Hot and Bothered

When we decided to move to our current location 15 years ago, the biggest advantage was that snow was never included in the summer weather forecasts. Living out in Calgary, we managed to witness snow pretty much every month of the year and winter sports and I haven't gotten along since I broke my nose on a snow hill. My gardening efforts were limited to growing zucchini and I spent a lot of time stomping around after the first snowfall trying the salvage the fruits of my labour. So moving to the tropics of Canada was like living in gardening heaven. Tony`s motto is: I`d rather mow than shovel snow...well until this year.

Despite my efforts to compost, recycle, reuse it would seem that climate change is upon us because we have had one hell of a wicked summer so far. When my friend Ron called from Calgary last month moaning about the snow I said "that's ok because we're going to have a tornado soon". And we did. We had a scary evening in the basement and in the end our house was ok, but there was a ton of damage in the neighbouring community.

And then it rained like crazy and flooded most of the basements in our neighbourhood.
Our mayor called a state of emergency and residents dragged the remnants of their basements out onto the curbs for disposal. The mosquitoes launched into a baby making frenzy.

This was followed closely by a heat wave that made it unbearable to be outside. This was ok with the junior partners because they were developing a mosquito phobia. Even the dogs didn`t want to go out as their paws burned on the pavement, which translated into a whole lot of floor washing for me. I didn`t know whether I should send the kids to day camp in bathing suits, rain gear or parachutes.

But none of this really matters because my tomatoes are growing like crazy and the peppers have never been so happy. We haven`t had to heat the pool and my clothesline works faster than my clothes dryer. And think of all the free vitamin D we are absorbing...enough to see us through a whole winter of viruses. Besides, eventually autumn will arrive and it will be safe to go outdoors again.

Yes, we love summer.