Warmest Days of Summer

These long, summer days are some of the best of the year. When we can wake up and go to sleep again with the sun, when fireflies and endless sunlight and crickets and the smell of backyard barbecues beckon us to embrace living outdoors... Pennsylvania summers are usually very mild-mannered, but there are always a couple of weeks scattered throughout them when we each begin to dream of autumn [or winter!] and make wistful plans for cooler days. Such as this week...when the temperatures have been in the low hundreds + 90 percent humidity...you could have easily convinced us that it was 160 degrees! And since we don't have air conditioning in our house, we've had to get creative in our attempts to keep cool. Sometimes we try and keep our windows open at night and closed during the day--in hopes that some of that precious night-air might continue to linger even during the hottest hours. But usually people are coming and going so often that our house quickly warms and we throw open the windows to let even the slightest of breezes blow through them...and we spend our time outdoors, sweating profusely, and dreaming of building snowmen with our bare hands. :) Needless to say, we've done a whole lot of swimming and eating popcicles this week...anything to cool off for a mere moment!


So that's what we've been busy with the last few days...trying our best to stay cool. :) [We must confess to making cookies and pies and fresh orange juice and fried green tomatoes though, even in spite of the heat!]