The Heat is On
June is here with a wet, hard start! The rain was sorely needed, and this morning the humidity was just plain wonderful! After days of dry weather, and hay just languishing in the fields - local farmers have made their first cuttings and now the fields are soaked with new rains. It's a real good thing, something to be grateful for. And all this rain is bringing in a change in the weather too. It's mild now, as I write this, but soon real heat will be coming back to the Battenkill Valley. I am eager and prepared!
Guys, a quick side note: The farm has never been better. Projects, repairs, and new ideas abound. Out with the old and in with the new(ish) - that's the motto. The animals are hail and clever. (The farmers can sometimes pull off the same.) And right now I am happily twitterpated with the good things to come as the fireflies dance and the daylight hours stretch longer towards the solstice. I'm slowly, but steadily, working on this new book. I'm starting to create new art, both for myself and to hopefully sell, and updating the website regularly to reflect our offerings and goings on.
So anyway, back to this heat: There are warnings about the days ahead, with days in the mid to high 90s. I can't wait. I adore the heat and humidity. To be outside in a place so saturated with water that you can practically inhale it is a GIFT. Droughts, wildfires, hay shortages, climate change... all of that is happening around us, but (at least right now) things in my corner of New York are thriving with warmth, water, and hope.
We modern humans are always focused on being uncomfortable in the heat, but that is because we're fighting our nature. I bet if you hate humid you hate having to fight the humidity. I used to say the same when I was trying to make it from my house to my office without my makeup melting, pits sweating through my blouse, or hair full frizz. Humidity is not compatible with a morticians idea of stagnant beauty. But once I didn't have to go through that charade anymore I sunk into the sweat and discomfort. I damn near wallowed in it. The animals could care less if my tee shirt has pit stains and I know no matter how hot it gets there's a river to jump into a few miles away. Heat is just a part of summer, which isn't winter, so it's damn amazing.
To accept a hot day as just that, a mild discomfort easily treated with a cold drink in the shade, is a better mindset. And as someone who has to stoke a fire all hours of the day, all winter, you'll be hard pressed to see me complain about the heatwave coming this weekend. I have hammocks, shade, a cool stream to soak my feet in. There's an AC if we need it, or rather, if Gibson needs it (being an elderly man now in need of more creature comforts than his youth) but I think we'll be swaying in the stray breezes as the summer heat comes in without complaint.
I hope you are all well and vaccinated and excited about summer too!
*I am aware of the health, my age, my body's limitations and allowances. I am lucky to have a body that can handle discomfort like really hot days. If you're in a different situation and despise the heat, govern yourself accordingly. This blog, as always, is the typed ramblings of a woman that runs uphill in the summer for fun. So, grain of salt and like that.