Summer in May

While much of the nation is suffering from a surfeit of rain, or at worst, horrific, devastating storms, we in New Bern are baking.  It's 91 degrees ("feels like 95").  We've had no precipitation for weeks.  "Scattered thunderstorms" have been in the forecast occasionally, but they seem to veer away from us.

Some of the geese pant in the shade, their beaks open to reveal their pinky tongues.  You wonder why they don't just keep paddling around in the creek all afternoon to stay cool.  I guess they want to doze.

But, coming through the living room window, making it not too uncomfortable, is the faintest of breezes, scented with pine straw.  Pine straw--the collective needles of the long leaf pine--is the mulch of choice here.  A partial truckload of bales was delivered yesterday; it now forms a vegan wall along part of our front yard, providing the pleasant feeling of enclosure that being in a fort or tree house imparts to kids. 

About a third of this shipment is ours.

We'll disassemble the fort as we rake the pine straw over the beds.

But not this afternoon.  "Because it's hot, and only an idiot would pursue optional outdoor activities in this kind of weather?", you observe.  Nope, it's because my tennis group is scheduled for a tennis match against another club late today.