Thursday, January 3, 2013

Man on a Hot Tin Roof

 
I could let it be shown much worser. This is the view from out of my kitchen window, but you don't want to go out there, here where it's 41 degrees Celsius or 106 Fahrenheit today. Everything's burning.
This is what you'll see, when you take your sunglasses off, this burnt-out remnant of a garden with you, or me, jumping up and down on the spot like some sort of crazy dancer possessed, what with your or their toes and soles burning alive, as happened to me, taking these shots...
...not even a cactus likes being fried alive. I am having to leave them all out there, my plants. It makes me bleed, every time this happens, these days of extreme heat. Bleed? Have I any blood left? Last night I barely slept, the thermometor dipping no lower than 25 degrees Celsius ( 77 Fahrenheit ).
This is a safe picture, from out of my back door, but you can see beyond to the burnt grass/wannabe lawn.
This is how it is in the laundry, my 'tropical' plants cindering ( "Cindering"? Getting charcoalesqued. ).
It all looks so innocent, doesn't it, a blue sky, some waving trees. If we have to take alot more of this though, we won't be waving, we'll be shrieking. Tennessee Williams knew  about heat, as did Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. But it aint no theatre out there. The ground's so hot it scorches whatever touches it, the air deadens, silently. Everything waits for change.
Even my kitchen is hot, and I'm cooking nothing mama.
I wander throughout the house, a ghost of my gardening self.
I daren't look any more outside till this evening, wimp that I am. THEN I'll be able to water some of my friends and bring them back to life.

18 comments:

  1. I was hiking early this morning, Faisal, and it was -4 degrees Fahrenheit! A friend was remarking how he likes to recall cold mornings like today in the heat of the summer. Perhaps it is reassuring to know when you are too hot, somewhere on the other side of the planet a friend is too cold. Take care and try to keep cool (written by the warmth of the fire).

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    1. Michael, I like that you can be keeping warm, wanting to be keeping warm. It's 10 pm as I write and the temperature hasn't dropped under 35 degrees Celsius ( 95 degrees old style ). We, Zara and I, are wilted! A cool change is meant to be coming through around midnight, if, that is, I'm even conscious then ( or half-awake, half asleep ).

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  2. Faisal, ONLY 'wimps' water plants...'wilt' is natural defence..NOT a sign of death! Well not always...this is Owstralia NOT the wimpoid home counties or east/easy coast America................

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    1. Yeah, Billy, too right. No more wimpoids this way, huh?

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  3. Faisal, I do not know the heat of Australia, but I do know the heat of the southern US... hot, sticky and sultry. This year our hottest days were above 110 F. We are used to having a week or two of 100 plus in late August, but to have a month when the days reached well above 110, in July, was distressing. They say it is going to get worse. It was 24 F this morning, and I will not complain as we will be back in short sleeves in only a couple of months. I do sympathize! Ice tea, a strong fan and a good book....

    This past summer when all of our trees looked like they were dying, the arborist were saying they were in fact just going dormant to survive. We will see what comes back in the spring. We will see.

    Try and stay cool. Bonnie

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    1. Bonnie, I was being a bit flippant with Tennessee Williams. I've read all his plays, and loved them. I'm sure it gets so terribly hot in the south of the U.S.
      The worry's not so much that you can't deal with it, but that it's all going to get so much worse! Gone are the old, predictable days!
      Today has been much, much milder, and I've been able to sit outside to read the Saturday paper, with Zara, trundling along behind me.
      What I want to know is, is there anywhere on this planet that's pacific, that has a year-round mild climate. I want to go there!

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    2. If you find the year around mild weather I'll meet you there and treat you to an iced tea! Oh did it sound like I was using my teacher voice? I'm so sorry! I was speaking rather tongue in cheek myself.

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    3. Bonnie, I don't blame you at all! Everywhere seems to have its downside, especially these tilted days!

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  4. Dear Faisal,
    Meanwhile. . .
    We just spent two weeks in the English/Welsh borders and it rained, and rained, and rained, most of the time. Then we got back here today and it rained some more...
    Sodden ground.
    Water laying everywhere.
    Damp.
    (Mild weather too)
    Oh for a bit of that Melbourne sun! (for a few minutes anyway - and you aren't even in February yet!)
    Sending you cooling thoughts on the wings of assorted zephyrs.
    Kirk

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    1. Dear Kirk,
      Don't, whatever you do, miss Melbourne too much! For all its regular seasonalism ( is there such a word? ), the heat, when it comes on strong, is relentless!
      Thankyou for the zephyrs! Today has been surprisingly mild, a great relief after yesterday!
      I just don't want to feel I have to fight every day. I want a rhythm that doesn't obstruct me...
      I hope we get to see some good Welsh border photos, a part of the world I would dearly like to visit.
      X, Faisal.

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  5. Faisal,
    I grew up in Mississippi. I can't believe Australia is hotter than Mississippi. If it is, I'm sure it's not as humid. But I do sympathize with your personal suffering.

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    1. Hi James. There are as many climates here as you have. In Melbourne in summer we get great heat coming down from Central Australia. Usually it's not humid here, at least. My suffering comes out of seeing the land and life I love suffering. I'm sure I otherwise get a bit theatrical about it...

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  6. Pity poor Faisal. I would swap having the grounds here sodden with rain (and my footprints filling with water as I walk across the lawns) for a little (just a little mind) of your heat. 41C is just showing off. "I'm cooking nothing Mama." *chortle* Dave

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  7. Yes, yes, Dave, I've heard about your sodding rain! You could channel a few cubic yards down this way, if there was a channeling device available!
    Tonight there's a beautiful cool breeze, so maybe my alarm is exaggerated! ( Me, exaggerate?! )

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  8. Oh dear, oh dear. This year the weather is just plain wrong, wherever you are.
    I am so sorry about your lovely garden, Faisal. Mine’s drowning, but that won’t be a consolations for you.

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  9. Yes, 'plain wrong' is apposite! Thankyou, Friko. I guess it's all much the same, whether it's drowning or burning!

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  10. That looks like late June where I live...the light, color of the ground, and cacti even screaming. I comfort myself in knowing Phoenix, Arizona is 15F warmer on most days! Though here at the end of winter, it warms my bones nicely.

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  11. Hi David,
    You have a WARM winter?
    I guess it's not going to be too long now before autumn rolls around and then our (cold) winter, so I won't have to dramatize my agony too much longer!

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