile, all we can do is hunker down and try to stay out of the blazing sun.







Almost forgot... I had a close encounter with a deer yesterday afternoon. I had gone out with the dog. We just walked around the neighbors big yard across the road (nobody's there right now) and then around our own yard, where I somehow came face to face with a fairly big deer. It was hiding behind a bush and suddenly leapt out as I approached.


The panicked animal could have killed me if it had kicked me, and I was close enough to it for that to happen. It ran toward the vegetable garden and must have jumped over the four-foot fence on the north side of the yard — I didn't see the escape. It had to have jumped over the fence to get into the yard in the first place. Tasha was so startled and confused by the whole incident that she didn't even bark. I think the deer are getting desperate because of the drought and heat.

16 comments:

  1. So sorry for you all. I am miserable (relatively) when it is in the 90s. We just finished a few weeks of that, but this last week was far more temperate. It is supposed to reach 91F on Monday but then we will have rain and it should cool to the mid 80s. I hope you will get some rain! I would have been more than startled at coming so close to a large deer.

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    1. The deer encounter scared me after the fact. In the moment, the dog and I were just stunned to come face to face with such a big deer without warning.

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  2. Glad you were unscathed from tihs surprising encounter.

    The aucuba is doing especially well.

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    1. The aucuba is beautiful, and the new "desert jade" is growing nicely. The older desert jade is doing well too, after its near-death experience of a year or two ago.

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  3. at least it wasnt a bear..

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    1. No bears in this part of France. That poor deer was more afraid than I was.

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  4. All the wildlife must be suffering terribly now. It was 100 degrees in London yesterday, a record. We were only 97 here in Florida.

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    1. Reports from around our area say temperatures are between 97 and 100 this afternoon. We have closed up the house and kept inside temperatures around 83-84F.

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    2. Those temps are hotter than we've had this summer! Maybe it's a good thing I had to postpone my trip to France until next June instead of August.

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  5. Oh dear. Hope you two have hats for going out in the sun if you have to. Hope the heat breaks. 83 or 84 inside isn't pleasant but it's tolerable.

    Your basil looks so healthy. Wondering which side of the house that's on. I never have success with those.

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    1. The basil is in pots, three of them, on the east-facing side of the house. It gets full sun for 3 or 4 hours before and around noon, and then afternoon shade. It's beautiful and flavorful this summer.

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  6. I've been watching with alarm the weather reports for the places in France where my friends live. Heat like that is miserable; glad the plants are happy at least, and that you have enough water.

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    1. Is it hot in California too? We are surviving and waiting impatiently for the predicted change in the weather next Wednesday. We do have enough water, for now. We had a very wet winter.

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    2. We've had a very pleasant summer, only a few days over 90. Right now (1pm) it's sunny and 76--perfect.
      It's been very hot all summer in the San Joaquin Valley and Los Angeles, with many days over 100. My friends who live there actually like it!

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