We're Having a Heat Wave...

And so, after a little musical interlude... we are indeed, having a heat wave. I personally don't mind it, but I know a lot of people tend to melt in these circumstances and find it difficult to function.

I'll begin by saying that I made a small batch of strawberry jam about a week or two ago. This year I did some things differently. I did use my own strawberries, but as I mentioned previously, they weren't stellar. I decided to use liquid Certo. Usually I use the packages of powdered Certo, so we'll see if this is any better (when I try the jam in the winter).

Have any of you tried the liquid before?

Trust me, it doesn't change the indecent amount of sugar you use to make jam.

That's only part of the sugar required.

Here are the berries before being cooked with the sugar and Certo. One other thing I did differently was using this:

Instead of using a potato masher to crush the berries before cooking, I just put the berries in a big pot with the sugar and Certo, then once everything was mixed up nicely and starting to heat up, I used the hand blender to mash up the berries. I think it might make a more consistent jam with smaller bits of strawberry.

I've already given away two small jars to co-workers as an end of the year thankyou.


This morning, before the extreme heat set in, I set to a task that has been bugging me, but I've been stretched in too many directions and have been to exhausted to get to. Our front walkway to the porch:

What a mess! I had weeded it much earlier when Spring first arrived, but the weeds and some perennials have been growing pretty steadily in the cracks ever since. So I grabbed my trusty kneeling pad, a big bucket to throw the weeds into, and my handy slicer that gets between the cracks.

With sweat literally dripping off the end of my nose, shifting between kneeling, standing and bending, squatting, and sitting on my rear end, I worked my way down the path until it looked one hundred percent better. I even tackled a few weeds in the beds on either side of the walk. I massacred my fingernails in the process. I am NOT a high maintenance woman with manicured nails. Quite frankly, they are still slightly stained from strawberry juice and previous weeding.
But they really took a beating with this job.

However, after a quick sweep, things look so much better. I even shared a moment with a hummingbird just a few steps away at the hummingbird feeder.

Husband and I ended up having a dip in the pool in the afternoon and again with the "kids" after supper when everyone was home from work.

If you have any doubt how extremely hot it was today, here is a picture of Samson melting on the concrete bench in the shade.

His face says it all.