midsummer

I once read a short story about a small southern town, the kind of town with a courthouse square and streets lined with crepe myrtle.  In the sweltering heat of the summer the town's residents rolled up their windows and locked their cars.  They were not worried about theft, crime was not a problem in the small town.  But they did want to prevent a kindly neighbor from filling their backseat with all the extra squash and zucchini that came out the garden.  

It is midsummer and we're getting a steady supply of veggies from the neighbors.  The cucumbers, squash, zucchinis and tomatoes arrived from across the street just moments ago.  It is that time of year.
We will enjoy them and look forward to the next batch.

I'm growing some vegetables and fruit.  My tomatoes are behind schedule, the pomegranates (above) and figs (below) are doing fine.  I should have a dozen or more pomegranates by September (Baydog, you've got to give me some ideas on how to use them).  The figs will ripen late August.  In the past I used netting to keep the birds from the figs.  The trees are now so large and productive that there are plenty of figs for both the birds and myself.

 With midsummer comes wind out of the southwest.  Below is the locator map from sailflow.com that I use to get my hourly forecast.  I rely on the Lafayette River weather station for my daysails on the Elizabeth River.  That is the white arrow with the "3" at the bottom of the chart.

Below is what I got this morning when I click on the forecast linked to that arrow.  This is typical for summer, steady wind out of the southwest, temperatures in the high 80's and low 90's.  The heat is not a problem as long as there is wind.

A friend asked me last week if I watch the weather forecast and go sailing when the weather looks good.  I said no, I watch the weather forecast and go sailing anyway.  I like to get out for a daysail each weekend, pretty much regardless of weather.  There are three exceptions to this.  If the wind is over 20 mph I don't go - I can sail just fine in that sort of wind, but launching and retrieving the boat at my ramp is difficult to the point that it is no fun.  If there are severe thunderstorms forecast I do not go.  But I will go sailing if it is the typical "chance of thunderstorms", a very common forecast in the south.  And if the heat index is over 100 degrees and the forecast calls for light wind I do not go - it is at best uncomfortable and, at worst, dangerous.  I have gone out in light winds and 90 degrees, with plenty of water, long sleeve lightweight shirt and a broad-brimmed hat.  At 100 degrees I stay home.

Tomorrow looks to be a nice day on the water.

I'll try out a new snack, to go along with my sandwiches, tomorrow.  They are organic Mashups, 3.17 oz (how did they come up with number??) of fruit puree.  Think baby food made out of fruit.  Bruce brought along similarly packaged apple sauce on our last trip, we both enjoyed it as a great afternoon snack.  I wish we had brought more  Maybe these will be as good.  I'll freeze them tonight, by tomorrow afternoon I'm hoping for a slushy fruit snack.

steve