...103˚ for three days straight

It's been hot here... today is the 3rd day where the high is expected to hit 103˚. Around midnight, it drops to around 75˚, so I can turn off the ac and open windows until about 9 or 10 AM the next morning, when I close them up to maintain the longest period before the ac kicks on again.

However, I've seen much worse in my 60 years of living in the Central Valley. The worst I remember here in Mudville was in 2006 when we had a heat storm of about 8 days in August of 110˚-115˚, oppressive humidity and high pressure holding the "lid on". It never cooled off at night. The low was in the upper 80's. Then, it "broke" and the lovely Delta breezes finally started up again, bringing cooling marine air from the San Francisco Bay across the Delta and down the channel finally refreshing us.

So this time has been quite manageable, especially with the "cool mist" humidifier and the humidity monitor that help me keep from being dehydrated by the blowing of the ac.

Outside however, things are not quite as happy...

The Meyer Lemon tree has quite a few shriveled lemons, in various states of dessication.

The cherry tomatoes are happily ripening in the heat... these were green only yesterday...

But the new blooms are burning-up or not setting well in the stifling heat.

The allyssum, dianthus and lobelia have been scorched, but have been watered well and should recover with cooler temps...

The completely overgrown rose bed, with rampant asparagus fern, volunteer trees and spent rose blooms will be cut back when things cool off, otherwise they would be too stressed and I can't afford the water bill that saving them under those circumstances would create.

I just watered the weeping cherry 2 days ago, but set a slow sprinkler on it this morning for about 30 minutes to make sure it survives.

The fern "pup" from my Grandma's Boston fern, is doing well...

as is the ancient fern itself which almost died this past dry winter/spring... When I get around to re-potting it, I may be able to put the "pup" in as well...

The creeper is weathering the heat fairly well... a few crispy edges here and there, but not the full-scale, "die-off" that I've seen when the heat has protracted spells or it's much later in the year...

Still, with this south-eastern exposure, leaves could begin to drop if this heat doesn't begin to ease-up tomorrow as predicted...

The early "turners", will be the first casualties... there are always creeper leaves turning red once we get into August, but they don't last at all in the heat...

finding themselves on the ground way too soon... a victim of the sun...

'Way high up in the big oak tree, where they get the coolest Delta marine air in the early morning, a patch of creeper leaves has turned even while some trumpet vine flowers still struggle to hold their blooms in the heat. The lower trumpet vine blooms are all on the ground...

Continuing around the block, the small apple tree planted a couple of years ago that died during a very dry period, has come back from the roots and seems to be thriving, even in this heat.

Morning Glories don't like the heat, but these are in the shade until very late in the day and have been encouraged by the automatic sprinklers...

Water being a luxury this lawn has not had. This house is across my back fence and has been empty for quite some time, though lately, workmen are there daily so either it's going on the market or some one's moving in soon... This is the lamppost/tree I have referred to in the past as the "Narnia tree"...

These lantanas further down the street always remind me of the large bed we had at the ranch. How they loved the full summer sun! These seem to also love it.

This is only my 2nd trip around the block in the last 2 days. It's been about 2 years since I was strong enough or pain-free enough to make the trip and this low wall on the far corner of the block is a perfectly placed resting spot before I proceed on around back home.

One of the things I've really missed besides the fresh air and good exercise has been seeing and greeting the neighborhood kitties. Yesterday, a fluffy, well-groomed orange and white, flat-faced Persian greeted me and allowed me to pet her. These 2 were not as friendly, but at least didn't flee until I captured their picture...

This lawn seemed a bit parched, but not the wild violets clustered about...

The magnolia tree on the corner is often covered with blooms, but at this point, there was only one left, quite high up, which once opened, probably won't last long. Most of them have already bloomed and gone into seedpod mode.

Most of the sycamore trees, and they are the main, "street tree" in this area due to their drought-tolerant nature, are getting that faded look. Mature leaves haven't been too zapped by the heat, but there are many immature casualties on the ground.

This podocarpus is fortunate because the homeowner who planted it, installed a way to deep water it,[note the 2 PVC pipes sticking up from the ground...]

This street tree, NOT a sycamore was not so drought-tolerant and beside being almost destroyed by the heat, it's been taken over by mistletoe...

which really hates the heat as shown by the dead mistletoe littering the sidewalk...

I join all the flora,[and other fauna...],in Mudville that is eagerly awaiting the reappearance of the cooling Delta breezes... and the more normal warm days that drift into cool nights... Good sleeping weather...

...meat loafing around

I found myself craving meatloaf the other day... not Mom's, which I have made for years, mainly, as a vehicle for consuming ketchup and to use in sandwiches. I think that it was the memory of a juicy,crumbly, bell pepper studded meal from my elementary school cafeteria days,[it was a country school and the cooks made everything from scratch...], that got me searching for a recipe that would go beyond the dense, pate-esque creation I'd always made.

just look at all those yummy bits of fresh veggies...

