Friday, August 10, 2018

Golfing and Gardening

and, sweating big time with both!

We, like many parts of the world, are having plenty of heat.  Today is supposed to be +37C... great.

It is too hot to bother with anything physical in those temperatures.  As a matter of fact... my ideal temperature for golfing is probably about +15C... some sun and some cloud.  Not the stinking heat of +30C days.... that's downright ridiculous.  Luckily, I don't have to work in it.  I did that for 7 years working in a plywood plant in my youth.  I'm not sure what 112F equates to nowadays ...but, that was usually the temperature in there in the summertime with all the ovens running full tilt.  And, you had to work faster as they had to set the rollers to super fast to get the sheets of veneer out of the ovens quicker when it was that hot.  Or...they caught fire!  Then, it was even hotter ..hhahahah...and, horrible and messy and we used to be totally black with soot and drenched with water and well, it was not a pretty sight...

I feel sorry for anybody who has to be outside in the burning sun on days like this.  And, I feel really bad about any animals... those poor things.  Such suffering ... I cried right out loud upon seeing a picture of cattle swarming a water truck.. couldn't even read the article.  Awful. Absolutely awful.  The poor, poor things.

The birdie bath is kept topped up and I water the gardens and grass almost daily in order to help the little birds... they come to hide out in the shrubs and have a bath or a sip of water all during the day ... the crows seem to have gone away somewhere.  Maybe over near the river in some of the big trees...it is pretty quiet crow and magpie wise these days.  The little chickadees, nuthatches, house finches and sparrows are all still around...

Haven't been taking many photos and certainly haven't bothered with this blog... oh, well... the minus numbers will soon be upon us and with 2 feet of snow and -30C ... there definitely won't be any golfing, gardening or anything like that for many months...so I'll get back to it .... maybe......if I am not snowed in and doing too much shovelling.

I already purchased a small Danielle Donaldson art class which begins in September ... painting Bonsai trees... that could be fun.  It was only $38 U.S. .... but that comes out to be over $50 Canadian... damn exchange rates... and our stupid dollar.  Along with our stupid Prime Minister and a few other stupid things.  Honestly, it all makes me not want to read any news at all...just go along in my own little bubble and try to ignore all things stupid, cruel and horrible.  Can only be done for so long though... have to have my head out of the sand every once in awhile.  Bummer.

The flowers are suffering after some major hailstones last week....and now ...a week of extreme heat... but this guy...wow... he was in one of the patio pots... and was so big and beautiful I had to take his picture.

A full 3 1/4 inches across....I measured.  And look at the colours!















This is the golf ball sized hail we had the week previous..... luckily there was also a howling wind...it took the stones sideways from north to south and they somehow missed the patio pots that were closest to the house.  Thankfully, the skylight survived as well.... several in nearby neighbourhoods did not.  Apparently it was soooo loud on the houses you couldn't believe it.  I happened to be out of town at the time and didn't even know we got hit til I drove into the neighbourhood... what a mess!!
A branch got smashed on a Dogwood and the backyard pots got whacked...but overall...not too bad really...considering the size of them.  The whole lawn looked like it had dimples too.... big ones.... for hours after the storm.



5 comments:

Mary Ann Tate said...

Sounds like you're having the same weather as us including hail stones. That was really something. Then we had the deluge of rain that flooded out downtown Toronto a few days ago. We had all the rain we should have had all summer in one big storm. The heat is still unbearable despite all that rain. I never thought I'd say it but roll on winter.

Twiglet said...

Wow - those hailstone are massive! Your purple pansy is a stunner isn't it. We have had weeks of scorching weather but yesterday we had a day of thunderstorms - quite a relief really except it is our grand Shrewsbury flower show this weekend and folks would be soaked in the deluge! xx Jo

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Wow - I can't imagine hailstones that large!! No wonder there was a lot of damage. Out of curiosity I 'did a google' to see what 112F is in C - 44.44. Not nice! I do feel so sorry for the wild animals and birds in the heat - they don't have the luxury of getting into air conditioned buildings and vehicle like most of us do. I'm with you in hating the exchange rate - and they call it free trade!! No more ordering anything from the US that's for sure. And no more mailing anything extra either!

Lin said...

I always feel sorry for the animals too. I have the pond and 2 birdbaths for water, but sometimes I will put the sprinkler out on the lawn for awhile to let them jump in and cool their bodies off . And if it has been dry, they need a little bath for their feathers.

Scary hail!! I'm glad you didn't suffer major damage with those hail stones!

Shashi Nayagam said...

Oh wow those are pretty big ones.