Too Hot, Too Cool

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Truthfully, I haven’t had the courage to follow too closely, but here in Austin, we’re at about 30 days of over 100º F for this summer, with most of those days occurring in August.  I’m ready to pull the plug on the August oven, but I’m having trouble finding the cord.

The garden is holding up well, even with afternoon heat which delivers a tired, wilted look–for both garden and gardener.   August in Texas is always hot, but thankfully it also ushers in the cool purpling of the American beautyberry, Callicarpa americana.

The diminutive pink beautyberry blooms of June are long gone and the replacement purple fruits will remain until birds eat or cold withers–which ever happens first.

Autumn is coming–eventually.  The cool of the purple must suffice and for now, that’s enough.

Joining today with Anna and her Wednesday Vignette.   Check out her beautiful Flutter and Hum for musings of various sorts.

22 thoughts on “Too Hot, Too Cool”

  1. Ugh, I feel for you… I crumble and melt as soon as temps go over 85 – I’m so heat averse! I could not survive in Texas, even if you promised I would be surrounded by those pretty purple berries. I wish climate change wasn’t so unpredictable. I’m always thinking of where I should move next to escape our warming summers, but even Sweden gets heatwaves these days. Not to mention the melting Arctic! It’s so scary…

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  2. It’s been a hot August, to be sure. That said, it was a mild first half of the summer, so I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much (though I am…). We even had two cool fronts come through in July–that’s not unprecedented, but it hasn’t happened in a long time.

    Ugh. Climate change, so depressing. Where to move? I’m still thinking Oregon!!

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    • Hey! That’s where I’m from and plan to head back to (Oregon.) We could be “neighbors” again! 😜 The valley there gets hot and dry in the summers, moreso than here sometimes, but at least the nights still cool off and there’s always the forest and ocean to escape to for cooling down.

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      • I think you’ve mentioned that before. Are you moving, or visiting? You’re right about the valley; we were there two years ago (for the eclipse) and driving back to Portland I noticed how dry it was. I’d never been there during August before.

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  3. I like this vignette! I planted a couple of Beautyberry shrubs a couple of years ago. I thought they died over our horrible winter, but they came back. Yay. Sorry about the hot, hot days. We’ve been really pleasant lately (in my book). A friend who vacationed in central Wisconsin complained that it was too hot and humid here in Madison, but I really like low 80s, so I’ve been happy. Take care! Autumn is just around the corner!

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    • Glad your beautyberries came back–such a lovely plant! Low 80s sounds wonderful to me–hopefully sometime in September, but realistically? It’ll be October!

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  4. I’ve been working outdoors for nearly 30 years, and for 30 years I’ve been promising myself that “next” year I’ll not work in August. Maybe next year! This has been a hot year, but not the worst. In a really bad year, I end up changing clothes twice a day just to be dry, but this year has been a one-change-a-day summer, and my ears have yet to fill up with sweat. Small blessings. We actually have rain in the forecast for the next few days, and highs in the upper 80s. I peeked at your forecast, and send my condolences.

    I’ve noticed the beauty berry beginning to turn, too. It was fun to finally see the flowers and the tiny green berries this year, and in some places those already have turned to deep purple. It’s become one of my favorite plants.

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    • You’re right, it hasn’t been the hottest (I’m looking at YOU 2011!), but still, hot enough! How nice that you have rain in your forecast and thanks for the condolences.

      I water my garden this time of year and am finishing up the 2nd irrigation of the month. I hate sprinkler systems–I think they’re mostly very wasteful–so I have a series of soaker hoses throughout and it takes a couple of days to get through the entire garden. Because the water isn’t spewing in the air, I can water whenever I had the time, so even in the heat of the day (which I still avoid, if possible), at least I’m not wasting the precious resource.

      Enjoy your rain and cooler temps; I’m jealous.

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  6. There’s a cord!? *goes off in search* 😆
    I saved a turtle in the middle of the street the other day, feeling that it was seeking water… A kind person stopped to block the lane beside me (I was on the shoulder) to keep other cars from getting near. That driver said he’d just done the same for another turtle last week…come on, rain! I see you hiding in those big clouds right now.

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    • Haha–I so wish! Glad you saved the turtle and poor thing to need water. A number of years ago, during the hottest, driest part of summer, I was watering some container plants that were in the back of the garden (bad idea, that). As the water dripped from the bottom of one container, this little anole lizard came out of its hidey-hole and stuck its tongue out for the drips. Poor wild things, they really suffer.

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      • We lost a toad a week or two ago. It drowned after getting into the kid’s little wading pool, unable to get out it got exhausted. :/
        We were able to save another toad that day who had managed to climb on a kids toy to rest. (And then dumped the pool so we wouldn’t continue the siren’s call onto the rocks, so to speak, leaving little shallow water spots around instead.)
        Did y’all get last night’s glorious rain? My husband and I nearly collided ruining to the backdoor to confirm the little pings we’d heard inside were actually rain. My daughter chose to sit outside and watch it in lieu of bedtime stories. It was like a balm in our animal cores.

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      • I’ve seen that happen, too. Sniff.

        You got rain?! I’m jealous. I have noticed the light is different, even if the heat isn’t. My husband rolls his eyes at me when I tell him that I can see the difference in the light during August–believes it’s just wishful thinking!

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  7. Pingback: The Blooms of August | My Gardener Says…

  9. Yuck! I suppose that is why so many came to California years ago, especially before air conditioning became popular. The hot places in California are very sparsely populated; although, I think that many complain about the heat wherever they are. It is in the 80s today, and others have mentioned that it is getting hot.

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