Hot, hot, hot!

We've been having an unseasonable heatwave - temps rose over 20 degrees overnight for 95+ degree days starting on Wednesday...and it seems to be just starting to break today, although it is still "hazy, hot and humid".

I am not a summertime heat person...more of a spring/fall...but I try to use common sense when these very high temps strike. Especially as we do not have a/c!

So what do we do?

We wake up early, when there is still a bit of cool from the night, and water the garden well. This early watering allows the plants to deal with the baking heat, and the air feels a wee bit cooler when one is lugging cold water (and splashing it on one's sandaled feet - LOL).

We keep curtains drawn on the sunnier side of the house. We open windows at bottom and top to encourage circulation. We use strategically placed window fans to exhaust hot air. We use smaller tabletop fans to keep a breeze going.

We drink a LOT of water, and lemonade, and we eat cooling fruits and vegetable salads and yoghurt. This is NOT the time for heavier meats! But a little bit of cold chicken or beef shredded into salad is nice :)

We take it easy during the worst of the afternoon...that is NOT the time we plan for long walks to the grocery store, digging in the garden, heavy chores, etc. It is also NOT the time for heavy thinking, but rather for napping, or light reading, or knitting under a shady tree while sipping cool lemonade. As we live in an attic apartment, where the heat rises as the sun bakes the roof, being OUTSIDE is often best at the hottest part of the day.

I still walk to the train and the shops and to my mom's house (all 1+ miles one way), but I choose the shadiest route, I carry a water bottle, and I walk a bit slower. I have noticed that many of the "car and a/c" people have a harder time being outside, walking from the parking deck to the shops... perhaps because it is a harsher adjustment?

I have found that the most important way to "beat the heat" is to adjust my attitude. We are not meant to run at the same pace every day, but rather to adjust...adjust day to day, season to season, year to year. When I was 17, I could briskly walk 10+ miles on a summer afternoon - including up steep Sutton Bank in the UK - wearing a 50lb rucksack as if it were nothing. Now, in my later 40s, I am walk 8 miles in my hilly hometown WITHOUT the rucksack and I feel it...I don't stop the walking, but I adjust.

Its the same with seasonal temps...I don't assume that I can race to work in a snowstorm, so why would I assume I can in a heatwave? If I expect cool breezes every day as a "right", I may be angry with sultry stillness...but if I accept that day to day weather simply another factor to adapt with, I can be at peace with it.

I try to appreciate how very hot weather allows me to slow down, to savor the sweet tart burst of a cool juicy peach, and a gentle breeze that cools sweat-dampened skin.

How do you cope with summer's sultriest days ?