Hot August Nights

Its been cooking around here lately. These are the days of Summer that I dislike the very most. Hot, hot days and nights too warm to cool the house down before the next day's onslaught. Not that I want to be a complainer, mind you. I'm fully aware that for many of you this Summer has been deadly hot and too dry. Its just that up here in the mountains of Oregon, there's generally no need for air conditioning, so we live without. But those few weeks each year, when its all we can do to keep the house under 83 degrees... yuck.

About the only thing that makes up for it is that moment when the balance of outdoor and indoor temps is close enough that I can pull the blankets and quilts down (my old-fashioned window insulators!), open the house up, and set the windows full of box fans. The fresh air flowing through soothes.

And then there's those fleeting sunset moments, when the edges glow golden-red and romantic, and even the dry warmth of the air isn't enough to make you want to stop wishing the world would freeze, right there, for another hour.