I wanted flavor and texture...so I began to search recipes online, looking for ones that would use a mix of different meats, as well as fresh veggies. I found my model recipe... and was stunned to see Martha Stewart's name on the recipe. But it had almost all of my desires, so I began to cook, using her recipe more as a template than as directions.

you have to imagine the carrots and celery grated, the onions, peppers and garlic minced... and the cilantro as not there at all...

I set the oven to preheat at 375˚ and proceeded to grate a young carrot and a leafy stalk of celery, after peeling them, [I also grated my finger, but that's NOT an essential ingredient in this recipe, so you can leave yours unmangled...] After rough-chopping half a yellow onion, half a green pepper and 2 large cloves of garlic, I minced them. MS suggested using a food processor for 30 seconds for all the veggies, I didn't want to go to all that trouble...

ground chuck

I used 8 oz[half pound] of ground chuck,[just the perfect beefy flavor, pour off the fat...], as well as 8 oz each of lean ground pork, lamb and turkey. I have left out the lamb when I couldn't get it, but the pork is essential for flavor, especially with the turkey.

ground turkey

ground pork

ground lamb

I lightly beat 2 eggs and mixed into the meat mixture than I had broken with my fingers and loosely stirred along with the veggies...

then I sprinkled about a cup of Progresso Garlic Herb bread crumbs over the loose mixture...along with a good shake of Pappy's 50% less salt seasoning...

a good cup, mixed with about a quarter cup of...

my all-time favorite mild mustard...

and lightly mixed-in with my fingers, being careful not to squeeze the mix...
then I gently put the mix into my loaf pan, making sure it had no voids but also watching the pressure that I was applying... I placed in the oven, at 375˚ for 1 1/2 hours. When I took it out, I poured off the fat from the chuck,[it was about a quarter cup...] and then flipped it out onto a plate to set-up.

even good cold...

I made a wonderful meal of a couple of pieces, accompanied by mashed potatoes, green beans, cooked red cabbage and cooked carrots. It was everything that I had hoped for! Tender and juicy, with great flavor! Best meatloaf ever!
You could even say, "It was a VERY good thing!"

...3 months of sunshine

johnny jump-ups on May 8...

...and on August 8... I usually replace them with portulacas... not this year...notice how the begonias have thrived...

on May 8, the cherry tomatoes were blooming and setting fruit...

on August 8, I've harvested over a pint of yummy tomatoes and still have a bunch to ripen...

the small sanseveria I planted 3 months ago has spread out and is thriving...

and the Boston fern that came down to me from Grandma, which nearly died, is now doing well...

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, MOM !

Cecil Brunner rose from my bush, taken from a cutting of Mom's on the ranch.
Her favorite rose bush.

Today, June 29, 2012, would have been Mom's 100th birthday. Until she fell and sustained a hairline fracture in her spine just after turning 91, she was aiming at reaching this day.

The fall changed all that...

 It took the Drs weeks to finally figure out that she was in so much pain because of the fracture they only found after an MRI. They never figured out a way for her to get real relief, because she was so sensitive to any kind of pain meds. They tried several over a period of 2 weeks, all of which sent her off into another world where she didn't know who or where she was and didn't know me at all. It didn't help that her personal physician went on vacation just before she was hospitalized. Her Dr. knew how sensitive she was to all drugs, but the attending Drs at the Med Center refused to listen to me when I told them she was sensitive and when they gave her morphine just before the MRI that found the fracture, she went on a trip that would last several days, and since the attending changed all her meds, we had to wait for her personal Dr to return from vacation to change anything back.

In the meantime, she was discharged from the Med Center, [they had diagnosed the problem...], and was sent to the Skilled Nursing at the Selma hospital, where she had to continue on too much of all the wrong things. She was so out of it that she kept climbing out of bed and falling so they arranged to transfer her to a facility for dementia patients about 10 miles away.

Through all this, I kept telling the nurse at Skilled Nursing that she had been fine until they gave her morphine and changed her blood pressure meds. I kept insisting that she had NO history of even confusion, much less the total trip she was on now, [she was mimicking folding laundry and didn't know me at all, as well as being nasty to the nurses...]and that the change in meds had created the loss of her mind.

Finally, the morning she was to be transferred, her nurse came to me and said that she had been late in giving Mom her meds the night before and when she finally got them to her, Mom was lucid. She had to administer the drugs, but she remembered what I had said and had put in a call to Mom's Dr., who had just returned from vacation. Mom's Dr. promptly changed the med order back to normal, so they were hoping for the best. I went on to the dementia facility to meet Mom's transport and I knew that she would be OK when she waved at me from her wheelchair.

She spent about 10 weeks there, doing physical therapy, determined to get back "home", which she did on my birthday, October 22, 2004. She stayed at the ranch, with a 24 hour live-in caregiver for the next 6 months; organizing, selling, giving away and packing the accumulation of several generations and a hundred years on the property, she was born on the ranch in 1912 and had lived there since. Her father built the house in 1907.

On April 1, 2005, I drove her out the driveway for the last time, on her way to her new home. A terrible, keening cry arose from her very soul and marked her farewell to the place she was so bound to. She was never quite the same. Her new home was good. She had chosen it. But the ranch was her heart and soul. She never got over having to leave it.

She had hoped for a while, right after the fall, that perhaps I would move back "home" and care for her, but we both knew that wouldn't have been good for either of us and, when a freak windstorm in early December, 2006, blew a spark from the road that ignited a major, rapid-moving fire that consumed the house and trees surrounding it in a matter of minutes, leaving nothing but some charred bricks and cement steps, I knew that if she'd been still living there, she probably wouldn't have gotten out.

She continued to have pain issues and became less and less mobile, eventually getting blood clots in her right leg that impaired the circulation. She also was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer around Christmas, 2006. When she developed a blockage in her leg in January, 2007, the Dr. told her that if she did nothing, nature would take it's course and she would die of gangrene in about a week... or they would have to amputate her leg, which would probably kill her. Then there was the cancer...

She chose the natural exit. She had lots of visitors from her church, friends and family. For a couple of days, her room was filled with smiles, laughter and joyful remembering. She didn't want a "death watch", so my brother went back to Seattle and I traveled back and forth, the 300 mile round trip, from Mudville to Selma, daily.

On her last day, January 17, 2007, they had upped the dosage of morphine so she wasn't talking, but she knew we were there. She smiled when her pastor prayed with her and when I kissed her feverish forehead and told her that I was going back home but I'd be back and that she could "go" whenever she was ready.

I hadn't been back home in Mudville 20 minutes when I got the call that she had slipped away.

I wasn't surprised.

Whenever I visited her, I always had to call as soon as I got home, so she could, "rest easy", knowing that I was home safe and once I was, this last time, then she finally,"went home" too.

I miss her every day, but I know that some of the hard things that I've had to deal with since her death, would have been very hurtful for her to have to see. One again, God's timing was perfect. She had a good life, some hard times along the way, but she got to dispose of all her property as she wished and her last week was just perfect for her. She got to say a real good-bye to those she loved. No many get to do that.

Happy Birthday, Mom... I know where ever you are, you're celebrating.

RIP, dear friend...

When I told a mutual friend of George's passing on Midsummers' Night, she said, "I hate it when people we love grow old and die..." George will be remembered by all he touched as a loving, fair-minded friend... who,"filled the world with love, his whole life through..." Rest in Peace... we are the better for having known you, but now feel the pain of your loss.

RIP, Cagney

Cagney seemed to be recovered from her mouth problems. She was eating well and had even appeared to be getting along better with her nemesis, Sneaky Pie, having moved down from the top of the media cabinet, to claim the table behind the sofa, so she could be petted whenever I passed. I was busy last Tuesday and out of town most of Wednesday, so I didn't notice until Thursday afternoon that she had moved to the floor, wasn't eating or drinking and wasn't wanting to be petted every time I passed. I gave her some of the medicine that had healed her mouth just weeks before and it seemed to help, as she actually drank water early Friday morning. I took her to the vet, hoping that there was an easy fix, but the blood test came back as kidney failure with liver problems too. The IV had reversed the severe dehydration, but she had no control of her bladder and the fluid wasn't even urine, just fluid, indicating a total kidney failure. There was nothing left to do for her except hold and pet her. As the injection took effect, her faint purring stopped and she was gone. Ironically, her sister Lacy's cremains were there and I took both my sweet girls home.

I was able to dig a grave in the back yard without much problem. When Lacy died in early April, my back was too sore, I was suffering from the allergy/asthma problems and had to have her cremated because I couldn't dig a grave at that time. I scattered Lacy's ashes in the grave and put Cagney on top of them. I'd always planned to bury Lacy's ashes in the garden. It was a comfort to be able to bury them together. I came back inside and Sneaky Pie came over to me right away. Smelling Cagney on my clothes, she knew what had happened right away and seemed quite upset. Since they had never gotten along until the last couple of weeks, it struck me as strangely sad that she now seemed so sorry for having been such a butt to Cagney all those years. It's been several days now... the surviving 5 were all clingy for a day or two, SPie being the most strongly affected. I told her that nothing could change the past, that I didn't hold it against her and she just had to move on. I know it seems goofy, but she seemed to do just that. As I look at my few remaining kitties, sweet Mack, his diva sister Murphy, shy Charlie, loving purr machine MJ and the irrepressible Sneaky Pie, the house seems so empty. Then, when I dream, there they all are... always young and healthy, playing and chasing... what a blessing they are and have been... rest in peace, Cagney and Lacy... I always loved your friendly, furry faces...